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Academic Integrity and Plagiarism
Michelle Topal
School of Education, Liberty University
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Abstract
Since more classes moved online during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, there has been an
increased use of digital technology in academic research. Research ranges from in-depth
scientific papers to simple five paragraph essays or the verification of facts. In light of the
acceleration of digital usage, colleges and universities have worked to keep up the new
challenges of maintaining academic integrity. The development of Artificial Intelligence has
made this more difficult, as academic misconduct proves to be harder to detect.
Keywords: plagiarism, academic integrity, colleges, students, ChatGPT
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Academic Integrity and Plagiarism
Plagiarism has presented difficulties in the academic world throughout history. The
problem has become more prevalent as an overwhelming amount of data has transferred to
digital technology. While the protection of a person’s work can be traced back to the first
copyright law under Great Britain’s Queen Anne in 1710, there has never been an actual statute
against plagiarism (Lazikova & Rumanovska, 2023). In addition, as technology becomes more
advanced, colleges and universities must now find new and inventive ways of detecting
plagiarism as Artificial Intelligence has become more prominent in the educational sector (Sarfo,
2023).
Analysis
In academia there are five types of plagiarism. The first type is perhaps the most well-
known, and that is copying material from a source and using it as one’s own without citing the
source. The second instance is when a student uses a paper that was borrowed or purchased from
someone else. The next form of plagiarism occurs if text is copied word-for-word from a text
without quotation marks even if a reference was included. Another type of plagiarism is self-
plagiarism, which arises when one submits work for a course that was previously submitted for
another class. The final form of plagiarism happens when information is summarized from a
source and the student fails to provide a citation (Lazikova & Rumanovska, 2023). Each of the
above instances of plagiarism can have serious consequences for the student if detected, ranging
from a zero on the assignment to dismissal from the program, depending on the severity of the
offense.
Teaching and the academic world became more complicated in 2020 with the Covid-19
pandemic. Colleges had to quickly move to an online environment and the digital world created a
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new threat to academic honesty (Perkins, 2023). Student had become adapted to online research
during the pandemic, so when classes returned to face-to-face, many continued to rely on the
internet to obtain their needed material. As technology is constantly developing adapting and
developing, Artificial Intelligence was introduced on November 30, 2022 (Sarfo, 2023).
ChatGPT is the first AI platform that became exceedingly popular among the most people.
Unfortunately, ChatGPT presents many problems for university faculty and administrators
(Hosseini et al., 2023).
Artificial Intelligence can actually teach computers how to learn matters that humans can
do, such as make decisions. Chatbots developed out of Artificial Intelligence and are making a
large impact, or hindrance, in the educational field. It is from Chatbots that ChatGPT emerged.
This Chatbot can answer questions by pulling data from the web, but it is far from accurate.
American researcher Noam Chomsky has taken a strong stance against ChatGPT and stated that
“the use of this technology by students nowadays is a sign of the ‘failure of the education
system’” (Guleria, 2023, p. 1293). A user simply has to ask a question and ChatGPT provides the
needed information in a multiple of ways, and the responses will vary each time the question is
asked, which creates even more problems (Guleria, 2023).
ChatGPT has led to a more advanced form of plagiarism, which involves using
technology to “copy, replicate, or manipulate digital content without proper attribution or
authorization” (Sarfo, 2023, p. 56). In addition, ChatGPT poses another problem in that it is
almost undetectable by traditional plagiarism software, such as Turnitin. When the article’s
author gave ChatGPT a prompt to write a paragraph, it produced 235 words, but Turnitin had a
similarity score of 0% (Sarfo, 2023). Therefore, colleges must look beyond traditional detection
systems and find more advanced ways to identify plagiarism. Also, students and faculty
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members need to undergo training regarding Artificial Intelligence and the implications the
platforms can have on the academic integrity of the institution (Lazikova & Rumanovska, 2023).
ChatGPT will create references to the material that it creates; however, this also presents
a problem. Research has discovered that the material produced as citations are incorrect. When
the data ChatGPT produced as credible sourced was investigated, it was found that it was
incorrect or simply did not exist. Thus, while ChatGPT will fully produce essays, even research
papers, for students based on topic prompts provided, the platform is incapable of delivering an
accurately referenced assignment, and can easily include erroneous information. Colleges need
to continue to put emphasis on objective analysis for all research assessments. ChatGPT may be
based on responses from humans, but it does not have the capacity to think on a critical basis
(Guleria et al., 2023).
The Holy Bible would look at plagiarism as an act of dishonesty, particularly if it was
intentional plagiarism. One who lies cannot truly know God; “I will not allow deceivers to serve
in my house, and liars will not stay in my presence” (Holy Bible, 1996, Psalm:7). In addition, the
Lord also gave particular rules related to personal conduct that one must abide by at all times. As
God described to Moses in Leviticus 19:11, “Do not steal. Do not deceive or cheat one another”
(Holy Bible, 1996). Committing an act of plagiarism is to perform an act of cheating by stealing
the work of others. Thus, it is a sin against the Lord.
In this regard, if a student is using ChatGPT to produce a paper for an assignment, the act
of cheating being committed is against God, the school, and themselves as they are being denied
the opportunity to truly learn from the assessment. There have been some advances in
developing tools to detect ChatGPT generated assignments. GPTZero and Crossplag AI have
shown potential in identifying ChatGPT, however there is fear that students may mistakenly be
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accused of plagiarism when in fact it was an inaccurate tagging of data in the new detection
implementation (Perkins, 2023).
One area that has been studied for detecting plagiarism is using digital forensics. This
does not mean making plagiarism a criminal offense but employing some of the same tactics
used by law enforcement personnel in investigations. A school’s reputation is dependent on the
quality of its education, and regular instances of plagiarism can potentially damage the college’s
status. As education and research have moved more online so has cyber-crime, therefore
forensics has had to adapt to keep pace and move to the digital environment. The problem with
the current plagiarism detection systems is that it only looks at the “surface web,” while digital
forensics can move detection below the surface to the dark web (Johnson et al., 2022).
In cases of plagiarism those investigating the incident, typically the course instructor,
usually only have access to the paper that the student submitted. However, if the full
methodology of digital forensics was implemented, one assignment would end up creating a
great deal more information than was originally submitted because it would break the file down
into separate elements. If the information obtained from the file was then compared to the data of
different students from different universities, as it is with software like Turnitin, this could create
another problem. Reviewing the large amount of records that would be produced could easily be
seen as violating the privacy of students, as it might reveal details other than those simply related
to the assignment in question (Johnson et al., 2022).
In light of the many difficulties being faced by colleges regarding academic integrity in
the current digital environment, an educational environment to train students could be the best
option. With the overwhelming amount of information available on the internet, students need a
way to detect if the work they are producing is their own or not. A Learning Management
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System could have a system that allows students to evaluate their assignment with a text-
matching program before they actually submit it to provide peace of mind and maintain
academic honesty (Johnson et al., 2022).
However, students are motivated to plagiarism for different reasons. They may feel
tremendous pressure to get a good grade, or simply be so overwhelmed by the amount of
information available online that they simply do not know where to begin their research. Then
there are those who simply do not want to put the time into producing the work on their own.
The new digital world actually makes it easy for students to commit plagiarism, and Artificial
Intelligence has made it even easier. Nevertheless, if students are taught the dangers of
plagiarism and how to avoid it, preferably early in their college career, they are more likely to
maintain academic integrity (Ade-Ibijola et al., 2022).
Many students simply do not understand what constitutes plagiarism. In this regard, a
game called Plagi-Warfare is proposed to instruct students on plagiarism. In Plagi-Warfare the
students can choose to play as either a good character or a bad one. The good character is an
investigator and the bad one is member of the mob. The premise behind the game is that the
player who represents the mob is a student who was removed from school, but chose to return to
help other students’ plagiarism their papers. His task is to avoid being caught by the investigator,
who is hired investigate possible cases of plagiarism in the college library. The investigator’s job
consists of asking questions about assignments and if students are found guilty of plagiarism,
they face repercussions for what they did. The goal of the game is to take the mob that controls
the plagiarism (Ade-Ibijola et al., 2022). With video games becoming more popular, using a
game that teaches about plagiarism can encourage students to learn more about it and how to
prevent it (Ade-Ibijola et al., 2022). Incorporating this game, or a similar activity, into a Learning
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Management System and awarding extra credit or bonus points when completed, can prove to be
beneficial to both students and the institution as a whole.
With the current digital abundance of information and means of obtaining or producing
reports, institutions need to update their academic integrity policies. Artificial Intelligence can be
used in research, if it is used correctly. However, the text generated by ChatGPT can generate
multiple types of plagiarism ranging from word-for-word to one using a single idea without
citation. Instructors need to be able to check that the content is original, and if the student did use
ChatGPT, see if the said student can demonstrate their knowledge of the subject. Thus, Artificial
Intelligence is causing academia to reconsider what is actually plagiarism (Lazikova &
Rumanovska, 2023).
Colleges and universities must also learn to change. Institutions have followed the same
pattern for years, however, with the developments in technology they must now acclimate.
Instead of simply assigning a research assignment with a set number of sources to be completed
outside of class, perhaps do more in class creative writing assignments. Classes can include visits
to the library to browse material for in class critical thinking skill assessments. There can be
more interaction during class time between the professor and students (Sarfo, 2023). Online
classes can move beyond discussion boards, particularly for lower level course sessions. Options
are there to explore to make classes more dynamic and teach students about the dangers of
plagiarism, at least to their academic career.
Conclusion
Maintaining academic integrity is a priority for every institution of higher learning in the
United States. A college’s reputation depends on delivering a high quality of education.
However, repeated cases of plagiarism at a particular school can damage their status in the
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community and possibly lead to a decrease enrollment. Plagiarism or using another’s work and
submitting it as one’s own without giving credit has beleaguered colleges for an inordinate
amount of time. Tools, such as Turnitin, have been created to help detect cases on plagiarism in
research assignments. Nevertheless, as the world moves increasingly online, the developing of a
more digital environment is creating even greater challenges. Colleges faced a significant test
with the mandatory shutdowns during COVID-19, however the advent of Artificial Intelligence
two years later may prove to be their greatest difficulty to date. Artificial Intelligence, namely
ChatGPT, creates text, even full papers with references for students, based on a prompt.
Unfortunately, the data provided by ChatGPT is often inaccurate, and cannot be detected by
traditional plagiarism detection tools. Thus, colleges must find a new way to combat plagiarism
in this new digital reality.
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References
Ade-Ibijola, A., Young, K., Sivparsad, N., Seforo, M., Ally, S., Olowolafe, A., & Frahm-Arp, M.
(2022). Teaching students about plagiarism: Using a serious game (Plagi-Warfare):
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https://doi.org/10.2196/33459
Guleria, A., Krishan, K., Sharma, V., & Kanchan, T. (2023). ChatGPT: Ethnical concerns and
challenges in academics and research. Journal of Infection in Developing Countries,
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Holy Bible: New Living Translation. (1996). Tyndale House Publishers.
Hosseini, M., Gao, C.A., Liebovitz, D. M., Carvalho, A. M., Ahmad, F. S., Luo, Y., MacDonald,
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https://doi.org/10.1007/s40979-022-00104-1
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