Experiments to Prove the Effect of Plagiarism-Detection Software

Alston Johnson
S. West
English 101
31 October 2013
[Research Paper Title] In Robert j. Youmans, “does the adoption of plagiarism-detection software in higher education reduce plagiarism?” Youmans conducts two experiments trying to prove his apotheosis that students aware of plagiarism-detection software will be less inclined to plagiarize compared to students unaware of the software. In his first study he chose to use nienty university students from California state university majoring in their junior year of psychology. Half of the students were warned that their papers would be checked by plagiarism-detection software and the other half was not made aware that it was going to be used. As it turns out the students that were warned actually plagiarized more than the students unaware of the software’s use. The students that plagiarized assumed that their papers would be solely tested by the software and not examined by a professor therefore eliminating the human interaction and sense of academic dishonesty. These students extrapolated that rewording their sentences and mixing the order of the information would evade the diction software. But the software requires human interaction to confirm the overlapping information from previous summited papers; because it takes human judgment rather it is academically acceptable. In Youmans second study, although it was very similar to his first study there were three key differences between the two. First all the participants were warned instead of only half, secondly the software would also be used on the practice paper, and thirdly all participants were asked to wright down everything they knew about the plagiarism-detection software.