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How to avoid plagiarism in a manuscript

 

Most researchers are hard-pressed for time, and ESL (English as Second Language) or EFL (English as Foreign Language) researchers may have a difficult time expressing their views in English. These researchers may unintentionally be caught in plagiarism issues, which violate publication ethics of international English journals.

A plagiarized paper is always rejected by the peer-reviewed journal’s editor. This not only damages the reputation of the author but also raises a question mark on the credibility of the research carried out by scientists in academia.  This situation is particularly grim among researchers in Korea, China, and Japan.

What is the definition of plagiarism?

According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, plagiarism is defined as “an act of using another person’s words or ideas without giving credit to that person.” Most Chinese, Korean, and Japanese researchers have a problem paraphrasing the findings of related studies in their manuscript. They often use the research findings of published authors in their paper but fail to acknowledge the sources. This is what causes plagiarism in their document.

In this article, we restrain ourselves to discussing academic plagiarism and we also suggest ways of avoiding it. In the “introduction” and “discussion” sections of a manuscript, it is very important to present information from previously published studies. However, this information should be cited from credible sources. Authors who fail to acknowledge the work of other researchers are accused of plagiarism by journal editors.

Types of plagiarism in academia

Intentional plagiarism

Some authors intentionally plagiarize in academia. There have been instances where authors have entirely copied the findings of a related study and claimed authorship of the plagiarized work. Authors are found guilty of plagiarism when they copy the text of another related study without citing the source in the reference list. In a systematic review, authors have to gather data from various related studies and then work on this data and present them as their own. This is a tricky and cumbersome task that often leads to “mosaic plagiarism.”

Accidental Plagiarism

Most students pursuing master’s and doctorate degree are caught in plagiarism issues. Most ESL and EFL researchers have issues paraphrasing the content of related studies. More often, they may use quotation marks inappropriately in their paper. They may also fail to cite papers correctly. While paraphrasing the content, ESL and EFL authors often retain the sentence structure and this leads to plagiarism. While authors may cite the content correctly, the authors must paraphrase in their words.

Self-plagiarism

Some authors include information from their previously published papers, but they do not cite these papers in their manuscript. This is known as self-plagiarism. All journals look out for novelty of content, so it is very important to maintain originality of a manuscript. Authors should always cite their previously published papers in their manuscript.

How to avoid plagiarism in an academic manuscript?

All researchers including Issac Newton and Albert Einstein have referred to the work of previously published papers and come up with innovative concepts. Therefore, an author must always be careful to acknowledge the work of previously published authors in their manuscript. The following tips would be useful in avoiding plagiarism issues:

1. Authors may use quotation marks in their manuscript

In some fields of study, authors may quote the work of previous authors in “verbatim” style. In such situations, the authors must use “quotation marks” to highlight the “verbatim” text in the document. The source from which the quoted text was obtained must also be cited in the document.

2. Authors must paraphrase the content in their words

To paraphrase the content of previously published studies, authors should have a grasp of academic writing skills and English language proficiency. Although the paraphrased content may be included in a new manuscript, it should clearly relate with an original concept in the study.

While paraphrasing the content, the authors should change the sentence structure and wordings but strive to retain the original meaning. The sources used for obtaining the content must be cited in the reference list of the document. Footnotes may also be used for citations.

3. All the components of a sentence may have references

Very often, sentences may include ideas from related studies. Therefore, each idea presented in the sentence must be appropriately cited with the matching source. For example, authors may be using different protocols for testing different animals in a study. These protocols may be mentioned in a single sentence.

Authors should ensure that these protocols are cited with their appropriate references. For example, an author may construct a sentence as follows: Protocol X has been used previously in bovine and murine cells. In this case, the author should cite the study that used bovine cells and the study that used murine cells separately in the reference list.

4. Authors must maintain the accuracy of all references

While writing an academic manuscript, the authors must ensure that all the cited references are accurate. Famous authors have many published papers, so authors should make sure that they have cited the correct paper. An author may be caught in plagiarism issues if they have cited papers inaccurately in the manuscript.

5. Authors should use reference management software and plagiarism checker software

Endnote is the most widely used reference management software that enables authors to create a reference list easily. There are many online companies providing plagiarism checker software. Some companies offer it for free and some offer paid versions. Among them, iThenticate and PlagScan are most commonly used by academics. Authors may check the originality of their work with any of these software programs.

Harrisco is an academic editing company that offers complete publication support to authors in Korea, China, and Japan. Harrisco offers plagiarism check and extensive editing services to ESL and EFL authors, thereby bridging the gap between academia and publishing. Harrisco has been in operations since 1997 and successfully established its brand in Korea. Welcome to Global Harrisco, let us take care of your publication needs!
 

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Why Researchers should use Credible Citations in their Manuscript

A scientist has to cite the findings of previous studies while writing a manuscript. These sources should be checked thoroughly for their authenticity. However, there are instances where the sources have been incorrectly cited and not brought to the notice of the reviewer and editor. In this article, I present all the reasons for citing credible sources in a manuscript.

In the year 1675, Isaac Newton was a famous scientist who conceded to the fact that his work was a development of previously related studies in classical physics. Thus, even reputed scientists referred to the findings of previously published studies. However, Sir Issac Newton did not mention the names of other illustrious scientists in his field of work.

A well-written manuscript will always include citations from credible sources. This ensures academic honesty and prevents authors from getting caught in plagiarism issues. The in-text references have to be presented in the form of a list at the end of the article. Although these are some of the valid reasons for citations, there are other less-known reasons for citing references in a manuscript.

A scientist has to be meticulous enough for citing the findings of previous studies in their manuscript. A well-cited manuscript is enough to gain respect in the scientific community. The other compelling reasons for citing references from credible sources are as follows:

1. Citations from credible sources are used for fact-checking purposes

Scientists have to be accurate enough while writing their research study. A cited reference is used to verify the accuracy of the content. For example, the findings of a related study must be cited with a credible reference. It can also be used to establish the authenticity of the content in a passage.

2. Citations are used to improve the quality of a research paper

A good research study contains detail-oriented work; the researcher should comprehend patterns and establish connections between different results of the study. A researcher who provides a good number of citations is able to achieve this feat.

To properly attribute the content to its related sources, a researcher has to pay attention to many terms. This includes page numbers, the names of authors, and the accuracy with which the author is presenting facts in the document.

A detail-oriented approach is really required to write a good research paper. A well-written bibliography is required for scientific analysis. By compiling a bibliography, an author can condense immense amount of information. Thus, the author gains the ability to foresee patterns and identify trends in a research field. 

3. An author can become a better writer by following good practices of citations

Journal editors really look forward to a paper in which the content and language are of high standards. To achieve this goal, authors should have the good habit of attributing the content to credible sources. Phrases such as “everyone knows” should be clearly replaced with credible sources. This ensures clarity of thought and eliminates the possibility of an intellectual goof-up. Remember, there is no room for false claims in an academic document.

A reader does not have any questions about the facts presented in a manuscript when they are properly cited from specific sources. Moreover, active voice can be easily used while citing facts from previous studies. Journal editors often give authors a red flag for using passive voice in an article. Phrases like “it has been reported” should be clearly eliminated from an academic manuscript.

4. An excellent bibliography proves the scientific expertise of an author

In a manuscript, a well-read author will present a comprehensive bibliography of citations. In this case, a bibliography is simply the reference list that is presented at the end of the article. It enlists all the citations that have been included in the manuscript. Compared to the content in the article, an impressive bibliography usually receives more compliments from peer reviewers.

In case of a double-blinded peer review, the authors are often reprimanded when they do not provide adequate citations in their manuscript.  In such cases, the peer reviewers would consider the authors to be amateurs in their field because they failed to cite a prestigious research study that was related to their piece of work.

5. Authors gain credibility as scholars when they follow good citation practices

To gain credibility in the eyes of the scientific community, authors should provide a good bibliography. An article that is well-cited attracts the attention of peers. Moreover, it also proves that the authors of that manuscript are indeed scholars in their field of study. A well-documented research work always attracts more credibility from colleagues in the academic community.

6. A research work can be easily verified from citations

In academia, a research paper is reviewed by several people before being published in the print media or on a journal’s website. The peer review process of science citation index (SCI) journals is very strict and rigorous. The editorial process is also very exhaustive.

The peer reviewers and journal editors accurately peruse through the bibliography and ensure that the citations are genuine. In other words, a paper is more likely to be considered for publication when the authors have taken the efforts to include all attributions to previous studies correctly.

There are different styles of referencing citations in a manuscript. The most prominent among them are the Harvard style and the Vancouver style of referencing. These reference styles shall be explained in detail in the next article.

 

 

 

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The Significance of Journal Impact Factor in Academic Publishing

Most academics who have published papers in scientific journals are familiar with the term “impact factor.” So, what exactly is impact factor of a journal? Scientific journals are ranked by a metric known as “impact factor.” Thomson Reuters is an academic publisher that has come up with a database of impact factors of journals. Although it is primarily used a library resource, it is also very good to attract papers for publications.

Impact factor is a crucial yet controversial metric in scientific publishing. Based on the impact factor of a journal, scientists decide whether it is suitable to publish their work. The impact factor of a journal is a metric that describes the visibility range of a journal. In general, journals with high impact factor are considered to be prestigious in a particular field.

How did journal impact factor gain significance in academic publishing?  

Academic publishers felt that journals should be ranked according to their impact or significance. To address this concern, they devised a metric known as “journal impact factor.” The impact factor of a journal indicates the patterns and frequency of citations of a journal.

The origins of “Impact Factor” can be dated back to the year 1955. In an issue of the journal Science, Eugene Garfield first expressed the need for a metric that ranks journals on the basis of their impact on research. Eugene Garfield was an information scientist who came up with this idea in 1955.Eugene Garfield worked with Irving Scher, who was her colleague in the field of information sciences. Together, they introduced the metric “impact factor” in the year 1960.

The “journal impact factor” ranked all scientific journals after comparing the difference between their sizes and their network of circulation.  The impact factors of all scientific journals were presented in the form of a database, which was termed as the “Science Citation Index (SCI).” This database was first published by the Institute for Scientific Information. Eugene Garfield was the founder of this institute. Later on, the database was rechristened as “Journal Citation Reports (JCR)” and was published by Thomson Reuters, a well-known academic publisher.

How to determine the impact of a journal, and which journals are associated with it

Eugene Garfield determined the number of citations received by papers published in a scientific journal over a span of two years. Then, Eugene Garfield divided this number with the total number of papers that were published in that particular journal over a time period of two years.

As research is carried out at a different pace in different fields of study, Eugene Garfield compared a journal with other journals of the same field. In other words, a medical journal was compared with other medical journals. Similarly, a journal on ecology was grouped with other journals of ecology.

Although impact factor largely depends on a journal, it is also affected by the research conducted in a field of study. In the year 2009, the impact factor 87.925 was the highest for a scientific journal. However, the next highest impact factor was only 50. Thus, the field of study and the related research work significantly affects the impact factor of a journal.

Every two years, JCR is published by Thomson Reuters in the month of June. For example, the database published in 2016 presents the journal impact factors for the time period of 2014-2015. About 9000 journals were included in the JCR database of 2009. However, this database includes only 25% of all the published journals. Moreover, it mainly comprises of journals in English language.

Why it is necessary to know about a journal’s impact factor

According to Eugene Garfield, impact factor is a metric that reflects a journal’s prestige in the scientific community. Scientists often see the journal’s impact factor to decide whether it is suitable for publication. By publishing their papers in scientific journals of high impact factor, scientists can gain more respect in their community. Moreover, they also gain other benefits, such as better access to research funding, an extension of tenure, recruitment to prestigious institutions, and promotions at universities. Nevertheless, journal impact factor cannot be considered as a sole criterion for the integrity of a journal or a research study.

The editors of journals always make an effort to increase the impact factor of their journals. Sometimes, these editors request authors to increase citations in the papers submitted for publication in their journal. This is an unethical practice and should not be conceded at all costs. The impact factor of a journal is a metric used in information sciences: it does not govern the quality of a research work.

The controversies and problems of journal impact factor 

The journal impact factor’s indiscriminate use in academic employment industry has been severely criticized by many information scientists, including Garfield. The significance of an author’s research work cannot be solely estimated from the journal’s impact factor. Impact factor should always be considered along with other parameters of evaluation, such as the peer review process.

It should be noted that smaller fields of study attract lesser citations, so the journals of these niche fields have lower impact factor. These journals may contain papers of path-breaking research work. The impact factor of a journal should always be compared with that of a journal in the same field of study. The impact factor of a journal is not really an indication of the significance of a research work.

At this stage, it is also necessary to point out the problem associated with prestigious journals. Because these journals have a high impact factor, it is really very difficult to publish papers. This is because the rejection rate of such journals can be as high as 75%. Remember, the main aim of a researcher is to get their work published in a peer reviewed journal. Therefore, researchers must not just limit their efforts to high impact journals. They should consider all other factors while deciding which journal is most suitable for their work.

Which metrics can be considered as good alternatives to journal impact factor?

Since the significance of impact factor has been very controversial, researchers are advised to use other alternative metrics, such as SCImago Journal & Country Rank, the h index, Scopus, and the Eigenfactor. In the year 2005, Jorge Hirsch was a physicist who developed the h index. This metric compared the author’s total number of published papers with the number of citations received by those published papers. In other words, it evaluated the productivity of an author in academia.

The Web of Science is an index that uses the metric Eigenfactor. This metric measures the frequency of citation of a published paper over a period of five years. It thus determines how influential the article is in a particular field of study.In the metric The SCImago Journal & Country Rank, a database of journals was provided. This database was based on the rankings and the visibility received by journals, which were further organized according to their types. It comprehensively covered all international publications. Scopus is a database based on abstracts and citations. This database is published by the noted scientific publisher, namely, Elsevier.

 How should journal impact factor be used by researchers in academia?

Although journal impact factor is an important metric to be considered before publishing a paper in a scientific journal, it should never be considered as the sole criterion for evaluating the quality of a journal. The decision to submit and publish a paper should never be made on the basis of the journal’s impact factor. It is always essential to assess the scope and objectives of a journal and then determine the possibility of your paper getting published in that journal. Harrisco is a company that provides complete publication support to authors and can help authors in journal selection, peer review, language editing, and translation. Harrisco is a name to reckon with in the academic publishing industry as it has been in business since 1997.

 

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South Korea: world’s only country that invests big time into scientific research

South Korea is an advanced country that invests heavily into scientific research studies, with the hope of bagging Nobel Prize some day for their work. The results are already showing as South Korea overtakes China and USA in terms of GDP spend on scientific research: Concerted efforts have been made by industry experts into thriving basic scientific research. More than 4% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is spent on Scientific Research. This indicates that it spends double the amount spent by China and European Union. Thus, it is the country that spent the most on scientific research.

Although there have been many successful ventures between the government and industry in South Korea, about 75% of grants for R & D are attributed to industry while the remaining 23% is provided by the government. About 2% of grants are obtained from other sources. The experimental research industry is worth 38.4 billion USD, whereas resources allocated to basic and applied research is almost similar at 10.6 billion USD and 11.5 billion USD, respectively.

How is the experimental industry functioning in South Korea?

In an ordinary building in Daejeon, one would never imagine a sophisticated lab conducting an advanced experiment, but that is the true picture of science in South Korea. Although the first floor of this building is still being renovated and developed into a lab space, there is a secret pit into the basement. In the basement, a sophisticated lab is developed for research experiments. What catches my attention is a cylindrical apparatus made from precious metals, copper and gold.

Young researchers are building a prototype to understand axion-the particle believed to be a principle component of dark matter. The main objective of these researchers is to solve the mystery of Universe and how human life originated on Earth. In South Korea’s leading university of science and technology, physicists are offered 7.6 million USD per year as federal grant. The university is none other than KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology). What’s out-of-box here is the risk aspect of the project, because the existence of axions has not been proved yet, let alone its association with dark matter.

At a time when “March for Science” has been carried out in the United States, the encouragement received by the South Korean Government is truly appreciative. To encourage advanced research experiments in basic sciences, President Park Geun-Hye announced that it would increase funding for basic science by 36% in 2018. In the year 2017, South Korean government made concerted efforts, making its expenditure on science equivalent to 5% of GDP.

South Korea is making immense in achieving its ambitions in scientific and technology

Although many science policy makers and some renowned scientists say that it won’t be possible to sustain such generous spending on science amid a looming economic crisis, optimistic results are not too far away—Only 11 Korean students stayed back in the USA after receiving their PhD degrees in science and technology in 2008 from an American university; this data was released by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 2014.

South Korean government’s policy makers are trying to drive hard basic science amidst its stupendous progress in industrial applications involving science and technology: South Korea is world leader in the manufacture of smartphones and semiconductors; their quality standards are high and they offer products at an economical value. Thanks to South Korean conglomerates LG and SamSung, the country has filed 4590.92 patent applications in 2014; this figure far exceeds Japan, the closest contender with 3659.39 patent applications. The US stands a distant fourth at 1611.20.

In terms of proportion of researchers, South Korea is just slightly less than the Scandinavian countries (Finland, Denmark, Sweden). As per employment statistics in 2013, there are 12.84 researchers per 1000 people in South Korea. Its closest contender Japan stands at 12.84, while USA is far behind at 8.81 researchers per 1000 people. Since 2005, its publication output has more than doubled and today it is has overtaken Spain in terms of volume; however, Japan still leads the race in terms of publication output. Most South Korean scientists publish papers in chemistry, physics, engineering, and life sciences.

Final verdict for success: partnerships between industry and academia

In Research & Development industry, South Korea has received maximum funding from its corporate giants: Samsung, LG, and Hyundai. As per the latest data released by the government, 63.7 trillion won (South Korean currency) was spent on R & D. More than 2/3rd of these resources were provided by industry, with estimated funding being as high as 49.2 trillion won. Although there is a steady rise of partnership between industry and academia for R & D ventures, most research facilities set up by industries are clandestine. That’s why the secretive, yet sophisticated laboratory in the basement of ordinary building seems a normal scene in South Korea.

 

 

 

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The nexus between predatory journals and academia: the result is bad science and medicine

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With highly strict standards of publication set by SCI journals (Elsevier, Springer, Nature, Wiley, etc.), the acceptance rate of manuscripts is just 15%. This puts a lot of stress on young researchers in academia. Failure to publish papers in these noted journals spells a doom on their career in research and academia.

Thus, it is a classic case of where supply (manuscripts) exceeds the demand (acceptance rate by publishers). The number of people graduating from most colleges in the USA with terminal degrees (PhD) far exceeds the availability of research jobs in academia.

To cash on this opportunity, today there are many “predatory” journals that will publish any manuscript for a royalty. These predatory journals have total disregard for the authenticity of the research study and would even publish a completely plagiarized paper. This trend is often witnessed in community colleges as they do not receive sizable federal grants for the advancement of their career in scientific research. Most predatory journals would charge about some hundreds of dollars for publication under the garb of the word “Open Access” or “Hybrid publishing.”

How do academics from less known community colleges fall prey to these journals? Well, most of these predatory journals have names that have strong resemblance to that of famous journals. They quite often provide bulk discounts for publication of many manuscripts and also invite these academics for workshops and seminars. We found that despite knowing the poor credentials of these journals, researchers oblige to have a symbiotic relationship with these predatory journals. Scientific credibility is not just lost but wrong science is also promoted by these predatory journals, which means our future generations would have to suffer due to these unlawful practices in academia and research.

According to the latest sting operations carried out by a scribe of Nature publisher, the number of predatory journals now stands at 10,000. This implies that there are as many predatory journals as legitimate ones. For example, consider the legitimate journal publisher by Springer “The Journal of Economics and Finance.” The predatory journal by an independent publisher is named similarly as “The Journal of Finance and Economics.”

Predatory journals have minimum cost of publication and earn good revenue. They do not have peer reviewer and editorial team. Most journals only publish papers online, with some of them having a “print on demand” model as well. One of the tricks that these journals do is by having names resembling standard journals of SCI. Moreover, they also claim to have been indexed by Google scholar while sending direct marketing emails to academicians all over the world. It is important to note that “Google scholar” is a search engine, so being indexed by Google does not mean Google has authenticated the credentials of the predatory journal. This is something most academics are not wary of, unless they have a solid background in computer science.

One of the detrimental results of the naivety of researchers is the proliferation of bad science. To make matters worst, these publishers also include the name of researcher in the list of presenters/speakers at a conference for a hefty fee. The academic may OR may not attend the conference, but the conference can be certainly enlisted in the academic resume of the researcher. Most of the so-called conferences are published at respectable venues of universities and hotels. In reality, these conferences are held in dingy hotels undergoing renovation, with more than 50% academics giving it a miss.

Do predatory journals have a detrimental effect on the career of researchers? Nope. A recent survey and analysis done by a leading researcher at his university threw open a can of worms: ten faculty members had got promoted this year and nine of these academics had published papers in both SCI (legitimate) journals as well as predatory journals. In fact, many of them had published at least four papers in predatory journals, which explains why these predatory journals are making good money despite being completely shady and unethical in their practices.

Conclusion:

Academics are promoted when their resume is loaded with a long list of publications. The list of published papers may be long, but the authenticity of journals is never verified. In totality, academics are now relieved that they do not have to stress on publishing in legitimate journals having strict standards. Bad science is being promoted by academia with the help of predatory journals, and there needs to be a regulatory authority to stop this menace in research industry.