Ways to Detect Plagiarism in Academic Research

Alina Tabirca, “Valahia University of Targoviste”, România
Valentin Radu, “Valahia University of Targoviste”, România

ABSTRACT: Present environment seems to increase scientific production due to the fact that
quantity is more important than quality. Therefore, researchers, professors and PhD students are
obliged to proceed with the dissemination of individual or collective researches in order to
quantify the number of published papers in various journals. As result, we are witnessing a boom
of scientific papers, sometimes of dubious quality. In fact the excess number of publications led us
think … How many of these papers are plagiarized and how it can be detected in any research
paper? When a paper is considered plagiarized? How can we verify the originality of a research
paper? Who can detect plagiarism? Can plagiarism be prevented? In order to respond to these
questions we proceeded to a participant observation of specialty research papers registered at the
level of higher education institutions within two years. At the same time, we analyzed the flow of
information available online about the current trend and associated interpretations in mass media
of plagiarism phenomenon. Thus, we will use regional research methods, especially social
sciences to analyze the paradigm and to allow discussions on a wide range that goes from complete
refusal to validate the paradigm. To be able to formulate answers to the stated questions, we
provided a case study on the results of original scientific papers accumulated at an educational
institution, taking into account the range and level of education of paper’s author.

KEYWORDS: Plagiarism, Research, Ethics

JEL CODES: A31