Comments on: When Young Doctors Lie

By: Hillary

Hillary — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 21:35:53 +0000

Most schools are using Turnitin or one of the other options. My MBA program at the University of Minnesota used it (the faculty were required to use it).

My cousin TAs at a large state school where she’s pursuing her PhD. She had one come back 100% plagarized – the student had handed it in to another professor the previous semester.

By: Emily

Emily — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 06:53:19 +0000

I would strongly dispute the first two points. While I can’t speak for students that come out of foreign institutions (not because I think they’re any worse about this – I just have no idea!), as a “digital youth” who came out of the American higher education system I can say for certain plagiarism is looked on as a big deal. People that do plagiarize don’t do this because they’re unaware of what they’re doing through digital reverberation or ethical ignorance but because, quite simply, they think that they can get away with it.

With simple websites like http://www.turnitin.com/ to check for plagiarism (which, frankly, everyone from my high school teachers to my college professors used), it’s really a shame that there is only one study from one residency program that is looking at plagiarism. However, I hope that this study will encourage Brigham & Women’s and other residency programs to incorporate a quick http://www.turnitin.com/ check into their regular application screening procedures.

By: Dennis (Investigator/Negotiator at MedicalBillDog

Dennis (Investigator/Negotiator at MedicalBillDog — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 03:45:10 +0000

Only 5%? I have to wonder how thorough the sampling of published paper texts was. My guess is the numbers are much higher. Did they sample against books on personal statements for law school applications, for example? I hate to sound so cynical, but I used to find at least a five percent rate of plagiarized submissions just among freshman and sophomore English assignments at UT, even after I warned them I would be checking papers against Internet sources. Considering how much more important a residency application is and how much smarter the med students consider themselves than the average college student, I’d expect closer to a twenty percent rate of plagiarism, both in repurposing of working formats/outlines and in out and out theft of brilliant figures of speech.

I’m not sure how you’d find out, but I wonder how many of those applications were even written by the applicants themselves.

By: DrV

DrV — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 03:12:59 +0000

Thanks, Audun. Cool on U Phoenix. I think the technology will just get better at identifying this kind of nonsense. The technology, I dare say, will set us free.

By: Audun Utengen

Audun Utengen — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 01:36:11 +0000

We’re always going to play catchup countering unethical behavior.
However, we are seeing more and more universities implementing “high-tech” tools in their processes for discovering plagiarized content.

For example how University of Phoenix is using http://turnitin.com for their classes.

Perhaps (or hopefully) we will see these kinds of tools used more broadly in different industries including hiring processes.