Student Plagiarism Research Articles

A culture of sharing: transnational higher education students' views on plagiarism in the digital era

Higher education has greatly expanded and many transnational campuses have been established. The vast amount of educational material available online and the ease of sharing it electronically appear to have facilitated an increase in student plagiarism. Plagiarism may undermine the learning process of students and the quality of education that an institution provides. A survey was conducted at two Australian university campuses in Singapore to investigate transnational students' views on plagiarism. It was found that many students, while fully aware of obvious cases of plagiarism, would disagree with more complex cases, such as collusion and reuse of one's own work or of a friend's work. This suggests that current strategies for preventing plagiarism are not entirely effective. It is recommended that educative interventions such as induction and follow-up courses on plagiarism be provided to students and staff to ensure that academic integrity is maintained within the transnational education environment.

The Complexity of Textual Borrowing in Learning English as a Foreign Language

Exploring the notion of ownership of text and learning was potential to understand the question of textual borrowing. However, this relationship remained under-explored. This study would address two key research questions: (1) How did learners of English as a foreign language paraphrase texts and (2) How were their attitudes towards plagiarism. Data were drawn from texts produced by undergraduate students of English Department in reading comprehension classes. Two stages of analyses were carried out. Firstly, description of quality of paraphrasing the texts by the learners were presented and distributed. Secondly, the learners’ attitudes towards plagiarism were described. These analyses were used as starting point to interpret the student plagiarism. Findings and discussion revealed that 20% of the learners’ works were 100% unique. They agreed to say that plagiarizing was as bad as stealing an exam and that plagiarism impoverished the investigative spirit. The rest were plagiarized ranging from 5% up to 24%. They said that sometimes they felt tempted to plagiarize because so many other students were doing it. They argued sometimes they copied a sentence or two just to become inspired for further writing. Pedagogically, it implies that since paraphrasing is using one’s own words to express someone else's ideas, students should be encouraged to cite a source accurately and define unfamiliar words instead of being punished. They need to change any words or phrases that match the original so closely. The ideas and meaning of the original source must be maintained and words must be their own.

Student plagiarism in higher education in Vietnam: an empirical study

ABSTRACTThis paper assesses and compares the prevalence of plagiarism across different student and assignment characteristics at a university in Vietnam, using the similarity index reported by the text-matching software Turnitin as a proxy measure of plagiarism on a sample of 681 student papers. The findings present a level of match higher than reported in earlier studies at universities outside of Vietnam, with an average similarity index of 29.06%. Controlling for the gender and major of the students, the extent of plagiarism is implied to be negatively correlated with the students’ academic performances and with the likelihood of being caught, and positively correlated with the length of the assignments. Thus, this study, relying on actual text-matching data rather than self-reported surveys, provides the first empirical test of two theoretical plagiarism models proposed in the literature. The explanatory factors confirmed by this study illustrate the potential benefits of the use of software tools to detect plagiarism and can help refine academic integrity policy formulations for universities.

Management Strategies for Curbing the Prevalence of Plagiarism in Project Writing amongst Students of Imo State University Oweeri

Many undergraduate students copy a lot from other people's research project reports and many graduate students lack the capacity to carry out and report the research work required of them for graduation. This research ascertained the views of Science and Arts Education students on the causes of the problem, types, and the strategies the university adopts to solve the problem since it has been noted by scholars that science students are prone to plagiarism. This is done through a case study of Faculty of Education, Imo State University, Owerri, Nigeria. A clustered proportionate random sample size of 200 drawn from the 500 Science and Arts based final year students of the Faculty was used for the study. Four and three research questions and hypotheses respectively were formulated. A 36 item researcher made four point rating scale of Strongly Agree (SA) Agree (A) Disagree (D) and Strongly Disagree (SD) was the instrument for data collection. Frequency tables, Mean scores with 2.50 decision point and t-test are the statistical tools used for the analysis of the data. The study revealed inadequate time, improper teaching of Research method, ignorance, absence of a university policy etc. as the causes of student project plagiarism, submission of project written by someone else, revising previously written project etc. are the commonly engaged types of plagiarism by students. It also found that University uses the teaching of research method, rules and regulations etc. to curb plagiarism while rejection of plagiarized project, publication of culprits names, workshops etc. are the preventive measures. Based on these, recommendations were made that plagiarism test should be run for finished projects, project workshop be mounted for students, proper and adequate teaching of Research method and project Supervision should be done by the lecturers.

‘It’s not fair’: policy discourses and students’ understandings of plagiarism in a New Zealand university

Plagiarism is a concept that is difficult to define. Although most higher education institutions have policies aimed at minimising and addressing student plagiarism, little research has examined the ways in which plagiarism is discursively constructed in university policy documents, or the connections and disconnections between institutional and student understandings of plagiarism in higher education. This article reports on a study that explored students’ understandings of plagiarism in relation to institutional plagiarism discourses at a New Zealand university. The qualitative study involved interviews with 21 undergraduate students, and analysis of University plagiarism policy documents. The University policy documents revealed moral and regulatory discourses. In the interviews, students predominantly drew on ethico-legal discourses, which reflected the discourses in the policy documents. However, the students also drew on (un)fairness discourses, confusion discourses, and, to a lesser extent, learning discourses. Notably, learning discourses were absent in the University policy. Our findings revealed tensions between the ways plagiarism was framed in institutional policy documents, and students’ understandings of plagiarism and academic writing. We suggest that, in order to support students’ acquisition of academic writing skills, plagiarism should be framed in relation to ‘learning to write’, rather than as a moral issue.

An Institutional Three-Stage Framework: Elevating Academic Writing and Integrity Standards of International Pathway Students

In this paper, the authors explore a holistic three-stage framework currently used by the Eynesbury Institute of Business and Technology (EIBT), focused on academic staff identification and remediation processes for the prevention of (un)intentional student plagiarism. As a pre-university pathway provider—whose student-body is 98% “international”—plagiarism is a prevalent and complex issue that cannot be solved with a single-solution response. The three-stages of identification should be conceived holistically and with each stage being equally important to the assessment of student writing. It is worth noting, however, that the extent to which plagiarism is detected will determine the number of stages involved and the degree the student has transgressed. This framework emphasizes the need for, and importance of, Academic Integrity (AI), literary ownership, assessment transparency, and compatibility with partner institutions.

Discovering Clusters of Plagiarism in Students’ Source Codes

Discovering Clusters of Plagiarism in Students’ Source Codes

To see or not to see

To see or not to see

“Should It Be Considered Plagiarism?” Student Perceptions of Complex Citation Issues

Most research on student plagiarism defines the concept very narrowly or with much ambiguity. Many studies focus on plagiarism involving large swaths of text copied and pasted from unattributed sources, a type of plagiarism that the overwhelming majority of students seem to have little trouble identifying. Other studies rely on ambiguous definitions, assuming students understand what the term means and requesting that they self-report how well they understand the concept. This study attempts to avoid these problems by examining student perceptions of more complex citation issues. We presented 240 students with a series of examples, asked them to indicate whether or not each should be considered plagiarism, and followed up with a series of demographic and attitudinal questions. The examples fell within the spectrum of inadequate citation, patchwriting, and the reuse of other people’s ideas. Half were excerpted from publicized cases of academic plagiarism, and half were modified from other sources. Our findings indicated that students shared a very strong agreement that near verbatim copy and paste and patchwriting should be considered plagiarism, but that they were much more conflicted regarding the reuse of ideas. Additionally, this study found significant correlation between self-reported confidence in their understanding and the identification of more complex cases as plagiarism, but this study found little correlation between academic class status or exposure to plagiarism detection software and perceptions of plagiarism. The latter finding goes against a prevailing sentiment in the academic literature that the ability to recognize plagiarism is inherently linked to academic literacy. Overall, our findings indicate that more pedagogical emphasis may need to be placed on complex forms of plagiarism.

Are We on the Same Page? College Students’ and Faculty’s Perception of Student Plagiarism in Taiwan

The rapid development of the Internet has granted college students easy access to vast amount of online resources, and to some degree has increased the chances of plagiarism problems. A number of studies have suggested that both faculty’s and students’ perceptions toward plagiarism are found to be influential on students’ plagiarizing behaviors, and limited research has been done to explore the perceptional differences between these two roles. This study aims to respond to the growing educational concerns about plagiarism by comparing the perceptions held by faculty and college students. A total of 229 faculty and 634 college students in Taiwan completed the Perceptions of Student Plagiarism Questionnaire designed for the study. The results reveal that faculty held stricter standards than those of students. Results also indicate various causes of plagiarism, such as no interest in the learning subjects, lack of citation knowledge, or lack of research ability. Furthermore, significant disciplinary differences were shown to contribute to students’ plagiarism perception; the results reveal that most students with an Arts or Communication major held a relatively adverse thinking toward plagiarism. Last, this study provides research-based strategies for school and faculty to reduce the likelihood of plagiarism.

Using Computer Simulations and Games to Prevent Student Plagiarism

In this increasingly digital age, student plagiarism is rampant. Roughly half of college students admit to plagiarizing using content found online, directly copying and pasting the work of others. Digital technology and social media have greatly changed the landscape of how knowledge is acquired and disseminated; thus, students must be explicitly taught digital literacy skills and how to correctly utilize information they find online. Computer simulations are an active, engaging, and efficient way of explicitly teaching students about plagiarism and how to avoid academic dishonesty. A number of colleges and universities provide free open source games and simulations, which can be utilized as course assignments or activities in order to explicitly teach students proper citation procedures. This article reviews 10 plagiarism prevention computer games and simulations, with details about each program, including access information.

Analyzing and reducing plagiarism at university

Plagiarism is one of the less desirable practises in the academic context. This paper presents an experience of massive plagiarism detection at university and the steps taken to prevent its subsequent occurrence. Plagiarism was detected in the first assessment phase of a research project practise. As a result, students were required to arrange ethical group discussions with the professor to prevent plagiarism in the future. A substantial reduction in the rate of plagiarism was observed from the first practical assessment to the second one, t(16)=2.5, p=.02, d=0.83, 1-?=.63, unilateral contrast. Additionally, a survey was developed to analyse students’ opinions and attitudes about plagiarism. A sample of 64 students (15 boys and 49 girls) with an average age of 22.69 (SD=2.8) filled in an electronic questionnaire. More than a half of the sample (56.92%) admitted that they had plagiarised before but most of the students (83.08%) agreed they would not like someone else plagiarising their reports. A preliminary short scale to measure attitude towards plagiarism in undergraduate students at university is provided. Finally, a set of recommendations are given based on this experience to prevent and to reduce the level of plagiarism in the university context.

Análisis y reducción del plagio en la universidad

El plagio es una de las prácticas menos deseables en el contexto académico. Este artículo presenta una experiencia de detección masiva de plagio en la universidad y los pasos llevados a cabo para prevenir la posterior ocurrencia del mismo. El plagio fue detectado en la primera fase de evaluación de un proyecto de investigación práctico. Seguidamente, los estudiantes fueron organizados en grupos de discusión éticos para prevenir el plagio en el futuro. Se observó una reducción substancial en la tasa de plagio desde la primera evaluación parcial de la asignatura a la segunda, t (16) =2.5, p=0.02, d=0.83, 1-  =.63, contraste unilateral. Adicionalmente, se desarrolló una encuesta para analizar las opiniones de los estudiantes sobre el plagio. Una muestra de 64 estudiantes (15 hombres y 49 mujeres) con una edad media de 22.69 años de edad (DT=2.8) cumplimentaron un cuestionario electrónico. Más de la mitad de los estudiantes (56.92%) admitieron haber plagiado previamente y la mayoría indicaron que no les gustaría que plagiasen sus trabajos (83.08%). Una versión preliminar de una corta escala para evaluar actitudes hacia el plagio en estudiantes universitarios es facilitada. Finalmente, un conjunto de recomendaciones son proporcionadas basadas en esta experiencia para prevenir y reducir el nivel de plagio en el contexto universitario.

Feature: Student Plagiarism and First-Year Composition: A Study

This study reports on student comprehension of plagiarism and plagiarism avoidance before and after the first-year composition course.

Exploring the attitudes of medical faculty members and students in Pakistan towards plagiarism: a cross sectional survey.

Objective. The objective of this survey was to explore the attitudes towards plagiarism of faculty members and medical students in Pakistan.Methods. The Attitudes Toward Plagiarism questionnaire (ATP) was modified and distributed among 550 medical students and 130 faculty members in 7 medical colleges of Lahore and Rawalpindi. Data was entered in the SPSS v.20 and descriptive statistics were analyzed. The questionnaire was validated by principal axis factoring analysis.Results. Response rate was 93% and 73%, respectively. Principal axis factoring analysis confirmed one factor structure of ATP in the present sample. It had an acceptable Cronbach’s alpha value of 0.73. There were 421 medical students (218 (52%) female, 46% 3rd year MBBS students, mean age of 20.93 ± 1.4 years) and 95 faculty members (54.7% female, mean age 34.5 ± 8.9 years). One fifth of the students (19.7%) trained in medical writing (19.7%), research ethics (25.2%) or were currently involved in medical writing (17.6%). Most of the faculty members were demonstrators (66) or assistant professors (20) with work experience between 1 and 10 years. Most of them had trained in medical writing (68), research ethics (64) and were currently involved in medical writing (64). Medical students and faculty members had a mean score of 43.21 (7.1) and 48.4 (5.9) respectively on ATP. Most of the respondents did not consider that they worked in a plagiarism free environment and reported that self-plagiarism should not be punishable in the same way as plagiarism. Opinion regarding leniency in punishment of younger researchers who were just learning medical writing was divided.Conclusions. The general attitudes of Pakistani medical faculty members and medical students as assessed by ATP were positive. We propose training in medical writing and research ethics as part of the under and post graduate medical curriculum.

Broad Perspective on Plagiarism

Broad Perspective on Plagiarism

The ethics and politics of policing plagiarism: a qualitative study of faculty views on student plagiarism and Turnitin®

Recently, the usage of plagiarism detection software such as Turnitin® has increased dramatically among university instructors. At the same time, academic criticism of this software’s employment has also increased. We interviewed 23 faculty members from various departments at a medium-sized, public university in the southeastern US to determine their perspectives on Turnitin® and student plagiarism. We wanted to discern if there are important disciplinary differences in how instructors define and handle plagiarism; how instructors use Turnitin®; and if instructors’ thinking aligns with ethical and political concerns commonly expressed in the academic literature. Despite varying attitudes towards Turnitin®, those interviewed did not differ significantly in their views as to what student plagiarism is or its seriousness, and typical objections to ‘policing’ plagiarism and Turnitin® had little resonance with interviewees. The majority viewed a substantial amount of plagiarism they encountered as unintentional and penalised only what they considered to be extreme versions of intentional plagiarism. However, often this contradicted the way they presented the concept of plagiarism in their syllabi and their classrooms. Surprisingly, these patterns were consistent among those who employed the software frequently and those who did not.

Building A Global Future Through Research And Innovative Practices In Open And Distance Learning

The current study aims to investigate awareness of research students about the concept of plagiarism and to suggest possible ways to avoid it; a descriptive survey study was conducted. The objectives of the study were to examine the researcher’s knowledge about concept of plagiarism, knowledge about specific terminologies, types of plagiarism, and consequences of plagiarism and to suggest possible ways to avoid it. Study was delimited to the research students of Faculty of Education at PhD, M.Phil. and MA level in Allma Iqbal Open University. A sample of hundred students was selected through snowball sampling technique, five point Likert scale questionnaire was used to collect the data. Data were analyzed through descriptive statistics. Major finding were that most of the students had misconception of plagiarism, most of them were unaware about the specific terminologies and types of plagiarism. Majority of the students were unaware about the consequences of plagiarism. On the basis of findings it was concluded that they were not properly taught about the concept of plagiarism during their course work in research and it had implications on the quality of research. The major recommendations were to add sufficient material about plagiarism in research courses and students may be informed about the HEC polices about plagiarism.

Do medical students require education on issues related to plagiarism?

In the course of our professional experience, we have seen that many medical students plagiarise. We hypothesised that they do so out of ignorance and that they require formal education on the subject. With this objective in mind, we conducted a teaching session on issues related to plagiarism. As a part of this, we administered a quiz to assess their baseline knowledge on plagiarism and a questionnaire to determine their attitudes towards it. We followed this up with an interactive teaching session, in which we discussed various aspects of plagiarism. We subjected the data obtained from the quiz and questionnaire to bivariate and multivariate analysis. A total of 423 medical students participated in the study. Their average score for the quiz was 4.96±1.67 (out of 10). Age, gender and years in medical school were not significantly associated with knowledge regarding plagiarism. The knowledge scores were negatively correlated with permissive attitudes towards plagiarism and positively correlated with attitudes critical of the practice. Men had significantly higher scores on permissive attitudes compared to women . In conclusion, we found that the medical students' knowledge regarding plagiarism was limited. Those with low knowledge scores tended to have permissive attitudes towards plagiarism and were less critical of the practice. We recommend the inclusion of formal instruction on this subject in the medical curriculum, so that this form of academic misconduct can be tackled.

The Role of Cultural Values in Plagiarism in Higher Education

Student plagiarism is a rampant practice and major concern in higher education. How students perceive the overarching American cultural values and their impact on the practice will inform educators and help them to better combat the practice. It is also valuable for educators to know whether the students perceive the practice to be part of the dominant culture, currently, on college campuses. This study reports perceptions of plagiarism by students in an introductory sociology course. Open-ended questions explored perceptions of extent, justifications, and American values affecting plagiarism. Participants were clear on definitions and seriousness, but most were able to justify the behavior and identify American values contributing to or deterring the practice. Findings were consistent across gender, course grade, class standing, and college major. The authors discuss the cultural values students use as justifications for plagiarizing and the larger implications for higher education.