The plague of plagiarism in an online world

The paper aims to focus on a long standing, but increasingly problematic, occurrence in academic writing and publishing – plagiarism.

This is an opinion piece based on the current situation in academic publishing, particularly in the online environment.

Plagiarism has been common among generations of students in secondary and tertiary education and the situation has not improved. Many tertiary institutions almost never make a forceful response to cases of plagiarism for fear of litigation. “Litigation‐creep” has spread, with universities regularly adopting avoidance measures rather than tackling the issue head‐on.

The paper offers the view that it is now an opportune time for all involved in research and writing, editing and publishing to look seriously at the issue of plagiarism, and to create clearly and fully articulated protocols regarding the nature, context and penalty for plagiarism.