Culture of Ethics Can Help Restrict Scientific Plagiarism

Promoting ethics in writing and teaching authors to refrain from plagiarism and scientific misconduct should be taken up by competent organizations under the pertinent ministries, said Dr. Alireza Yari, director of Iran Telecommunication Research Center.

“Imbibing the culture of ethics in authorship and discipline in writing is crucial in the world of science and academic progress,” he said addressing a conference on ‘Ways to Prevent Scientific Plagiarism’ in Tehran, Wednesday.

The confab discussed the global phenomenon of scientific plagiarism, also prominent in Iran, IRNA reported.

Plagiarism is the “wrongful appropriation” and “stealing and publication” of another author’s “language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions” and the representation of them as one’s own original work.

Although the issue remains problematic with unclear definitions and unclear rules, the conference sought to inform participants on the importance of ethics in the publishing industry and promoting a culture of scientific ethics abreast with scientific growth.

It also put forth several proposals to develop legal infrastructure to counter misconduct in academic and scientific writings, and presented the latest research and findings in Iran and worldwide on ways to indentify scientific transgression.

The conference hosted several local and foreign experts including Professor Paolo Russo from Valencia University of Spain, and Dr. Martin Potthast from the Bauhaus University of Germany.

“Only 25% of 4 billion Persian web pages have original value and the remaining 75% is either copied or spam content,” said Habibollah Asghari, director of the Information and Technology Center at the Iranian Academic Center for Education, Culture and Research.

The high level of irrelevant Persian web content shows that content creation in the Persian language is not up to the mark, he said.

Following global standards in the area of content creation people from different backgrounds must be encouraged to employ their practical and scientific knowledge and create credible content with the vision to spread specialized information. This will also help them to promote their own businesses.