I have always been somewhat frightened by the zero-tolerance policy of academic institutions toward plagiarism. This is, in part, because I feel it would be very easy to accidentally commit plagiarism by simply forgetting to insert a citation. In my view, there are at least five types of plagiarism, and all require different responses.
1. Cheating. Entire papers or large sections are copied and presented as original work. This is most likely to occur in a university context and should deserve a harsh response. 2. Malicious plagiarism. Citations are intentionally omitted in order to make others' work appear to be original. This can occur in professional journals and in schools and deserves punishment, although unfortunately it can be difficult to separate this from the next category. 3. Negligent plagiarism. Citations are omitted with no intention of plagiarizing. This can occur simply by accident (some spelling errors slip into journals) or can be more subtle. Scientists are constantly reading journal articles, and our thought processes are inevitably influenced by our reading, perhaps in ways that we don't always recognize. It is therefore entirely possible to write a non-original idea while personally believing that the idea is yours. This type of plagiarism should be minimized, but in my opinion should not be punished unless it occurs often enough to demonstrate sloppy practices. 4. Word-choice plagiarism. Writers who are new to English or new to scientific writing styles are tempted to copy sentences word-for-word from articles, changing minor details to make the meaning correct. While this is clearly plagiarism by definition, it is not a stealing of concepts, ideas, or results per se, and it may represent a positive step toward learning the mechanics of scientific writing. 5. Misattribution. I personally know several students who find it easier to write first and cite later. Inevitably, this leads to some ideas attributed to the wrong authors and a few omitted citations. This is certainly sloppy behavior, but not outright malicious and so in my opinion not deserving of a harsh punishment unless it continues after several warnings. Zero-tolerance makes sense for actions which are always intentional (i.e. a minor cannot accidentally consume alcohol), but not for plagiarism, which may result from accidental omission or an incomplete knowledge of citation procedures. School is about teaching the best practices and minimizing mistakes, not about punishing those who make mistakes. Unless large-scale cheating has occurred or plagiarism has occurred numerous times, I feel that failure or expulsion as a consequence of plagiarism is not justified. Mark Luterra Carleton College Northfield, MN
