Device allows students to conquer plagiarism software
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For a price, Beijing's college students are able to bypass China's most sophisticated anti-plagiarism software and can modify their dissertations to make their deception un-detectable by university computers by the time the upcoming spring deadlines arrive.
At the peak of business during the winter, the most popular online shop offering this service saw a monthly customer base of 1,500. The service is offered by online companies that have access to official academic databases. Students can also receive suggestions on how to modify the plagiarized content so that it is not detectable.
Most of Beijing's universities verify the originality of dissertations by running texts through a vast database of published academic papers, which then highlights plagiarized content.
Once the percentage exceeds a certain point, the student is disqualified from receiving a degree.
A search for "paper testing" on the Taobao website, a popular online marketplace, brings up more than 1,000 results of stores who offer the service.
For the price of 150 yuan ($23), students can test their paper against the academic misconduct dissertation detection system developed by the China National Knowledge Infrastructure, the most sophisticated and adopted anti-plagiarism device in the country.
When asked how the online shops have access to the service, one member of the sales staff with the username "Huihui" at "College Student Post Stop," the most popular vender, told the Global Times online: "We know good people who work in the university."
"I have no time to write an original paper. I need to focus on job hunting as soon as possible, before graduating in June," one of the customers told the Global Times Tuesday via online chat.
Xia Xueluan, a sociology professor at Peking University told the Global Times that professors on the thesis defense committee have access to such databases.
"Running the text though a computer is not enough to stop plagiarism," said Xia, "students need education in academic integrity."
