Research

 

Assignment 3 – Blog Post #2: Research

By Janejira Sahachaiwatana

 

Research is the systematic investigation and study of materials and sources to establish facts and reach new conclusions. It consists of finding answers to questions and I feel that research is carried out on our daily basis in all sorts of ways. We do research all the time in our personal life such as when we travel, when we searching for a good restaurant, or when we looking for a job. Especially now with the internet, most of us look up different products online and research most things before we buy them. Moreover, research is a fundamental to academic life, especially as a Master student where most schools require that students should complete a thesis or a project before graduating. In this post, I will examine ethical and legal issues regarding research followed by the impacts of those issues.

Ethics refers to moral principles or values that generally govern the conduct of an individual or group. Sparks and Pan (2010) states that research ethics involves the application of fundamental ethical principles to a variety of topics involving research. Thus, any research conducted should stay true, fair and wise (Pimple 2002). Besides, researchers themselves should have responsibilities for their own research and must follow high ethical standards to ensure that their research is not brought into disrepute.

It has been observed that plagiarism is the most common breach of research ethics and is one of the most common forms of research misconduct (Cooley-Tubbs, Munro & Pickler 2012). By definition, plagiarism is a piece of writing that has been copied from someone else’s work and is presented as your own work. Pecorari and Petric (2014) believes that plagiarism usually happened with second-language writing. This can be due to the cultural differences and difficulties associated with second-language academic writing. Roberts (2008) takes the similar view as Pecorari and Petric (2004), however, he states that plagiarism can arise from the lack of research and writing skills, confusion about how to cite sources, and poor time management skills. I agree with Pecorari and Petric that the first cause that contributes to plagiarism is due to poor time management. When students fail to have their time managed properly, they tend to do last minute works and the easiest way to choose to cope with that is by plagiarizing. Another cause of plagiarism may be due to an insufficient education and student habits where they are not taught properly on how to paraphrase and do a referencing.

Plagiarism can impact in many ways. The first effect of plagiarism is the disrespectful to the original author. It is so rude to use another’s idea without referencing. Taking the exact words of another person without attribution is just like stealing a wallet from another person. In education institutions, particularly universities or colleges level, they do treat plagiarism as a severe problem of academic purity. College students who commit plagiarism may face the loss of their degrees upon the discovery of the offense. Moreover, plagiarism may damage the reputation of schools as places of learning and intellectual inquiry.

In conclusion, plagiarism is strictly abandoned and morally wrong. It is not only those who plagiarize will be affected but also the writers and even publishers. This means that many parties are also affected, not just the plagiarizers. So if you plagiarize, better stop it now otherwise you will regret it later.

 

 

References:

Cooley-Tubbs, HL, Munro, CL & Pickler, RH 2012, ‘Issues in Research Integrity: Deciding What Is Mine, Yours, and Ours’, Journal of Pediatric Health Care, vol. 26, no. 5, pp. 370-373, viewed 18 April 2018, Elsevier database.

Pecorari, D & Petric, B 2014, ‘Plagiarism in second-language writing’, Language Teaching, vol. 47, no. 3, pp. 269-302, viewed 17 April 2018, ProQuest Central database.

Pimple, KD 2002, ‘Six domains of research ethics’, Science and Engineering Ethics, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 191-205, viewed 16 April 2018, SprinklerLink database.

Roberts, TS 2008, Student Plagiarism in an Online World: Problems and Solutions, viewed 16 April 2018, IGI-global, IGI Global InfoSci-Books database.

Sparks, JR & Pan, Y 2009, ‘Ethical Judgments in Business Ethics Research: Definition, and Research Agenda’, Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 91, no. 3, viewed 16 April 2018, SprinklerLink database.