Testimonial of some researchers suffering the consequences of plagiarism

Universities are strict on plagiarism issues and Mr Kumar was caught on plagiarism at one of the premier universities of India. He was given an “F” grade and his scholarship grant was discontinued with immediate effect.

Rachel is a fourth year student at Canadian University, at the last leg of her degree. An offender of intellectual theft she is suffering from some dire consequences. The university has sent her a letter stating that they recognise that she has committed the offense of plagiarism and it has gone on her records in the university.

Plagiarism is surely an expense that is expellable in most of the countries. And even if the university decides to not expel you, if it goes down in your transcript, everyone would know about and everywhere that you apply for job, it would be known to them through your university record. It builds up a question mark on your credibility throughout your career.

If we try and understand the depth of plagiarised content and its actions taken by various universities, it would be seen that most of the universities follow a process. They may not straight away issue a registered letter. They schedule a series of hearings to investigate the allegations on the scholar before getting conclusive about what happened. The degree of plagiarism or theft committed is the main parameter that decides the kind of reaction that would be taken by the committee investigating the matter. If the entire dissertation is copied, expelling is the most expected outcome. However, if the theft relates to imitation of small portions in research, it may lead to severe but not career impacting convictions.

There isn’t another academic offense as serious as plagiarism that can be committed at college level and the American universities are no different.

Kathy was expelled from a leading American university because she copied her research data from another source. “I checked the handbook of the university in detail to get information about plagiarism offenses. They had a much defined process related to any kind of offense that was related to academic integrity. The degree of the offense varied the conviction, ranging from failure in assignment, failure in class, suspension or expulsion. Each one more severe than the other. There was no way that they would reverse the judgement they took on my action. So I decided to move on and looked for another university (of lesser repute) that was willing to accept my credits and allow me to work further. But suggest to all scholars that let your work and submission get delayed but look for no shortcuts by means of plagiarism”

So, if you have ever looked for an easy way out and copying content seems like a good option, just think one more time.

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