Abstract:

We intend to reflect on a worrying issue in higher education – plagiarism, a practice that has existed for a long time but is now easier. In fact, it is worth remembering that the digital paradigm has been gaining even greater expression in the current context of a pandemic in which personal, academic, social and professional life has been predominantly reorganized digitally. This investigation is based on the concepts of Plagiarism and Intellectual Property Rights, within the framework of higher education in which the author has vast experience as a teacher who has always been concerned with instilling in students the ethical use of information, one of the aspects of Information Literacy.

The methodology of this study includes a literature review, favoring good practices carried out by reference institutions in the field, such as The International Center for Academic Integrity and several universities that, in an organized and responsible manner, aim to promote an academic culture of honesty and intellectual integrity, guiding and training teachers and students. We highlight the University of Waterloo which has an Office of Academic Integrity, the Purdue University which has the Online Writing Lab (OWL), and the University of California San Diego whose website has a tab titled "Excel with integrity", all of them providing guidance, training, advice and pedagogical approaches related to academic integrity. In short, all this qualified information available on the internet, very easily, at the distance of a click, it is undoubtedly a very important help, above all, for students, to obtain knowledge and skills about what plagiarism is, ways to fight it, to achieve academic success while respecting legal issues and copyright.

In conclusion, we are of the opinion that, more than punishing, Education policies should focus on training the various educational agents to fight a reprehensible and illegal intellectual act, they should clarify and clearly define important concepts related to this complex issue and should promote open debate on the subject. They must also invest resources and promote marketing policies in favor of intellectual property rights and must instill in teachers the courage to denounce and report the unethical use of information by students, even if this represents an inconvenience and an increase in work, at the bureaucratic level.

Finally, it will certainly be through a collaborative work between Ministries, educational institutions, their leaders, teachers and students that the task of training for the safe and ethical use of information in an academic context will have more impact and better results.

Keywords:

Plagiarism, Intellectual Property Rights, Undergraduate Education, Academic integrity, Information literacy.