Preventing Plagiarism towards Nurturing Research Integrity: A Descriptive-Mapping Review

Innovation and the development of knowledge in the field of scientific research is increasing exponentially, but it continues to be disjointed. It makes it difficult to keep up with state-of-the-art and to be at the forefront of research and dissemination, as well as to evaluate empirical evidence in the area of academic excellence. Recent literature reviews are frequently lacking in thoroughness and rigor and are carried out in part rather than using a specific design. This descriptive-mapping review aimed to illustrate plagiarism and research integrity literature published over a 10-year period (2010 to 2020). To achieve this goal, literature reviews were conducted to obtain relevant articles and documentation on plagiarism and its potential impact in the academic and publishing industries. Methodical searches in specific databases such as Web of Science and Scopus, including the Google Scholar Search Engine, have been undertaken to ensure the accuracy of the results. Thereafter, descriptive mapping was used to categorize qualifying articles. Over 350 titles were collected from the searches, of which 129 complete works were published in various journals during the covered period. Finally, in this review, 35 papers were eligible for inclusion. The themes were enumerated in the scholarly articles. Findings revealed a dearth of scientifically credible and relevant literature on plagiarism issues, such as the phenomenon in the academic environment, its particular specific factors and triggering causes, and the impacts of the institutional policy interventions being enforced. Although the results provided background information for the creation of a realistic guide to avoid plagiarism incidences, robust empirical and evaluative studies should be planned to identify the real implications of preventing plagiarism to uphold the credibility of scientific research and evaluate the impact of ethical issues, practices, and policies suggested by organizations and industries.