Plagiarism and AI Content

Abstract

The word plagiarize comes from Latin word plagiarius that means a kidnaper. The word plagiary, a derivative of plagiarus was introduced in English in 1601 to describe someone guilty of literary theft.¹

The World Association of Medical Editors (WAME)² defines plagiarism as “the use of other’s published and unpublished ideas or words (or other intellectual property) without attribution or permission and presenting them as new and original rather than derived from an existing source.”

Plagiarism is considered to be a serious crime of academia. The incidence of plagiarism is common and depends on the field of research as well as the researcher. On a study done by international journal of exercise science to see plagiarism in the submitted manuscript, they found that 46% of the manuscript submitted have contained some form of plagiarism.³ Why plagiarism is high? Some of the reasons are every academician has a hidden desire to publish, writing has been made mandatory by some medical institutions. So there is a compulsion to publish, or perish. But there is lack of time, research skill and ease of obtaining articles from internet. Another reason is misbelief that taking paragraphs from different papers is accepted as the references are mentioned but this results in copy-cut-paste which is plagiarism.

Plagiarism free writing is a shared responsibility among the writer, expert and the institution. To avoid plagiarism, the author should provide references, use of quotation mark if exact word or sentence to be copied followed by credit the source, use of software, take guidance from the seniors.

Currently the intersection of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and plagiarism has become an important issue in the field of research. It raises important question about authorship, originality and ethical consideration when AI content generating tools are used. AI generated content has complicated the definition of plagiarism. Generative AI has facilitated the generation of ideas and drafting of complete text. One of the key criteria for authorship is accountability for every aspects of work (research writing). Hence generative AI cannot be considered as an author as they cannot be held responsible for the integrity and originality of work. The ethical practical challenges of AI generated contents lie in their accuracy and reliability, there is no authorship, hallucinations and errors i.e. AI can fabricate data, citations requiring verifications. The author should disclose the use of AI in their research. Currently there is no clear consensus on the standard use of AI in academic medicines. However some guidelines are proposed by international Committee of Medical Journal Editors.⁴

Plagiarism in manuscript writing is a huge problem and to eliminate it, is a challenge. It’s a common responsibility of all the stakeholders to make a plagiarism free writing. Author should be aware of plagiarism and take all the responsibility to avoid plagiarism.