Reference: A test of intellectual integrity, Bangkok Post, June 7, 2009

The expression of alarm over the revelation that a high profile individual's graduate thesis may have been plagiarised (A test of intellectual integrity, Bangkok Post, June 7, 2009) is mis-directed because it targets a particular individual and a specific case instead of recognising the reality that, at least in papers submitted in English, cut and paste plagiarism by Thai university students is the rule not the exception. The few original sentences, if any, stand out because they are so different from the cut and paste text. Our attention should instead be directed at why such papers get accepted now that we have so many online scanners and tools that easily detect plagiarism and even identify the source documents.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand