The significance of anti-plagiarism in modern day authorship

Plagiarism is the act of appropriating the exact wording of another author without attribution. Plagiarism takes place in four forms – Direct, Mosaic, unintentional and self-plagiarism. The internet has drastically changed the face of plagiarism. It has made all the steps of the plagiarism process – locating material, copying it and presenting it to audience- easier as well as its detection. The factors that contribute to plagiarism include the Publish or Perish' syndrome, Personal ambition, Vanity and Financial pressure. All of these breed Intellectual dishonesty, falsification of the obtained data, fabrication of data, fragmented publication and self-publishing. In order to promote anti-plagiarism institutions should have units for monitoring research and development for their quality. Institutions should set policies and take responsibility for integrity of research reporting. This is particularly important for boosting potentials of novice researchers. This in turn ensures the quality of education most especially in developing countriesKeywords: Plagiarism, self-plagiarism, plagiarism process, research integrity, intellectual dishonest