Plagiarism is the process of  a menace of  deceitful copying in any form, mutation or morphing, practiced by unethical authors in the world of  academic and research achievements.

Although plagiarism is mostly associated with the written word, such as when a student or a teacher does not cite a source accurately in a term paper, it can also apply to graphic images and music. Taking credit on a  conference or journal websites, personal blog for a video on YouTube, for example, would also be considered plagiarism. There have been several celebrity cases of plagiarism involving musicians.

We are all too aware of the ravages of misconduct in the academic community. Students submit assignments inherited from their friends, online paper mills provide term papers on popular topics, and occasionally researchers are found falsifying data or publishing the work of others as their own.

Plagiarism can be both accidental and intentional. Either way, it can still be prosecuted as a crime. Avoiding plagiarism is more than simply forgetting or neglecting to cite original sources

The ways of Plagiarism

 Invariably, some  authors  resort  to plagiarism  hoping to further their academic career in a manner  which is deceitful and unacceptable to the scientific community. There are different ways the plagiarism is practiced.

The Plane plagiarism. The most common method is  to copy the content   of the original paper , add and delete information, add new sentences , change the tile and so on  and so forth. Such authors take care to see that the original author and the paper are never referred in their plagiarized paper, hoping that they would never be caught

Verbatim Plagiarism. The copying of portions of another author's paper with citing, but not clearly differentiating what text has been copied (e.g., not applying quotation marks correctly) and/or not citing the source correctly.  Verbatim copying, near-verbatim copying, or purposely paraphrasing sentences of another author's paper and/or, copying elements of another author's paper (such as non-common knowledge illustrations and equations) without citing the source and without clearly delineating (e.g., in quotation marks) the source material.

NB: Representing substantial portions of another’s work as one’s own can result in the stronger penalties in the event of citation of that  work.

The Embedded plagiarism. This kind is the most deceiving . They simply copy the essence of the original paper but take care to keep the reference to the original author all along  and also in the  references as well. As a result the plagiarized paper also would be a look alike  original paper but may appear in a different  journal or  conference or as the case may be. The role of the original author as a result is delegated in its essence from the original  author category when somebody happens to refer the plagiarized paper first  in a different journal or conference in the first place.

The self absorbed plagiarism. The third most commonly practiced plagiarism is the self  absorbed plagiarism , wherein , the  author mutes the first paper into different forms with different titles to be presented in diverse conferences and journals just to increase the number of publications to enhance ones number of publications. The self-plagiarism occurs when authors reuse portions of their previous writings in subsequent research papers. Occasionally, the derived paper is simply a re-titled and reformatted version of the original one, but more frequently it is assembled from bits and pieces of previous work.

When a single author publishes many papers on the same subject matter in the shortest possible period , it is an indication pointing towards self abasement on the intellectual plane.

The accidental plagiarism. Where ,the  sources may be cited, however,  the information can be found in the source is not properly listed or  in some cases, the papers cited as references themselves may be not original.

The investigation and the role of ACEECom on Plagiarism

The ACEECom propagates the bounden values and richness of  intellectual property rights as the basic  principle of the  Codes of Ethics. Plagiarism is a clear violation of such ethical principles. It does violate  copyright laws, as a result, the subject offers himself/herself embedded within the criminal environment to be  punishable by statutes.

The structure of Investigation.
The process of investigation
The action taken.
Confidentiality
Criminal penalties
Penalties for plagiarism
The third party claims against ACEECom.

Structure of Investigation.

Upon receipt of an allegation of plagiarism, the ACEECom initiates the investigation process as per the following structure.

Depending on the details of the claim, the investigation may include, but not be limited to, any or all of the following steps:

• Manual and/or automated tests of content similarity;
• Soliciting comments to the claim from the Editor-in-Chief (if a journal) or Program Chair (if a conference proceedings) and referees of either or both papers;
• Forming an ad hoc committee of experts in the field to review the claim;
• Consulting with ACEECom legal counsel; and/or
• Communicating with the individuals involved on both sACEECom.
• Communicating with the institutional heads of the authors

Once the investigation has been completed, the ACEECom advisory body, based on a recommendations, will determine the penalties to be imposed depending on the type of plagiarism.

The Process of  Investigation.

The ACEECom follows a process on plagiarism. Researchers can forward the suspected plagiarized papers complaint to admin @ aceecom.theides.org along with the original and plagiarized paper . As soon a complaint is registered, the process is set in motion. The ACEECom shall constitute a team  of   experts under the technical head of the conference to study and  report  on the complaints. The copies of both the papers are collected. The associated references are also collected for reference and study. Such a report involves meticulous  synthesis and analysis of  both the papers and the quoted and un quoted references.

The comparative study is made highlighting the plagiarized concepts , abstracts, paragraphs, figures, results, references, conclusions, Inferences, etc. The report is then concluded as the proof  of plagiarism practiced and shall be sent to the original author and the first author of the plagiarized paper for their remarks, corrections, suggestions, justifications, etc. and for a response within three days.

If the response is not forthcoming either by way of acknowledgement or otherwise, the complaint from the first author shall be dropped and the case shall remain  closed without citing any further reasons.

In case the plagiarized author avoids response, the report shall be sent to the co-authors if the contacts are available.

Still if the responses are not forth coming ,  the first author shall be contacted again to inform that their plagiarized paper as well as the report shall be sent to the head of the institution where the author is working , for their comments and remarks.

At this point , it is noticed that the responses arrive at lightning speed.

Action Taken

Once the plagiarism is confirmed , the report is submitted to ACEECom for record .The action is then taken to inform the digital library source of the nature of plagiarism with a request to delete the article from the proceedings in the indexed digital library.

 The authors will be asked to write a formal letter of apology to the authors of the plagiarized paper, including an admission of the plagiarism.

• If the paper has appeared in press, the digital library source  will post a Notice of Plagiarism based on the investigation on the  Digital Library's citation page of the plagiarizing paper and will remove access to the full text. The paper itself will be kept in the database in case of future legal actions.
• If the paper is under submission, the paper can be automatically rejected by the Editor-in-Chief or the Program Chair without further revisions and without any further plagiarism investigation coordinated by the ACEECom Director of Publications. In addition, a letter of warning will be sent by the Editor-in-Chief or the Program Chair to the authors with a copy of the ACEECom  Policy and Procedures on Plagiarism.
•  Since the physical deletion is an impossibility due to the proceedings having been already published in the digital form with the page numbers assigned, the plagiarized paper shall be transferred to the mode of  “ hidden status”, but with the title of the article and authors name as published , proof that the hidden article is a plagiarized paper.
•  Warning! The  title of the plagiarized paper , the authors names , conference ID , paper ID etc. shall be published and made available as a permanent record in all the  future conference websites  , as a mark of our efforts  and deterrent against unethical practices to deceive the original authors.
•  Once a decision has been reached, it will be communicated to all parties immediately by the Chief editor of journal  Publications or the technical head of conferences on behalf of ACEECom. If plagiarism has been found, all parties will be informed of the penalties and the actions that will be taken.
• Upon notification, the investigative phase will be deemed to have ended, and there will be no further communication with any party by ACEECom  unless there is an appeal to the ACEECom CEO /President.
•   All appeals must be made in writing to the  CEO /PRESIDENT of ACEECom within  no more than 30 days from the date of notification as no emails are accepted in this regard at this stage. Once a determination of plagiarism has been made, there is no guarantee that the author names and paper titles will continue to be kept confidential.

Confidentiality

All aspects of an investigation will be treated with the utmost regard for confidentiality. The names and contacts of the person(s) making the claim and their relationship to the allegation (e.g., author of plagiarized work, reviewer or editor of plagiarizing work) will be kept confidential and used only for the purpose and duration of the investigation. However, in order to ensure timely and effective resolution, the information shall be shared as per the frame work or structure of investigation. As part of the investigation, it may be necessary for ACEECom to contact current and/or past employers of the authors. Additionally, some institutions have specific requirements for their employees to disclose any pending legal/ethical matters.

The ACEECom, at its discretion, may decide to publish in the all the forthcoming ACEECom conference  web sites, the title of the plagiarized paper, the title of the original author, the authors name, the conference name, journal name, or as is what is required, as a mark of  un ethical practices as well to act as a  deterrent to unethical practices. However, during the investigation or later , under no circumstances will the ACEECom disclose any of individual author's personal information or registration details or address details unless the same author is repeatedly  found to  be practicing plagiarism.

Criminal Penalties

• Plagiarism can also be a criminal offence on both the state and federal level , according to Plagiarism.com. If a person has significantly profited from another's material, or more off the stolen work, that  the original author has every right to  treat the plagiarized author as per the laws of the country to the level of claiming compensation and also  will most likely be tried as a criminal.
•  Criminal punishments can include fines up to $250,000 and/or up to ten years in jail in some countries..

Penalties for Plagiarism

When plagiarism has been found to have occurred, the ACEECom  will take the actions listed below as determined by the type of plagiarism. Unless determined otherwise during the investigation, all authors are deemed to be individually and collectively responsible for the content of a plagiarizing paper.

• The ACEECom may  inform the Department Chair, Dean, or supervisor of the authors of the finding of plagiarism.
• The authors will be asked to write a formal letter of apology to the authors of the plagiarized paper, including an admission of plagiarism.
• If the paper has appeared in press, the ACEECom  will send a request to the digital library publishers  to post a notice of Plagiarism based on the investigation on the  citation page of the plagiarizing paper and will remove access to the full text. The paper itself will be kept in the database for future research or legal purposes.
• If the paper is under submission, the paper can be automatically rejected by the Editor-in-Chief or the Program Chair without further revisions and without any further plagiarism investigation coordinated by the ACEECom . In addition, a letter of warning will be sent by the Editor-in-Chief or the Program Chair to the authors with a copy of the ACEECom  Policy and Procedures on Plagiarism.
• BesACEECom ACEECom , the authors practicing plagiarism are hereby warned that every international bodies such as ACM ,IEEE, Springer , IET etc . has their own  policies on plagiarism to be followed .
• The ACEECom may maintain the data base of  information on plagiarized papers & authors in all of their  conference websites as a mark of visibility and deterent.

Should a claim arise against ACEECom (i.e., that a paper published by ACEECom through any of its associations  has a plagiarized con tent ,the ACEECom , through its proper body shall  fully cooperate with the third party during the investigative phase and will inform the ACEECom Publications Board or the digital library publication boards of  any conference publishing agencies of the conclusions and of the actions taken.

Conclusion

Should the authors refuse to comply with the above (e.g., if they refuse to write a formal letter of apology) or if it is determined during the plagiarism investigation that there have been multiple violations of any of the above forms of plagiarism by the same authors, the ACEECom  retains the right to impose further sanctions such as automatic rejection of all current and future submissions for some extended period of time, invoking penalties prescribed by the ACEECom Codes of Ethics, and possibly statutory/injunctive relief. For information -the U.S. Copyright law allows a copyright owner to seek a maximum of $150,000 in damages upon a determination of willful infringement of copyright

REFERENCES

[1] “ACEECom Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct”

[2]. Softtware Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice”
http://www.acm.org/serving/se/code.htm

[3] See Collberg and Kobourov, http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=1053291.1053293.

[4] Manuscripts submitted to ACM Journals and Transactions based on the author’s own previously copyrighted work (e.g., appearing in a conference proceedings) must be disclosed at the time of submission and an explicit reference to the prior publication must be included in the submitted manuscript. The norm for ACM Journals and Transactions is that the submitted manuscript must contain at least 25% new content material (i.e., material that offers new insights, new results, etc.). For more details see http://www.acm.org/pubs/sim_submissions.html .

[5] Legal consequences of Plagiarism
http://www.ehow.com/about_6385612_legal-consequences-plagiarism.html

[6] ACM Policy and Procedures on Plagiarism
http://www.acm.org/publications/policies/plagiarism_policy