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August 17, 2012Germany has often been regarded as the most advanced country in terms of original research and development work. For centuries universities have produced remarkable illumination. Post-war Germany has even set higher standards for itself. The pacifist thrust was directed at scientific advancement and academic excellence. And even after Germany’s total defeat in the Second World War, she retained her number one position in advanced technological research.
Given these facts, it was quite hard to believe when Der Spiegel’s startling revelations of plagiarism came to the limelight. The German Defense Minister, it said, plagiarized his Ph.D. thesis from various sources ranging from Washington Embassy posts to op-ed in major European and North American dailies.
It opened up a Pandora’s Box that engulfed the entire higher education and research system of Germany. It not only brought into question the lax system of doctoral oversight in the Germanic Universities but also castigated the absence of any foolproof mechanism that could ensure the growth of originality and academic integrity. Where the academics indulged in useless lamentations and protestations, the law enforcement community kept silent on how to control this rapidly burgeoning epidemic. Some have blamed lousy professors for this while others are saying that they have been fooled by con students far too often. Nobody seems to be talking about the measures to obviate this issue as they seem to be preoccupied in how to punish the offenders. This controversy has become so much popular that most academic refer to the plagiarized articles as “Guttenberg Articles”
Speaking in the hindsight, we should be talking about how to save ourselves from these so called Guttenberg Articles. Since their non-genuineness and lack of veracity is evidently clear to us all, what are the best possible ways to keep these articles away from us? The world of search engines has made the life of everyone quite easy, and yet there are dangers lurking underneath. The search engines do not have any standard operating procedures to counter check the veracity and authenticity of the articles. However there are some good quality search engines that can block these Guttenberg Articles. In this world of cut throat competition and continuous surge to outsmart the competitors, relying on copied and plagiarized stuff is akin to inviting trouble. You are going to study them at your own peril. There is also another way to obviate these Guttenberg Articles and that is by using the universally accepted soft ware’s which are being built with an aim to double check each and every line. By using them you can not only ensure yourself that you are only reading the genuine and the authentic stuff, but you will also nurture a penchant towards looking just for the original stuff. Students should be more careful in this context because they heavy rely on the information supplied by the internet to cover and finish their assignments on a regular basis. Plagiarists are moral and intellectual offenders and they should be discouraged at all the forums.