Plagiarism and copyright among LIS professionals in Nigeria: an assumption or a reality?

Abstract

Every day, papers are published from research by professionals in different journals, books, and websites for new knowledge. These are good practices for sharing knowledge. However, academic misconduct has been noticed, indicating plagiarism and infringement of copyright. This paper investigated the existence of plagiarism and copyright infringement among LIS professionals in Nigeria; the degree of involvement; causes; and punitive measures for the offenders. This is a survey research design that uses an online Google form for the collection of data. The online questionnaire was sent to different librarians’ WhatsApp platforms. Findings showed that 98% of the respondents acknowledged the existence of plagiarism and copyright infringement. It was also discovered that poor searching skills, laziness, the pressure of publish-or-perish, and lack of punishment cause plagiarism and copyright infringement. The respondents strongly agreed that offenders could be demoted, prosecuted, and have their publication withdrawn and announced publicly. The implication of the study is that intellectual property would be abused and disregarded if plagiarism and copyright infringement were not checked by LIS professionals. The study recommended more awareness, training, use of plagiarism checkers, and punishment enforcement to curb plagiarism and copyright infringement.