Countdown till the 4th International Plagiarism Conference

Posted: 13/05/2010

Press release prepared by Horizonworks Marketing for plagiarismadvice.org. Date of release 13 May 2010.

Organised by plagiarismadvice.org, the conference will showcase 40 papers from 20 countries across the world demonstrating the conference’s growing global reputation.  

Ofqual are the Gold Sponsors for this conference and have recently produced, with plagiarismadvice.org, a joint publication of three new guides to give teachers, students and parents/carers a greater understanding of how to produce honest, authentic and correctly referenced work.

The conference which draws together delegates from the international educational community, will place a positive emphasis on the value of true academic endeavour whilst highlighting innovative practice from individual practitioners and bodies throughout the education sector.

This conference follows the success of the 2008 conference which attracted 250 delegates from around the world representing a cross-sectoral audience from teachers and tutors, to those who support students at all stages of the academic process, along with representatives from accreditation and regulatory bodies. This year, delegate numbers are expected to exceed this, underlining the growing prominence of the conference in the sector.   

In the two years since the last conference the issue of plagiarism has taken on a global prominence and there have been advancements in technology.  This is reflected by the growing number of non UK based delegates and the broadening of the scope of the conference.

Themes which will be covered during the conference include creating a culture of honesty,ensuring the integrity of research and published work, addressing non-traditional learning styles and ensuring authenticity in non text-based disciplines and multimedia.

Key presentations will be given on a range of topics including reviews of plagiarism detection tools, research findings on text detection research and forensic linguistics, emerging practices such as using peer review tools and online tools to help with the assessment process and using new media such as digital storytelling.

Keynote speakers are confirmed and represent key figures in the global academic integrity community:

• Jude Carroll, Deputy Director of the ASKe CETL at Oxford Brookes University, UK, is presenting ‘International thinking about plagiarism’ and will draw upon ten years of international travel and consultancy to explore whether any lessons have emerged which can be said to be generic or even universal.
• Dr. Teresa Fishman, Director of the Center for Academic Integrity, US, will discuss a number of key concepts from the law, examine the ways they are and are not useful with respect to plagiarism and then propose alternative ways to incorporate legal ideals more thoughtfully and effectively.
• Isabel Nisbet, Chief Executive of Ofqual, will be describing the work commissioned by Ofqual to produce guidance on plagiarism avoidance and detection for learners, parents and teachers and their continued work in developing a culture of honesty and understanding.
• Adrian Slater, Head of Legal Services, University of Leeds, UK, will reflect upon his experience as an education lawyer in advising on plagiarism cases involving both internal and external staff and students.

For the first time in the UK, the benchmark tariff for the application of penalties for student plagiarism in Higher Education will be presented at this conference. The tariff is a reference against which institutions can compare their own procedures, and will inform the development of new, or the amendment of existing penalty schemes and is expected to create a lively debate and surrounding discussion around penalties for plagiarism across the sector.

Other key highlights at the conference include a focus on emerging technologies such as music plagiarism detection, case studies on institutional use of electronic detection technologies such as Turnitin and a review of other cutting edge technologies which are becoming part of everyday educational practice including Securexam Remote Proctor, an electronic device for exam room security.

Will Murray, Chief Executive Officer at plagiarismadvice.org, said: “This conference always stimulates a great deal of discussion and debate across the education community and highlights many topics to a very broad and varying audience on key issues surrounding plagiarism. We are delighted to have such key figures in the global academic integrity community as Jude Carroll and Dr. Teresa Fishman speaking at our conference”.

For further information on the conference and to register visit www.plagiarismconference.org

ENDS

For press/media enquiries or to organise an interview with any of the keynotes or speakers, please contact Samantha Davidson on 0191 211 1948 / 07772 283 759 or by emailing samantha@horizonworks-marketing.co.uk