Bilingual Plagiarism in the Academic World

Abstract

This chapter is an essay about a new ethical problem that has become apparent to us in recent years. Bilingual plagiarism is the act of passing off the work of others (in particular, the writing of others) as one’s own and disguising the plagiarism by intentionally translating the work into another language without giving due attribution to the original author. In an increasingly connected and multilingual world where access to vast amounts of text is relatively easy, bilingual plagiarism may well be an increasing phenomenon. It is undoubtedly difficult to detect. In the chapter we analyze the drivers facilitating, and mitigating against, this new (?) phenomenon. We offer an old-fashioned solution, that of reinforcing the values on which the modern university is founded.