Abstract
Internationally, a rise in plagiarism by academics has been reported. The objective of the present study was to examine the extent of plagiarism in articles appearing in 19 South African management journals published in 2016 and to compare the findings to a study undertaken in 2015 using 2011 data from the same 19 journals. This study progresses the debate around academic ethics and academic integrity in the country – a topic, thus far, that has received little research attention. A total of 454 published articles were submitted through the similarity detection software Turnitin™. High and excessive similarity was identified and over 80% of submissions evidenced similarity in excess of 9%. University administrators, journal editors and publishers, and the South African Department of Higher Education and Training are alerted to this plagiarism that undermines the academic pursuit. This awareness is particularly important as faculty serve as role models to students. Measures should thus be taken to ensure that faculty provide sound role models as ethical researchers.
 Significance:
 
 Plagiarism is an ongoing and increasing problem and is particularly concerning when faculty themselves plagiarise, as it impacts institutional integrity and culture, and negatively influences role modelling for students.
 The present study highlights the increase in plagiarism in the field of management and alerts other fields of academia to this problem.
 University administrators and journal editors and publishers are reminded about the roles they can play to address plagiarism.
Highlights
While student plagiarism and academic dishonesty at universities are internationally recognised to be growing problems[1,2] and have been extensively examined[3,4,5], plagiarism by faculty themselves has received relatively less attention in the academic literature[6]
Plagiarism by faculty is on the rise[8]; Luke and Kearins[9] suggest that while universities often have detailed policies dealing with student plagiarism, they are less adept at dealing with plagiarism by their own faculty
The aim of this study was to progress the debate on ethics in research in South Africa and to alert universities, journal editors and publishers, and the government Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) about the state of plagiarism in management journals
Summary
While student plagiarism and academic dishonesty at universities are internationally recognised to be growing problems[1,2] and have been extensively examined[3,4,5], plagiarism by faculty themselves has received relatively less attention in the academic literature[6]. The South African Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET)[10] has adopted a system whereby universities are compensated, financially, for research generated by their faculty as a way to encourage the production of original and innovative research. Many universities allocate part of this funding to the faculties, departments and individual academics who produced the publications – a practice not considered to be the norm elsewhere in the world[12] and one that could potentially promote unethical authorship[13]. This paper serves to alert universities to the need to ensure that the research output submitted to the DHET for subsidy, is, the original work of the given author/s
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