The National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT) said the prevalence of plagiarism in education and the workplace could create a generation which lacks creativity and the ability to think analytically if measures are not in place to prevent it.
“The problem of plagiarism is increasing. In this age, when information is in digital form, people can copy and paste easily and many people have learned to do just that,” NRCT secretary-general Soottiporn Chittmittrapap told Spectrum.
He said the root cause of the problem comes from a general lack of writing skills and a lack of respect for intellectual property.
Research, project studies and theses have become more common pursuits, contributing to the rise in plagiarism.
“Some students copy each other’s work or ideas without knowing it violates the original author’s rights and intellectual property. There are also cases where people who copy the work have known that it is wrong but insist on doing so as they have no respect for the author’s rights,” Dr Soottiporn said.