My academic website and email pages are full of advice about how to detect plagiarism or cheating by students.  There are even conferences held to discuss the issue and training provided by universities to help lecturers deal with it.

I hate the idea.  But I understand how it comes about.  Of course, the internet has aggravated the situation.  Even website pages that draw users’ attention to books also contain sponsored ads that offer access to an infinite range of student essays on all subjects.  The implication is that you can just download and present it as your own.

In theory, asking students to do research projects should reduce the scope for cheating – but, of course, it doesn’t.   Even professional researchers have been found out fabricating evidence in order to prove a theory – and in the social sciences, it is extremely difficult to guard against blatant dishonesty.   A friend of mine at a university in Greater Manchester was appalled to discover that his research assistant had been sitting at home just filling in the questionnaires that he was supposed to have been putting to 150 parents of young children.    My friend had to sack his assistant and then start all over again from scratch.

The trouble is that, as in life generally, you have to trust people to be reliable. Most people are, but not all.  The big opinion poll companies have ways of detecting when their interviewers cheat – simply by seeing whether the responses they are getting fit within the pattern of normal distribution overall. But in the small scale academic world of private research, it’s almost impossible to be certain . . .

I was caught out once by a graduate student who had written what I thought was a really excellent dissertation on a rather unusual topic.   I was editing a major book at the time, and his/her piece of writing was ideal for one of my chapters.    I did some work on it to improve the style and flow, and then asked the student for their permission to use it – in return for a very modest payment.   I was very surprised not to get a quick reply – normally students are over the moon if you suggest that their work is fit for publication.    Eventually, after numerous phone calls and several letters, I finally managed to get the go-ahead.   It duly appeared – but 18 months later I happened to be reading a book on the same topic as the student had focused on, and, to my horror, I realised for the first time that much of what had been written had been plagiarised from this book.  Fortunately (!) the author of the book was no longer living, but I felt total consternation at something which I felt – indeed, was - responsible for.     Needless to say, the chapter was omitted from the next edition. No wonder my student had been so reluctant to give me permission for publication!

I recount this story to show how terribly easy cheating is – and how difficult it is to counteract.   My hope is that everybody who does a research project using my book as a guide will do so without recourse to such underhand methods.    If you do cheat, you may – or may not – get a good mark, but you won’t have learnt anything in the process.