Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-89b8bd64d-mmrw7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-08T15:31:34.941Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 2 - The Plagiarism Hunters

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 January 2026

Roger Kreuz
Affiliation:
University of Memphis
Get access

Summary

Publishers have defended their intellectual property by inserting false information into their works to serve as copyright traps. Attempts at identifying plagiarism through textual analysis by computers began with the work of two NIH employees in the early 1990s, although their purely mechanical approach sparked controversy and pushback from the scholarly community. Several individuals, largely through happenstance, have found themselves taking on the role of policing work published in their domains of expertise (such as spy novels, poetry, or microbiology articles). And in Europe, academic plagiarism hunters banded together to identify plagiarism in the dissertations of politicians, including members of Angela Merkel’s cabinet in Germany. A parallel undertaking by academicians in Russia led to accusations of plagiarism by members of the Duma and Vladimir Putin himself. Similar accusations in Romania, Albania, and Serbia contributed to student protests against politicians who had either plagiarized or had their theses ghostwritten. Finally, those who have sounded the alarm about student plagiarism, particularly by athletes, have often suffered consequences for their whistleblowing.

Information

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • The Plagiarism Hunters
  • Roger Kreuz, University of Memphis
  • Book: Strikingly Similar
  • Online publication: 28 January 2026
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009618335.003
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • The Plagiarism Hunters
  • Roger Kreuz, University of Memphis
  • Book: Strikingly Similar
  • Online publication: 28 January 2026
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009618335.003
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • The Plagiarism Hunters
  • Roger Kreuz, University of Memphis
  • Book: Strikingly Similar
  • Online publication: 28 January 2026
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009618335.003
Available formats
×