Resonances of My Often-Silenced Voice: An Autoethnographic Inquiry Into the Academic Journey of My Self as a Plagiarism Victim

In this autoethnographic study, I—as a researcher and author whose academic work has been plagiarized multiple times—critically reflect on my personal experiences and narratives within the Iranian academic context to develop a nuanced understanding of plagiarism as a pervasive and systemic issue. Through critical reflection on my Self as a plagiarism victim and my interactions with others, I explore sources of plagiarism alongside my emotional, intellectual, and professional struggles and solutions that have shaped my whole authorial identity. The data were drawn from diverse sources throughout my academic career. Thematic analysis revealed themes illustrating the underlying sources of power, as well as the institutional structures and power relations that facilitate and perpetuate plagiarism as academic misconduct within higher education. Through this process, voices of plagiarism victims, as the powerless and oppressed, are feasibly silenced by these sources of power. The power relations at the level of universities and nationwide are so deeply entrenched that the oppressed victims' efforts are stifled from the outset. I argue that listening to and learning from the lived experiences of plagiarism victims, typically dismissed or neglected, offers critical insights to foster accountability and meaningful transformation in academic practices and policies.