Plagiarism

The researchers (particularly the PhD and MPhil students) are there at risk. As Damodaran has aptly observed - the concerned professors would wash their hands and pass the buck to the research students. It is not much unusual that a doctoral supervisor encourages and at times insists that the junior research student should replicate in his/her dissertation a part of others' text/results/citations/references, lifted from the dissertation or research papers of older scholars in the lab or those of the supervisor. Thus, a supervisor him/herself forces (so to say) his/her research students to plagiarize from his/her (supervisor's) own paper(s) or from older research students' published or unpublished research documents. This is done largely due to irresponsibility, casual attitude to research or unawareness of the possible consequences of plagiarism. In such a case, if a plagiarizing scholar is accused, the supervisor would surely wash his/her hands and pass the buck to the research scholar. Also note that when a research student and a teacher/supervisor co-author a research document, they trust each other and either may be unaware of the other's indulgence in indiscriminate copy-pasting without giving a due regard to citing the source materials. This may be a fact, but such an argument may also be used to shirk the responsibility to the less privileged in the academic hierarchy. The research students are young (generally) and with a long career ahead. They may lose their jobs, promotional avenues as well as prestige if at any time in future they are accused of plagiarism. Their research degrees may be withdrawn. Nobody knows at present how plagiarism will be taken in the years to come. It may be taken very seriously by the universities, colleges and other employers.