Research Methods
Online Diary
Course Instructor: Dr. Zubair Shaikh
Prepared by: Faisal Arshad (M-9656)

Copyrights, Plagiarism, Professional and Ethical Issues in the Research Processes

Copyrights

Copyright law secures for the creator of a creative effort the exclusive right to control who can make copies, or make works derived from the original work. There are a lot of subtleties and international variations but that's the gist of it. If you create something, and it fits the definition of a creative work, you get to control who can make copies of it and how they make copies, with some important exceptions.

You can also sell or licence this right, or, if you do the work for somebody who hired you to do it, they buy this right in advance.

Related Links:

Copyright Office Basics
http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html#wci

General Information about copyrights
http://www.oppedahl.com/copyrights/#whatis

A Guide to Copyrights
http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/sc_mrksv/cipo/cp/copy_gd_main-e.html

Copyrights and Wrongs
http://www.efuse.com/Plan/copyright.html

Plagiarism

Many people think of plagiarism as copying another's work, or borrowing someone else's original ideas. But terms like "copying" and "borrowing" can disguise the seriousness of the offense:

According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, to "plagiarize" means

1) to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own
2) to use (another's production) without crediting the source
3) to commit literary theft
4) to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source.

In other words, plagiarism is an act of fraud. It involves both stealing someone else's work and lying about it afterward.

But can words and ideas really be stolen?

According to U.S. law, the answer is yes. The expression of original ideas is considered intellectual property, and is protected by copyright laws, just like original inventions. Almost all forms of expression fall under copyright protection as long as they are recorded in some way (such as a book or a computer file).

Related Links:

Plagiarism: How to Avoid it
http://www.aresearchguide.com/6plagiar.html

Is It Plagiarism or Copyright Violation?
http://www.internetworldstats.com/articles/art024.htm

Is Copying Illegal?
http://www.plagiarismchecker.com/plagiarism-vs-copyright.php

Understanding of Plagiarism
http://www.turnitin.com/research_site/e_what_is_plagiarism.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagiarism

Professional Ethics

Professional Ethics concerns one's conduct of behaviour and practice when carrying out professional work. Such work may include consulting, researching, teaching and writing. The institutionalisation of Codes of Conduct and Codes of Practice is common with many professional bodies for their members to observe.

Any code may be considered to be a formalisation of experience into a set of rules. A code is adopted by a community because its members accept the adherence to these rules, including the restrictions that apply.

It must be noted that there is a distinction between a profession such as Information Systems, and controlled professions such as Medicine and Law, where the loss of membership may also imply the loss of the right to practice.

Apart from codes of ethics, professional ethics also concerns matters such as professional indemnity. Furthermore, as will readily be appreciated, no two codes of ethics are identical. They vary by cultural group, by profession and by discipline. The former of these three variations is one of the most interesting, as well as controversial, since it challenges the assumption that universal ethical principles exist. In some cultures, certain behaviours are certainly frowned upon, but in other cultures the opposite may be true. Software piracy is a good case in point, in that attitudes towards software piracy vary from strong opposition to strong support - attitudes that are supportable within a particular culture. At the end of these pages is a section called Cultural Perspectives, where we hope to point you to alternative perspectives of ethical standards, attitudes and behaviours etc.