Information Communication

Abstract

After completing this learning unit, you will be able to:

• Identify situations of plagiarism;

• Analyse and compare European and Romanian legislation on intellectual property;

• Identify the structure of a scientific presentation and the requirements for rendering and editing each component of the presentation;

9.1 Ethical Use of Information

9.1.1 Plagiarism

According to the Romanian Language Explanatory Dictionary:

• To plagiarise is to acquire, to copy someone’s work, presenting it as a personal creation; to commit a literary, artistic or scientific theft; and

• Plagiarism is a literary, artistic or scientific work of someone else, entirely or partially acquired and presented as a personal creation (DEX 1998).

The word “plagiarism” comes from Latin “plagium”, translated as “selling to others stolen slaves or slaves that do not belong to the seller”.

Plagiarism appeared in ancient times. The term “plagiarism” occurred for the first time with the Greek epigram writer Martialius who, in the conflict with another author, Fidentius, that published a work of Martialius’ poetry as his own, accused him of plagiarism, stolen children. Martialius considered his poems as “the children of the mind” and felt Fidentius had stolen them. Many authors have been accused rightly or wrongly of plagiarism over time, but only after the concept of copyright appeared for the first time in an encyclopaedia in 1800 did it became clear that it is not ethical to use somebody else’s work without the correct citation.

Plagiarism is the presentation of another author’s work in such a manner that it offers the reader the impression it belongs to oneself. Examples of plagiarism:

• Taking a phrase from a book without placing it in quotation marks;

• Copying information from any sources including Internet;

• Using works for which credit has been already obtained; and

• Failure to adequately use endnotes or other citation methods.

Paraphrasing is a method to avoid plagiarism. By paraphrasing, we avoid copying a paragraph word for word. Reformulating the idea with your own words helps conceptual understanding and avoids plagiarism at the same time. The following steps are to be taken:

• The original passage should be read several times to fully understand its meaning;

• The passage will be reformulated using one’s own words;

• Borrowed language should be avoided;

• All the essential information will be expressed accurately but in a new form;

• Quotation marks are not used;

• The source is mentioned; and

• The source is cited in the text.

• EXAMPLE:

Paraphrasing the quote “forestry includes the entire assembly of preoccupations concerning forest knowledge, its creation and care, harvesting and rational capitalising of its products, as well as the organisation and leadership of the entire management process”, (Ion I. Florescu, Norocel V. Nicolescu, Silvicultura vol. I, 1996, p. 11), leads to the following formulation:

The forestry domain is very complex, covering aspects that ensure the entire process of forest management, starting from its creation and care until a sensible capitalisation of associated products (Ion I. Florescu, Norocel V. Nicolescu, Silvicultura vol. I, 1996, p. 11).

9.1.2 Citation

Citations are an important form of communication in a school environment. They present, in a formal manner, the origin of ideas and concepts, so that anyone can follow the development of research on a certain topic.

They offer enough information for any person interested in accessing the same research for an alternative study.

A citation offers all the necessary information to someone to locate a copy of the work, if desired. A citation does not include a library code as the person who reads a paper or an article will not be always in the same institution as the author.

With the growth of the Internet and the multitude of texts available online, the tendency and ease of plagiarism has increased. It is obvious that in an educational environment, many pupils and students are not aware of the term: “plagiarism” and do not understand the issue. They consider that any available information belongs to everybody.

This gives rise to the need for Information Literacy courses. This guide offers all the necessary information to create a paper in an ethical manner and to avoid accusation of plagiarism.

The information industry offers many tools to detect plagiarism.

9.1.3 Plagiarism Detection

Digital documents are vulnerable to copying. Most copying detection prototypes use an exhaustive method based upon comparing the text subjected to verification to other original documents in order to identify plagiarism.

Practically, the software detects all documents that contain the same sentences or phrases, using the same order of words. In case the citation is correctly done and the sentence is written using quotation marks and the source is indicated, the detector will not signal anything wrong. Each software package indicates on its presentation page which search engines are checked. Most of them check on Google, or Yahoo.

Also, when paraphrasing, the word order is no longer the same, the source is indicated and the plagiarism avoided. Various types of plagiarism can be classified:

• Copy and paste;

• Copy, shake and paste;

• Patch-writing (rewording);

• Structural plagiarism; or

• Translations.

Which of these frauds can be discovered? Translation detection is not possible. Structural plagiarism is also difficult to determine. If the ideas are presented in the same order and the footnotes follow the same sequence as other authors, but if the semantics of phrases is not the same at a syntactic level then plagiarism can be detected only by human reading.

9.1.3.1 Plagiarism Detection for Text Documents

A few anti-plagiarism software packages are presented as follows, in order to understand how they work and how useful they are.

We highlight the top ten free plagiarism detection tools: (eLearning Industry 2013) (Table 9.1).

Table 9.1 Top ten free plagiarism detection tools

Checking opinions of most researchers on Researchgate, often mentioned are:

Turnitin, iThenticate, URKUND.

(https://www.researchgate.net/post/Which_is_the_best_anti-plagiarism_checking_software).

9.1.3.2 Operation of Plagiarism Detection Systems

• Step 1: Loading the document to be checked.

• Step 2: Comparing text to the documents indexed by the main search engines on the Internet.

• Step 3: A report is received regarding the paragraphs and sentences that were plagiarised and also the sources from which the paragraph was copied. Also a report is sent about what percentage is considered original.

• Practical Example

Viper, The anti-plagiarism scanner, http://www.scanmyessay.com/.

Viper is anti-plagiarism software, freely downloadable from Internet. We demonstrate a duty cycle. We subjected the chapter “Information management” of this guide to checking.

• Step 1: Opening the working window, Fig. 9.1.

  Fig. 9.1

  

  Working window Viper

• Step 2: Load the document subjected to checking and select the document type. By selecting a certain domain, the search software will be oriented towards the sites containing this type of information, Fig. 9.2.

  Fig. 9.2

  

  Loading the document and its classification

• Step 3: If you desire, Viper also checks the files on the personal computer. This option is valuable in the case of a professor who has electronic files of students’ papers. This way he may find if there are identical papers. Also, we can detect if the same form of information was used in other personal papers, Fig. 9.3.

  Fig. 9.3

  

  Loading the “Information management” document

  If we wish to scan the Internet, we select the button Go to step 3 and then START Figs. 9.4 and 9.5.

  Fig. 9.4

  

  Option Viper to scan personal computer

  Fig. 9.5

  

  Web space scanning process

• Step 4: Viper scans the Internet. We can see it is working following the left of the screen: Queered for processing, Fig. 8.6, then the scanned percent of the paper and sites where similar expressions or passages, as in the document subjected to scanning, were identified.

• Step 5: Finalising the scan and creating the report, Fig. 9.6.

  Fig. 9.6

  

  Finalising the scan and creating the report

Viper detects documents where there are five or more words in the same order as in the checked document. Fragments with the same order of words may be identified, but they are not necessarily plagiarism. The important thing is that these fragments are not ignored.

This may attract attention upon possible reformulations of the author, keeping the initial structure but failing to credit the material used. The software checks direct citations. A percentage of directly cited words is calculated.

Assessment of plagiarism.

The percentage finally indicated represents the assessment concerning the number of identified and used identical documents. Thus:

• ≤6%—Very unlikely to contain plagiarised material. In this case, the size of the document is taken into account. In case the document is over 15,000 words, we may consider that 6% represents plagiarism.

• 6–12%—Low risk of containing plagiarised material. Most fragments detected to be identical to other sources may be usual sentences in the field. A careful review of sources is recommended and their citation.

• 13–20%—Average risk of containing plagiarised material. Certain matches may be with different websites. It must be checked if the author cited correctly. It is possible that the footnotes are not detected by scanning. This should be checked again very carefully.

• Over 21%—High risk of containing plagiarised materials. Document must be reviewed.

In the demonstrated practical case, the assessment returned a score of 2% similar phrases and the software also offered a list of plagiarised documents, see Fig. 9.7.

Fig. 9.7

List of plagiarised documents

9.2 Intellectual Property. Copyright. Legislation

In Romania, Law no. 8/1996 concerning copyright and related rights supplemented and amended by Law no. 285/2004 and OUG no. 123/2005 and updated in 28/12/2005 broadly applies European principles regarding exceptions and limitations. “Using a short extract of an work is allowed [without specifying size], by respecting citation principles, within libraries, museums, archives etc., and also an entire reproduction of a work, excluding serious damage, destruction or losing the only copy of a collection. Creative intellectual work is recognised and protected, regardless of disclosure to the public, by the mere fact of its creation, even unfinished.” (Copyright Law, 2005)

“Author”—Physical person or persons that created the work.

When a work is disclosed to the public in an anonymous form or using a pseudonym that does not allow author’s identification, the copyright is exerted by the physical or legal person that makes it public only with the author’s consent, as long as he does not reveal his identity.

Common work—work created by several authors in collaboration.

Copyright on a common work “belongs to its co-authors, among which one can be the main author” (Copyright Law 2005).

“Reproduction of a work is allowed without the author’s consent, for personal use or the normal family circle, provided this does not contradict the interests of copyright holders.” (Copyright Law, 2005).

“Duration of a works’ protection by copyright is identical to the one stated in the European Union’s directives, meaning 70 years after the author’s death.” (Copyright Law, 2005).

9.3 Information Communication

9.3.1 Creating and Presenting Academic Works

The structure of academic works is to be formed according to standard STAS 8660-82, Books and brochures: editorial presentation, Romanian Institute for Standardisation, 1982, and is presented in Fig. 9.8. Structure of academic works.

Fig. 9.8

Structure of academic works

As follows, we present some recommendations required to achieve this structure.

• Project’s Title:

• Too general titles are to be avoided;

• Customising the general title with the help of an expression or subtitle is attempted;

• Paper’s title may be customised in order to express what was researched in the main body.

• Structure on Chapters—General Recommendations:

• Very short chapters should be avoided and also excessive fragmentation of the work;

• A chapter’s title should accord with its content;

• The first step in creating a coherent paper is content; its chapters representing a gradual development of ideas.

The introduction is a reflection of the entire work, created for the reader who does not have the time to read the entire work.

• Motivation of the Topic Choice Should Highlight:

• Relevance for administrative domain;

• Short presentation of the domain’s state of research progess;

• Presentation of structure in chapters;

• Presentation of research result and conclusion.

• Structure in Chapters—Theoretical Part Represents:

• A way of copying theories and definitions: theoretical contribution may consist in analysing definitions elements, finding similarities or differences;

• We start from credible sources and then extend search to Internet sources (credible sources: organisations’ reports, Ph.D. thesis, statistics of some research institutes);

• Avoid copying paragraphs or entire pages; if you take more extended paragraphs, reformulation should be attempted.

• Main Body Contains:

• Aim of research/research hypotheses;

• Research instrument/sampling;

• Presentation and interpretation of research results (use graphical supports, tables, figures);

• Conclusions.

• Presentation Creation, Scientific Papers Editing:

• Any scientific paper can be presented to be capitalised in an explicit form by editing its text;

• Editing a scientific paper is an important part of scientific research, presenting the results of scientific investigations to be appreciated.

• Editing represents a communication of research results. We will find in it the accomplishment of the proposed objectives, methods and techniques used and communication of the results obtained.

It is necessary to observe some rules of form and content uniformity:

• Simple style, clear and precise speech, appropriate to the object’s expression;

• Respecting communication code by legibly writing, using demonstration logic, correct use of punctuation, concise phrases;

• Well thought out structure of the work by highlighting its components;

• Emphasising reasoning and conclusions, demonstrations of each part, each presented idea and such like;

• A suitable length of work and a balance between the work’s components; and

• Accurate conclusion that is consistent to the researched problem or topic.

• Title Page

There are some related elements of a scientific work, which are important for its editing and presentation.

Among them are cover, title page, content, bibliography, annexes, indexes, lexicons, and glossaries.

In the page title we place certain work identification elements.

• Content

The following elements of a scientific paper are required in the contents:

• Introduction (preliminaries);

• Parts;

• Chapters;

• Subchapters.

They are accurately arranged by pagination. In some papers, the content is placed immediately after the title page, sometimes after an introductory note, sometimes at the end of the paper, after the conclusion.

• Bibliography

A bibliography is a systematised list of the bibliographic sources used and cited by the author of the scientific paper.

Examples of bibliographies are listed in alphabetical order and occasionally according to the order of importance.

• Annexes

Tables, diagrams, graphics and such like help to express and synthesise both important and less significant details of the paper, such as calculations, and analysis.

They are usually presented at the end of a work and in exceptional cases they are presented in a smaller format than the main format of the scientific paper.

• Indexes

There are several types including: alphabetic indexes of notions, concepts and ideas, keywords, and authors.

9.3.2 Presentation of Scientific Results

An important stage in research development is the presentation and demonstration of the results of scientific investigation. In presenting and developing a scientific paper, an outstanding level of accuracy and proof is required; the public must be persuaded by various methods of scientific communication.

The paper presentation has some requirements:

• Plan;

• Free presentation;

• Fluency, vocabulary choice; and

• Academic presentation level.

The value of scientific research performed will be assessed by a commission and its chairman according to an established pattern. Ethical requirements and deontological codes existing in the domain must be observed.

9.3.2.1 Form of Scientific Communication

Scientific communication should be presented in three to five pages and should take ten to fifteen minutes to read. The following will be presented:

• Contribution to the researched topic;

• Research originality and value; and

• Applicability.

9.3.2.2 Information Presentation

A modern form of presenting information such as with Power Point or Prezi presentations.

• Suggested Teaching

• Warm-Up

What if?

Participants will be offered pieces of paper and writing tools. They will be asked to compose funny, unusual questions starting with: What if? E.g: “What if the rain was green?” or “What if we all had one eye?” after composing the questions, the pieces of paper will be handed to the person on the left of each participant, who will respond to the question in writing. At the end of the activity, students will be encouraged to read the answers to the questions they have received. Ideally, participation would be total.

• Teaching Activities

After time to capture attention, the teacher will announce the title and objectives of the lesson. The teacher asks the students to explain with their own words what the notion of plagiarism means. As he receives answers, the trainer will encourage and write on a whiteboard or flip chart the key words or key phrases from responses received. When responses are exhausted or during the interaction with students, the teacher will thank trainees for their involvement and will define the concept, according to a source with a high level of credibility.

The teacher will use the conversation method and will ask students if they know the origins of the word plagiarism and the period or situation when such a situation was first recorded. The trainer will tell the historical story attributed to the authors of ancient Greece, Fidentius and Martialius, and will highlight the period in which plagiarism became a recognised concept.

The next lesson activity involves allocation of the participants into four or five groups. They will be given a task of generating a few examples of plagiarism. At the end of the activity, group leaders will read the examples found. The teacher will, if necessary, complete with other situations that are considered to be plagiarism.

The teacher will ask the participants if they know the means of detecting plagiarism. He will use the conversation method in order to highlight existing plagiarism detection tools. The next task of the students will be to analyse the advantages and disadvantages of such tools. Trainees will remain in the same groups and will receive written materials, different for each group containing information on different tools for detecting plagiarism. At the end of the analysis, the groups will present the text received for analysis, their method and the conclusion of their analysis. The groups will be congratulated and the trainer will offer additions to the analyses of the students, if any.

The following activity has as its objective comparative analysis of European, American and Romanian legislation on intellectual property. The activity will also be done in groups by the Venn diagram method. Students will receive excerpts from the three legal systems then they will read them and discuss in groups, discussing the choices of the characteristics identified.

Each group will draw three intersecting circles on an A3 sheet, as in the model in Fig. 9.9 Venn diagram. The activity is appropriate for systematisation of knowledge or for the restructuring of information extracted from primary sources.

Fig. 9.9

Diagrama Venn

At the intersection of all circles, only the essential and common aspects of all legislation under consideration will be written. In spaces where the circles intersect only two, common points between the systems analysed will be noted. Outside the intersection areas, only the specific aspects of each piece of legislation will be written. The dimensions of the circles in the charts may be different to give each group the possibility contributing their own thoughts.

Instructions on how to work will be front-loaded. The possibility to provide additional information and clarifications, if necessary, will not be excluded. Upon completion of the activity, the results obtained will be placed in places visible to all and will be presented. Finally, all participants will applaud the work they have done.

• Review the Knowledge

In order to merge the information transmission activity from Sect. 9.3. Information communication with the recapitulation activity of what was taught, a pedagogical approach will be proposed, focusing both on information systematisation capacities and utilising student creativity.

Students will be given the task to read the information in Sect. 9.3. Information communication within the same groups in which they performed the previous tasks. They will then be asked to use all the creativity they can show to create a poster or scientific communication to promote copyright and awareness of risks associated with plagiarism. The structure of the group results presentation will meet the standards found in Sect. 9.3. Information communication.

• Applications

• Evalution

No.	Statement	Answer T/F
1.	Duration of a works’ copyright protection is identical to the one stated in European Union’s directives, meaning 10 years after the author’s death
2.	Structural plagiarism is easy to determine
3.	The value of scientific research performed will be assessed by a commission and its chairman according to an established pattern