Europe-wide standards against plagiarism
University of Konstanz and higher education institutions from eleven countries form European Network for Academic Integrity
There are still no uniform standards in European higher education for dealing with scientific plagiarism. With its “Refairence” project, the University of Konstanz is amongst the pioneers in the battle against plagiarism and the prevention of scientific misconduct. Together with other higher education institutions from eleven countries, it is now a member of the “European Network for Academic Integrity” (ENAI). The network’s objective is the application-oriented development of educational concepts and common standards for the prevention of plagiarism and scientific misconduct. Within the network, the University of Konstanz will contribute and make available throughout Europe both its experience in university teaching and its expertise in the area of plagiarism prevention. The ENAI project has been awarded funding to the tune of € 280,000 within the ERASMUS+ programme of the European Union (EU).
“The network focuses on everyday practice: We want to bring about change and improvement by developing and making available educational material for university teaching. We want to deliver useful solutions for dealing with plagiarism, agree on common standards and practices for the whole of Europe and in this way strengthen the European Research Area”, explains Ansgar Schäfer of the Communication, Information and Media Centre (KIM) at the University of Konstanz. He is in charge of the University’s plagiarism prevention project together with Dr. Oliver Trevisiol (KIM).
The three-year project comprises joint conferences and educational training measures on the topic of plagiarism prevention as well as the development of guidelines and teaching material, which will be made available to lecturers and students. Examples are films and case studies for use in teaching, handbooks for university administration as well as awareness-raising measures which centre on unintentional and intentional plagiarism and teaching concepts that communicate good scientific practice and academic integrity. The intention is for the ENAI network to continue as a specialized and application-oriented international association after the end of the three-year project.
Key facts:
- Start of the network: 1 October 2016
- Members: Twelve universities and science centres from eleven countries:
- Mendel University in Brno (Czech Republic, network coordinator)
- University of Konstanz (Germany)
- Mykolas Romeris University (Lithuania)
- Coventry University (Great Britain)
- Nottingham Trent University (Great Britain)
- Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University (Turkey) o Riga Technical University (Latvia)
- University of Insubria (Italy)
- University of Maribor (Slovenia)
- University of Nicosia (Cyprus)
- University of Porto (Portugal)
- Slovak Centre of Scientific and Technical Information (Slovakia)
- Funded by the European Union (EU) in the framework of the ERASMUS+ programme
- Total funding: € 280.000
- Further information under: www.plagiatspraevention.uni-konstanz.de