Rector of KRSU: it is necessary to create a culture of respect for intellectual property and independent research
"In the pre-Internet era, when information was limited and access to it required significant effort, students often resorted to copying and borrowing other people's scientific papers. Copying texts from books and articles was a common practice, and many universities taught students to work according to templates and instructions without requiring them to be original and think independently.
However, even then, incorrect borrowings were considered a gross violation of scientific ethics and theft of intellectual property. In advanced market economies, schoolchildren were taught to respect any form of property, including intellectual property. In the USSR, where the idea of collective property dominated, the attitude towards intellectual property was different, which gave rise to the philosophy of "everything around is mine.".
With the advent of digitalization and the Internet, the world of science and education has undergone revolutionary changes. In 2005, the Antiplagiarism company was created in Russia, which offered a convenient service for checking texts for borrowings. This service quickly became in demand, especially after the "witch hunt" in 2012, when mass checks of dissertations and scientific works for plagiarism began. Technology does not stand still. The development of neural networks and artificial intelligence has led to the emergence of phenomena such as ChatGPT, which is capable of generating texts based on user requests, including writing dissertations. Artificial intelligence and digital translators are evolving at incredible speed, creating new texts, audio and video based on big data.
Paper and book printing culture is gradually giving way to digital culture, which has already captured all aspects of the high-tech world. In this context, the anti-plagiarism system, which focuses on identifying text borrowings, is beginning to seem outdated'.
The rector of KRSU emphasizes that instead of playing catch-up with students and teachers, it is necessary to create a culture of respect for intellectual property and independent research. Universities should teach students not only to cite sources correctly, but also to conduct independent research, implement projects and describe the results of their work.
Studying at universities should be intelligence training. Just as it is impossible to become stronger by sending other people to train in your place, it is impossible to develop intellectual abilities by copying or using artificial intelligence to write papers. Therefore, at universities it is important not only to teach people to learn, but also to respect the discoveries and inventions of others and to correctly present their intellectual results.
The rector of KRSU is confident that it is the culture of respect and independent research that should become the basis of university education in the era of cyberculture. In the context of the rapid development of technology, it is this culture that will prepare students for the challenges of the future and preserve the values of scientific ethics and intellectual honesty.
