Dear Editor,
We read the report by Das with a great interest. Das referred that there might be some unintentional plagiarism and mentioned for tolerance of some degrees of plagiarism.[1] We would like to share ideas on this issue. In our country, a developing country in Indochina, the similar problem of plagiarism in academic publication is not uncommon, and the problems are by both students and academic staffs/researchers. The interesting question is whether there is an actual unintentional plagiarism. In fact, it is the responsibility of the author to verify that their work contains no plagiarized data. There are several tools for searching for plagiarism that the author can use for verifying that their work is free from plagiarism. Hence, it is sound unreasonable that a plagiarist claimed that the plagiarism is performed unintentionally. Indeed, based on a recent study, the common reason given by plagiarist is usually accidental event or unintentional event.[2] Any reasons should not be acceptable if the plagiarism is caused by author, not the journal or publisher (such as accidental plagiarism or duplication during publication process).
The next concern is on the acceptable degree of plagiarized content in an article. If we accept and set a tolerant level, it might be a way that the cheating practitioner uses to perform plagiarism. Any degree of plagiarism is plagiarism and is unethical. In fact, many cheating tricky practitioners use several techniques such as translational plagiarism or figure plagiarism with some modification to lure the reader to accept their works as new original works and this should not be acceptable.[3] If we would like to create a plagiarism-free academic society, no degree of plagiarism should be set as tolerable level. In addition, there must be a good role model. The punishment to the detected plagiarism is usually needed regardless the status of the plagiarist, senior or junior.
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REFERENCES
- 1.Das N. Intentional or unintentional, it is never alright to plagiarize: A note on how Indian universities are advised to handle plagiarism. Perspect Clin Res. 2018;9:56–7. doi: 10.4103/picr.PICR_140_17. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 2.Wiwanitkit S, Wiwanitkit V. Responses of authors accused of plagiarism by journal editors. Sci Eng Ethics. 2017;23:309–11. doi: 10.1007/s11948-016-9752-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 3.Wiwanitkit V. Plagiarism: Word, idea, figure, etc. Croat Med J. 2011;52:657. doi: 10.3325/cmj.2011.52.657. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]