New measures for fighting scourge of academic fraud

Algeria has approved new measures for combating academic fraud at universities and other higher education institutions in an effort to protect academic integrity.

Hana Saada, a doctoral student at the University of Algiers Benyoucef Benkhedda, told University World News: “These new measures are highly appreciated, intervening at the right moment, given the increasing cases of academic misconduct.”

Algeria has the fourth-highest rate of research retractions of the 10 Arab North African countries, after Libya, Egypt and Tunisia, with 0.0350% of papers published by researchers between 1996 and 2018 ending up being retracted, according to a recent press report based on figures derived from Retraction Watch, an independent website that tracks academic papers that have been officially declared false.

A 2018 study entitled Strategies for Avoiding Cheating and Preserving Academic Integrity in Tests revealed that 70.7% of second-year students at 8 Mai 1945 Guelma University in Algeria admitted that they have cheated in tests as a result of competition for grades, parental expectations and ineffective invigilation by the teacher.

The new measures were outlined in a new law approved by the Algerian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research at the end of 2020.

The law

The law consists of 33 articles in five chapters and sets out the legal procedures for preventing scientific and academic theft.

This is defined as “all work performed by students, professors, or whoever participates in constant falsification of results or fraud in claimed scientific works or in any other scientific or pedagogical publication”.

The new law calls upon institutions of higher education and scientific research to organise training courses on scientific documentation along with courses on the ethics of scientific research and documentation in all stages of higher education.

It also indicates that choosing the topics for graduation research work, masters or doctoral theses as well as supervisors must be based on an online database of the theses titles and topics that were previously covered, in order to avoid scientific plagiarism.

The department called upon universities to purchase software that detects scientific plagiarism in Arabic and foreign languages, or to use free software available on the internet, and for the creation of an Algerian computer programme that would detect scientific theft.

The law indicates that any student or university staff members who committed scientific theft will be punished by stopping the discussion of the theses and withdrawing the concerned publication or the awarded academic title or degree.

Additional measures

Mounya Abdaoui, associate professor at the University of 8 Mai 1945, told University World News: “Deterring academic dishonesty is a complicated issue in higher education. The new law could preserve academic honesty if it is applied effectively.”

“Additional measures should be adopted, such as severe punishment through exclusion from the module, and plagiarism pledges which may be highly useful and influential in fighting plagiarism and cheating as well as maintaining honesty,” Abdaoui added.

“Neither pledges nor exclusion from the module are applied now. Also, disciplinary councils are used solely in cheating, not plagiarism,” she noted.

Abdaoui is the author of a 2018 study entitled “Deterring plagiarism in higher education: A model of integrity and autonomy in academic research”, which indicated that the major causes of plagiarism are reliance on the use of the internet and digital sources, laziness, low academic self-esteem, and limited knowledge of citation and paraphrasing.

Saada said penalties should vary depending on the gravity of the act, and should include facing disciplinary action, grade penalties and suspension or expulsion from the university.

“In addition, all workers who are found to hold fake credentials should be laid off to serve as a deterrence to others,” Saada said.

Beyond Algeria

John Elvis Hagan Jr, a senior lecturer at the college of education studies at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, told University World News that African universities are confronted with the challenge of not only having to teach citation methods and procedures associated with paraphrasing and incorporation of quotations appropriately, but also to discourage plagiarism by punishing offenders.

He said this punishment could include withdrawal of test results or certificates to stripping offenders of their status, as well as refunding of public funds accrued from using unauthorised academic materials.

“African universities should not only invest in educational technologies, including plagiarism software and other cyber security tools as indicated in the Algerian law, but should also promote academic writing creativity to fight or minimise the academic fraud phenomenon,” Hagan said.