The Executive Secretary of the National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO), Dr. Barclays Foubiri Ayakoroma, has stated that cultural workers must be able to distinguish between original ideas, summaries of others’ materials and exact quotations lifted from sources, to avoid plagiarism in research documentation.
Ayakoroma sounded the note of warning in a paper he delivered at the Institute’s 3-Day Workshop on “Repositioning Cultural Workers for Improved Productivity” packaged for staffers of the Federal Ministry of Culture, Tourism and National Orientation, on Wednesday, July 17, 2013, at the Global Village Suites, Koroduma, Nasarawa State.
Identifying plagiarism as one of the issues frequently encountered in research documentation, Ayakoroma, who defined plagiarism, as, “the lifting of a person’s idea or work and presenting it as your original idea,” stressed that the consequence of assuming false authorship of another person’s idea was failure, repeat and expulsion for students, while workers risk losing their jobs, as well as exposure to public embarrassment and loss of prestige.
Further highlighting other consequences of plagiarism, the NICO Boss said apart from being a shameful act, pitiful and scornful, victims rarely recover the trust of people.
He pointed out that the common ways through which people fall victims to plagiarism is by obtaining and submitting someone else’s work as theirs, failing to give appropriate acknowledgements when using another person’s idea, failing to acknowledge original source when paraphrasing another person’s work, reusing a research paper in a course for another course, lifting from a collaborative work and infringing on copyright, which is a scholar’s right over his or her intellectual property.
On how to avoid plagiarism, Ayakoroma said the researcher must be able to list the writers and viewpoints discovered, use the list to double-check the materials presented in the work, identify sources of all materials borrowed and consulting the supervisor or director whenever in doubt.
The paper titled “Cultural Research Methodology” was able to expose participants to what research is all about, the need for research, common problems beginners face in research, as well as sources of cultural research.
Caleb Nor
Corporate Affairs