McCarthy, Grace Professor

Making a link between a casual student comment and recalling previous assessment discrepancies was a fortunate occurrence, however it was apparent that many other educators and colleagues could be unaware of the existence of free online paraphrasing tools and their implications in supporting contract cheating practices.  The International Journal for Educational Integrity (IJEI) provided an opportunity to publish more about the issue.  Consequently, experiments were conducted in evaluating how the tools performed, and whether or not electronic educational tools such as Turnitin could detect their use.  The experiment written up in the IJEI article was easy for anyone to perform and discover for themselves the problems generated by Internet based paraphrasing tools.<br /><br />Feedback from the peer reviewers prior to publication thanked us for bringing the issue to their attention, so the publisher of the IEJI Springer Open prepared a press release about the article which led to Ann being interviewed for the second time by <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/online-paraphrasing-tools-facilitating-plagiarism" title="Times Higher Education interview with Dr Ann Rogerson" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Times Higher Education.</a> Springer also asked Ann (as lead author) to prepare a <a href="http://blogs.springeropen.com/springeropen/2017/01/26/free-internet-based-paraphrasing-tools-threats-academic-integrity/." title="Dr Ann Rogerson guest blog post" target="_blank" rel="noopener">guest blog post</a> for their Springer Open Blog that promotes the "best research and best practices in open access".  These two publications were also tweeted, leading to further media interest about the issue.<br /><br />Further publications and interviews about the article include Inside Higher Education (<a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/03/03/some-academics-worry-new-tools-enable-plagiarism-bypass-detection" title="Ann Rogerson with John Elmes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tools That May Discourage Quality Writing</a> & <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/04/28/study-finds-paraphrased-language-fools-plagiarism-detection-software" title="Ann Rogerson interview with Carl Staumsheim" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Some Else's Words</a>).  A number of blogs picked up the article including Retraction Watch (a group focused on promotion integrity in publishing).  Their blog "<a href="http://retractionwatch.com/2017/04/26/troubling-new-way-evade-plagiarism-detection-software-tell-used/" title="Retraction watch article" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A troubling new way to evade plagiarism detection software. (And how to tell if it's been used</a>), included an interview with Ann, supported by opinions from other highly regarded authors in the academic integrity area.  This led to approaches from individuals and agencies about how to detect the practice in professional publications including academic articles, one of which was NASA.<br /><br />There was also local media interest resulting in Ann and Grace managing interview requests including ABC Radio Illawarra, and the <a href="http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/4532635/uow-research-targets-the-creep-of-robo-writing/" title="Mercury Article" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Illawarra Mercury</a> furthering public interest in contract cheating issues and what universities are trying to do to promote good academic integrity practices.  Details about the study were included in a webinar that Ann conducted for Turnitin in March 2016, which attracted an audience of over 1600 participants from 30 countries.  It was and remains the largest webinar audience in Turnitin history (worldwide).<br /><br />Through open access publishing these findings are available to everyone (academics, researchers, educators and public). To date the article has been accessed almost <a href="https://edintegrity.springeropen.com/articles/10.1007/s40979-016-0013-y" title="Link to paper and access scores" target="_blank" rel="noopener">8,000 times</a> since its publication in January 2017, having a <a href="https://springeropen.altmetric.com/details/15835194" title="Link to Altmetrics for the paper" target="_blank" rel="noopener">High Attention Altmetric</a>  score indicating the paper is in the top 2% of papers compared to outputs of the same age measured by Altmetric.  The paper is the most accessed <a href="https://edintegrity.springeropen.com/" title="IJEI home page" target="_blank" rel="noopener">International Journal of Educational Integrity article</a> (IJEI) article ever (by almost 3,000 accesses to date), and due to the level of interest is still to be found on the journals home page as a featured article, some 10 months after publication.<br /><br />Social media interest tracked by <a href="https://springeropen.altmetric.com/details/15835194" title="Altmetric link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Altmetric</a> indicates that the paper is of interest in the USA, UK, Sweden, Russian Federation, Canada, Japan, Philippines and New Zealand as well as Australia.  Members of the public constitute over half of the social media activity, with others including science communicators, scientists, and practitioners.  The paper has been tweeted and retweeted by 70 outlets including the International Center for Academic Integrity, based in the USA, while also appears in a number of blogs, Facebook, and Google+ feeds.   <br /><br />As a consequence of this publication, and in recognition of Ann's research and dissemination of student cheating behaviours and how to detect them, she was invited onto the international scientific panel for the<a href="Plagiarism%20across Europe and Beyond 2018" title="Conference Europe" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Plagiarism across Europe and Beyond 2018 conference,</a> one of only two Australians accorded the honour.  Her work in this area is also featured in the  Australian Government Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) October 2017 publication of <a href="http://www.teqsa.gov.au/news-publications/good-practice-note-addressing-contract-cheating-safeguard-academic-integrity" title="TEQSA Good Practice Guide" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Good Practice Note: Addressing contract cheating to address academic integrity</a>.  This latest feature has already led to enquiries by other Australian higher education providers seeking guidance from Ann about educating their staff about academic integrity practices and effective assessment design to address contract cheating. Some of her other findings about the process and management of contract cheating will soon be published in an <a href="https://edintegrity.springeropen.com/" title="IJEI Featured collection promo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">IJEI featured collection on contract cheating issues </a>and at the forthcoming <a href="https://8apcei-conference.sydney.edu.au/" title="8APCEI" target="_blank" rel="noopener">8th Asia Pacific Conference on Educational Integrity</a>, to be held at the University of Sydney in November, 2017.

Making a link between a casual student comment and recalling previous assessment discrepancies was a fortunate occurrence, however it was apparent that many other educators and colleagues could be unaware of the existence of free online paraphrasing tools and their implications in supporting contract cheating practices.  The International Journal for Educational Integrity (IJEI) provided an opportunity to publish more about the issue.  Consequently, experiments were conducted in evaluating how the tools performed, and whether or not electronic educational tools such as Turnitin could detect their use.  The experiment written up in the IJEI article was easy for anyone to perform and discover for themselves the problems generated by Internet based paraphrasing tools.<br /><br />Feedback from the peer reviewers prior to publication thanked us for bringing the issue to their attention, so the publisher of the IEJI Springer Open prepared a press release about the article which led to Ann being interviewed for the second time by <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/online-paraphrasing-tools-facilitating-plagiarism" title="Times Higher Education interview with Dr Ann Rogerson" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Times Higher Education.</a> Springer also asked Ann (as lead author) to prepare a <a href="http://blogs.springeropen.com/springeropen/2017/01/26/free-internet-based-paraphrasing-tools-threats-academic-integrity/." title="Dr Ann Rogerson guest blog post" target="_blank" rel="noopener">guest blog post</a> for their Springer Open Blog that promotes the "best research and best practices in open access".  These two publications were also tweeted, leading to further media interest about the issue.<br /><br />Further publications and interviews about the article include Inside Higher Education (<a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/03/03/some-academics-worry-new-tools-enable-plagiarism-bypass-detection" title="Ann Rogerson with John Elmes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tools That May Discourage Quality Writing</a> & <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/04/28/study-finds-paraphrased-language-fools-plagiarism-detection-software" title="Ann Rogerson interview with Carl Staumsheim" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Some Else's Words</a>).  A number of blogs picked up the article including Retraction Watch (a group focused on promotion integrity in publishing).  Their blog "<a href="http://retractionwatch.com/2017/04/26/troubling-new-way-evade-plagiarism-detection-software-tell-used/" title="Retraction watch article" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A troubling new way to evade plagiarism detection software. (And how to tell if it's been used</a>), included an interview with Ann, supported by opinions from other highly regarded authors in the academic integrity area.  This led to approaches from individuals and agencies about how to detect the practice in professional publications including academic articles, one of which was NASA.<br /><br />There was also local media interest resulting in Ann and Grace managing interview requests including ABC Radio Illawarra, and the <a href="http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/4532635/uow-research-targets-the-creep-of-robo-writing/" title="Mercury Article" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Illawarra Mercury</a> furthering public interest in contract cheating issues and what universities are trying to do to promote good academic integrity practices.  Details about the study were included in a webinar that Ann conducted for Turnitin in March 2016, which attracted an audience of over 1600 participants from 30 countries.  It was and remains the largest webinar audience in Turnitin history (worldwide).<br /><br />Through open access publishing these findings are available to everyone (academics, researchers, educators and public). To date the article has been accessed almost <a href="https://edintegrity.springeropen.com/articles/10.1007/s40979-016-0013-y" title="Link to paper and access scores" target="_blank" rel="noopener">8,000 times</a> since its publication in January 2017, having a <a href="https://springeropen.altmetric.com/details/15835194" title="Link to Altmetrics for the paper" target="_blank" rel="noopener">High Attention Altmetric</a>  score indicating the paper is in the top 2% of papers compared to outputs of the same age measured by Altmetric.  The paper is the most accessed <a href="https://edintegrity.springeropen.com/" title="IJEI home page" target="_blank" rel="noopener">International Journal of Educational Integrity article</a> (IJEI) article ever (by almost 3,000 accesses to date), and due to the level of interest is still to be found on the journals home page as a featured article, some 10 months after publication.<br /><br />Social media interest tracked by <a href="https://springeropen.altmetric.com/details/15835194" title="Altmetric link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Altmetric</a> indicates that the paper is of interest in the USA, UK, Sweden, Russian Federation, Canada, Japan, Philippines and New Zealand as well as Australia.  Members of the public constitute over half of the social media activity, with others including science communicators, scientists, and practitioners.  The paper has been tweeted and retweeted by 70 outlets including the International Center for Academic Integrity, based in the USA, while also appears in a number of blogs, Facebook, and Google+ feeds.   <br /><br />As a consequence of this publication, and in recognition of Ann's research and dissemination of student cheating behaviours and how to detect them, she was invited onto the international scientific panel for the<a href="Plagiarism%20across Europe and Beyond 2018" title="Conference Europe" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Plagiarism across Europe and Beyond 2018 conference,</a> one of only two Australians accorded the honour.  Her work in this area is also featured in the  Australian Government Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) October 2017 publication of <a href="http://www.teqsa.gov.au/news-publications/good-practice-note-addressing-contract-cheating-safeguard-academic-integrity" title="TEQSA Good Practice Guide" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Good Practice Note: Addressing contract cheating to address academic integrity</a>.  This latest feature has already led to enquiries by other Australian higher education providers seeking guidance from Ann about educating their staff about academic integrity practices and effective assessment design to address contract cheating. Some of her other findings about the process and management of contract cheating will soon be published in an <a href="https://edintegrity.springeropen.com/" title="IJEI Featured collection promo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">IJEI featured collection on contract cheating issues </a>and at the forthcoming <a href="https://8apcei-conference.sydney.edu.au/" title="8APCEI" target="_blank" rel="noopener">8th Asia Pacific Conference on Educational Integrity</a>, to be held at the University of Sydney in November, 2017.