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International Journal of Humanity Studies 

 http://e-journal.usd.ac.id/index.php/IJHS 

Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia 
 

29 
 

 

RESPECT: A SIMPLE METHOD TO AVOID PLAGIARISM  

IN EFL CONTEXT 
 

Behnam Aghayani 

Independent Researcher, Islamic Republic of Iran 

correspondence: behnam.aghayani@gmail.com 

DOI: 10.24071/ijhs.v5i1.3670 

received 9 September 2021; accepted 23 September 2021 

 

Abstract  

Academic Plagiarism, consciously or unconsciously, is on the rise and it hurts the 

scientific community. So, regarding the absurd nature of this academic 

misconduct, the present study aimed to introduce and develop a new and simple 

method, called RESPECT, to avoid plagiarism in EFL context. To this end, first, 

the reasons behind plagiarism and factors that influenced on plagiarism have been 

discussed. Second, all types of plagiarism have been identified and then, some 

important studies on plagiarism in EFL context have been reviewed. Finally, the 

components of RESPECT have been defined. Based on the key role of RESPECT, 

it would eliminate plagiarism not only in the EFL context but also in all areas of 

science. Moreover, it is hoped that we will no longer see the occurrence of such 

academic misconduct by following the strategies to avoid plagiarism in academic 

writings. In addition, some recommendations to avoid plagiarism have been 

provided at the end.  

 

Keywords: plagiarism, academic misconduct, EFL context, EFL learners  

 

Introduction 

Academic integrity and ethics are two key terms in the academic context that 

any researcher attempts to consider this principle in his/her writing. However, 

some researchers, consciously or unconsciously, forget to consider this principle, 

which leads to plagiarism. Plagiarism, according to Das and Panjabi (2011), “is 

the wrongful presentation of somebody else’s work or idea as one’s own without 

adequately attributing it to the source” (p. 67). Debnath (2016) considered 

plagiarism as “a silent epidemic in scientific writing” (p. 164), in addition, 

Bouville (2008) believed that it is “a crime against academy” (p. 1) and “what 

makes plagiarism reprehensible is that it involves an unfair acquisition of 

scientific credit” (Helgesson & Eriksson, 2015, p. 100). In general, plagiarism is a 

poison in the research community that leads to writing invalid and worthless 

articles. Due to the absurd nature of this academic misconduct, it not only 

damages the author’s reputation but also discredits his/her university.  

There are many reasons behind plagiarism; for example, Mohammed et al. 

(2015) found that insufficient knowledge regarding the subject is main reason for 

plagiarism. Furthermore, according to Jereb et al. (2018), main reason for 



 

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committing plagiarism is simple access to the Internet. A number of studies 

reported factors that influence plagiarism which include academic achievement 

differences, gender differences, and age differences (Newstead et al., 1996), 

individual factors, contextual factors, and institutional factors (McCabe et al., 

2001), lack of compatible styles between different disciplines, lack of students’ 

investment in their education, lack of knowledge, and situational ethics (Auer & 

Krupar, 2001), lack of deterrence, lack of understanding, temptation and 

opportunity, and efficiency gain (Park, 2003), lack of strong belief in plagiarism 

detection (Martin, 2005), situational factors, and individual factors (Giluk & 

Postlethwaite, 2015), and gender differences (Jereb et al., 2018). However, 

Mohammad Hosseinpur et al. (2018) in their study among Iranian academic 

community found following reasons driving plagiarism:  

1.  Lack of sufficient guidance from the earliest levels of education 
2. Incidence of cheating and laziness among students 
3. The demand to write articles by supervisors and students to obtain greater 

degree 

4. Grades and position the simplicity of university admission in MA and PhD 
level 

 

Types of Plagiarism  

The various types of plagiarism have been identified that are presented in 

Table 1. 
 

Table 1. Types of Plagiarism 

Types of Plagiarism Definition 

Sham Paraphrasing Walker (1998) defined it as “material copied verbatim 

from text and source acknowledged in-line but 

represented as paraphrased” (p. 103). 

Patchwriting (also known 

as mosaic plagiarism) 

According to Howard (1999), patchwriting is “copying 

from a source text and then deleting some words, altering 

grammatical structures, or plugging in one-for-one 

synonym for another” (p. xvii). 
 

Illicit Paraphrasing It “occurs when material is paraphrased but writers do not 

include an in-text citation to acknowledge that the 

information was borrowed from another work” 

(Strittmatter & Bratton, 2016, p. 6). 

Other Plagiarism It occurs when “material copied from another student’s 

assignment with the knowledge of the other student” 

(Walker, 1998, p. 103). 
 

Verbatim Copying (also 

known as copy & paste 

plagiarism) 

It defined as “material copied verbatim from text without 

in-line acknowledgement of the source” (Walker, 1998, p. 

103). 
 

Recycling According to Walker (1998) it refers to “same assignment 

submitted more than once for different courses” (p. 103). 
 

Ghost Writing According to Knapp and Hulbert (2017), “it describes the 

writing of material by one person (the writer) for use by 

another (the client) who will be credited with its 

authorship” (p. vi). 

Purloining It refers to “assignments that are the work of other 



 

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students with or without their knowledge” (Leung & 

Cheng, 2017, p. 1646). 

Secondary Source 

Plagiarism 

According to Sharma and Verma (2020), it “occurs when 

a researcher uses a secondary source but purposefully 

cites only the primary once within the secondary” (p. 2). 

Paraphrasing Plagiarism It occurs when “a source is paraphrased but not 

acknowledged in the text” (Buckley, 2015, p. 354). 

Plagiarism of the Form of 

a Source 

It refers to “cases in which the plagiariser does look up 

the primary sources but does not acknowledge a 

systematic dependence on the citations in the secondary 

source” (McNamee et al., 2006, p. 118). 

Plagiarism of Ideas According to Mohammed et al. (2015), it refers to “theft 

of a new idea or a theory presented anywhere. The 

plagiarist then conducts research based on this idea/theory 

and presents it as if it is his/her own without 

acknowledgment of the source” (p. 8). 
 

Plagiarism of Text (also 

known as direct 

plagiarism, word‑for‑word 
plagiarism, and copy-cut-

paste plagiarism) 

It “occurs when a researcher takes an entire paragraph 

from another source and includes it in his own research 

writing” (Mohammed et al., 2015, p. 8). 

 

Self-Plagiarism 

(Duplication) 

 

It “referred to as a reuse of previously published works 

without providing adequate references” (Lin, 2020, p. 

302). 

Collusion It refers to “asking someone else to write a piece of work 

for the plagiarist who then presents it as if it’s his own” 

(Mohammed et al., 2015, p. 8). 
 

Translational Plagiarism 

(also known as cross-

language plagiarism) 

It refers to translation “novel data or ideas from one 

language to another, representing it as unique and one’s 

own creation without crediting the original work” (Gray 

et al., 2019, p. 57). 
 

Repetitive Research 

Plagiarism 

It includes “repeating or reusing of data or the entire text 

from a study with similar methodology and results 

without properly attributing or citing it” (Sharma & 

Verma, 2020, p. 2). 
 

Complete Plagiarism 

(Stealing) 

According to Laxmi (2018), it occurs “when a researcher 

takes a study, a manuscript or other work from another 

researcher and simply resubmits it under his/her own 

name” (p. 737). 
 

Style Plagiarism It refers to “copying an author’s reasoning style or 

concept even when the texts are fully paraphrased” (Eisa 

et al., 2015, p. 384). 

Metaphor Plagiarism It refers to “copying someone else’s metaphors in 

describing a particular subject” (Eisa et al., 2015, p. 384). 

Potluck Paper It occurs when “the writer tries to disguise plagiarism by 

copying from several different sources, tweaking the 

sentences retaining most of the original phrasing” 

(Mahmood & Mahmood, 2014, p. 221). 

Labor of Laziness According to Mahmood and Mahmood (2014), it occurs 



 

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when “the writer takes the time to paraphrase most of the 

paper from other sources and make it all fit together effort 

on original work” (p. 222). 

Poor Disguise It occurs when “the writer has retained the essential 

content of the source, he or she has altered the paper’s 

words of phrases” (Mahmood & Mahmood, 2014, p. 

221). 

Word Switch Plagiarism It occurs when “someone copies another’s published work 

with some words changed to avoid suspicion” (Sutar, 

2017, p. 2). 

Authorship Plagiarism It refers to “putting one’s name to someone else’s work” 

(Sutar, 2017, p. 2). 

Photocopy It occurs when “the writer copies significant portions of 

text straight from a single source, without alteration” 

(Mahmood & Mahmood, 2014, p. 221). 

Data Fabrication It occurs when the writer “making up of data, results 

extrapolation and recording or reproducing them” (Arya, 

2013, p. 28). 

 

Studies on Plagiarism in EFL Context  

In last decade, Mu study’s (2010) draws more attention on plagiarism in the 

field of English language as foreign language (EFL). He found that EFL students 

have poor knowledge about plagiarism in academic writing. Rezanejad and Rezaei 

(2013) in their study among 122 EFL learners in Iran explored on EFL learners’ 

perception of plagiarism. They came to conclusion that ‘easiness of plagiarism’ is 

the most important reason for plagiarism. Moreover, Ahmadi (2014) examined 

plagiarism among 132 EFL learners (both male and female) in Iran. The results 

from his study showed that EFL learners used different types of plagiarism in 

their academic writing. He also found that gender has no significant effect on 

plagiarism. The findings from Amiri and Razmjoo’s study (2016) among 12 EFL 

students revealed that teachers’ ignorance of plagiarism, inadequate writing and 

research abilities, peer pressure, the need to deliver high-quality papers, and the 

easiness of plagiarizing are the important factors that lead to plagiarism. 

Furthermore, Babaii and Nejadghanbar (2016) investigated the reasons for 

plagiarism among 156 Iranian graduate students of applied linguistics. The results 

showed that students’ unfamiliarity with the concept of plagiarism is primary 

reason for carrying out plagiarism.  

In another study, Al Darwish and Sadeqi (2016) examined the reasons for 

plagiarism in EFL writing course among 121 female students. They came to 

conclusion that the EFL students done plagiarism to pass the course with good 

grade. Besides, Zarfsaz and Ahmadi (2017) explored on the reasons of plagiarism 

among 150 EFL learners. Based on their findings, EFL learners’ inadequate 

knowledge to avoid plagiarism in their writing is the major reason of plagiarism. 

Fazilatfar et al. (2018) found that citation instruction has significant effect on EFL 

learners to avoid plagiarism in their writing assignments. Moreover, Mustafa 

(2019) in his study on 34 EFL students in Indonesia found that 94 percent of the 

participants knew what is plagiarism but 66.67 percent of them didn’t know that 

paraphrasing without citation is a kind of plagiarism. In addition, “88.89 percent 



 

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of the students considered that patchwriting is not plagiarism” (Mustafa, 2019, p. 

74).   

 

A Simple Method to Avoid Plagiarism 

       The present study aims to provide a new simple method to avoid plagiarism 

in EFL context. This method named “RESPECT”, that its notion is firstly 

introduced by Aghayani (2015), is an acronym of seven functions that prevent 

EFL learners to do plagiarism in their writing. The components of RESPECT are 

presented in figure 1. 

 
Figure 1. The components of RESPECT 

 

Referencing 

The way in which an author acknowledges the sources he/she used in his/her 

writing is called referencing. There are two types of referencing in the academic 

writing: in-text citation and citing the source(s) at the end of writing. Both types 

are necessary and this way is the first step that helps EFL learners to avoid 

plagiarism.  

 

Effective note-taking 

When an author distinguishes his/her own writing style from the other author 

writing style he/she used effective note-taking. The effective note-taking not only 

prevent EFL learners to do plagiarism but also can boost their English writing 

skills. 

 

Summarizing 

It refers to the concise version of main text that includes key concepts in an author 

his/her own words. It also allows EFL learners to create a summary of original 

text without any copy. 

 

Paraphrasing 

When an author restates the original text in his/her own words, he/she used 

paraphrasing method. As paraphrasing promotes EFL learners English writing, it 

can be considered as valuable skill in EFL context. 



 

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Effective quoting 

Effective quoting refers to direct quotation in a way that is absolutely correct. 

That is, the author needs to use quotation marks and provide the author’s name, 

work’s publication date, and page number. It is a basic training for EFL learners 

to avoid plagiarism in their writings.  

  

Citing your material 

When an author used material somewhere that previously published by himself, 

he must to cite the previous one in the current one. This practice helps EFL 

learners to avoid self-plagiarism. 

 

Timing 

According to Comas-Forgas and Sureda-Negre (2010), “a large number of 

assignments and poor time management by students (or, similarly, 

procrastination) lead students to consider plagiarism as an easy way” (p.228). 

Therefore, timing, as the last component of RESPECT, prevent EFL learners to do 

plagiarism. 

 

Conclusion 

The current study aims to introduce a new and simple method, called 

RESPECT, to avoid plagiarism in EFL context. To this end, first of all, the author 

provided the reasons behind plagiarism. Besides, all types of plagiarism have been 

identified and then, the author reviewed some important studies on plagiarism in 

EFL context. Finally, the components of RESPECT have been defined. Based on 

the literature, it can be concluded that EFL learners can avoid plagiarism in their 

writing by following RESPECT. It is hoped that RESPCET will be able to 

eliminate plagiarism not only in the EFL context but also in all areas of science. 

Moreover, it is hoped that we will no longer see the occurrence of such academic 

misconduct by following the strategies to avoid plagiarism in academic writings. 

In addition to using RESPECT and concerning recommendations for EFL 

learners, the author highlights the following: 

1. Use a plagiarism detection tool 
2. Study the common citation guides (e.g., APA, MLA, Harvard, and Chicago) 
3. Increase their awareness of academic integrity and ethics 
4. Improve their writing skills. 
5. Understand the reasons behind plagiarism 
 

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