Plagiarism is a topic that is consistently brought up in many areas of education.1 In every syllabus presented to students, there is a section that refers to plagiarism and academic integrity. Plagiarism can be defined as “the act or instance of stealing or passing off ideas or words of another as one’s own.”2 Despite this being an important piece of information; students may overlook this material and still plagiarize. In a study from the University of Toronto, 90% of senior pharmacy students admitted to performing at least 1 form of academic dishonesty over the course of their program.3 Recent literature also states that plagiarism has begun to show up more frequently in academic institutions.2-6 This can be a result of increasing access to the internet, databases, and websites.4 In professional literature, plagiarism can still be found in medical publications.2 This is an issue because development of proper professional and ethical behaviors relies on honest academic integrity.3 The purpose of this paper is to examine the current research on the reasons for plagiarism, how plagiarism affects professionalism and proper ways to prevent this issue from happening for graduate students.
The major reason for why these academic dishonest acts can happen is related to students not understanding what is considered “cheating” or plagiarism.3,4 There are different levels of plagiarism which students perceive differently regarding the seriousness of the act.2 In a survey of
Plagiarism is an increasing large issue on college campuses, a habit to most of the student. According to the article ‘’The Plagiarism Plague’’, the findings on the survey made to 50,000 students on more than 60 campuses was that 70 percent of the students admitted that they cheated. Half of the students surveyed admitted that one or more times made serious cheating on writing assignments, with 77 percent of the students surveyed said that cheating was not a serious issue.
Academic dishonesty such as plagiarism has been a major factor in education that has affected students’ success and academic achievements in recent years. Plagiarism according to Park (2003) is the act of appropriating or copying another person’s work and passing them on as one’s idea without acknowledging the original source. Park (2003) noted that plagiarism is a growing problem and has been a misuse of the writings of another author, their ideas, hypothesis, theories, research findings and interpretations. Furthermore studies by Chao, Wilhelm and Neureuther (2009) emphasised that
In “Academic Integrity and Student Plagiarism: a Question of Education, Not Ethics,” Susan Blum confronts the challenges associated with plagiarism, citation, and the education system. Initially, the author establishes plagiarism as a major problem on college campuses. Because previous approaches for dealing with plagiarism have been unsuccessful, many professors have turned to electronic software like Turnitin to identify student plagiarism (Blum 1). This means colleges and professors are desperate to find a solution to the increasing problem of plagiarism. Additionally, we see students are in need of a deeper understanding and education on the concept of plagiarism. Blum states, “Students must be persuaded of the value of citation - which
Plagiarism is defined as using one’s idea or thoughts as one’s own without giving proper credit or citation to the original author (Merriam-Webster’s collegiate dictionary, 1999). Merriam-Webster’s collegiate dictionary (1999), also states that plagiarism can be intentional or unintentional. This post will discuss the importance of maintaining integrity in scholarly writing and why academic integrity is critical to nursing.
Plagiarism falls under academic ethics and Kaplan University policy on plagiarism is on par with most schools. Any violation of KU's plagiarism policy is categorized in three levels: “first offense of the Academic Integrity Policy: Failure of the assignment in which the action occurred, second offense of the Academic Integrity Policy: Failure of the class in which the action occurred and third offense of the Academic Integrity Policy: Expulsion or permanent dismissal from the University (Kaplan University, n.d., p. 3).” These consequences for violating Kaplan University plagiarism policy are clear and direct. When writing a paper four specific ways to avoid being charged with academic
Academic integrity has always been an integral aspect of my education. As a 4.0 Honors College student here at George Mason University, I have seen what separates the professionally crafted from the plagiarized. Plagiarism is a tricky concept. In most instances, students may not know that they are plagiarizing. The role of the Honor Committee is to educate students on issues of academic integrity and enforce the rules against plagiarized work. Educating students includes doing presentations and online educational tutorials about the various types of plagiarism and how to prevent plagiarizing. To enforce the rules Honor Committee members sit on a panel to provide fair hearings on cases of academic integrity violations.
The University’s Policy of Academic Misconduct (2012) provides an orderly process for dealing with academic integrity and outlines the procedure for navigating through that process. As students at the University of West Florida, we are expected to maintain an environment of trust and integrity (University of West Florida, “Policy of Academic Misconduct”, 2012). Plagiarism is defined as the use of others’ words or ideas and offering it as your own without crediting the sources (University of West Florida, “Policy of Academic Misconduct”, 2012). Some examples outlined in the Policy of Academic Misconduct include assisting others’ student to engage in an act of misconduct and completing an assignment that is not your own (University of West Florida “Policy of Academic Misconduct”, 2012). Additional ways of plagiarizing include cut, copy, and pasting a paper or paraphrasing information without citing the sources and purchasing and submitting an academic work as your own (Suarez and Martin, 2001).
Our book provides an exemplary definition of Academic integrity and briefly puts into perspective the conceptual concepts behind academic plagiarism, why its wrong, and how it could be prevented. Our book defines plagiarism as:
The UMUC plagiarism policy, part of the Academic Integrity, should be the first thing every college student get familiar with. Ever discovered case will be investigated and might result in serious repercussions. The student might be even removed from the class. Plagiarism can appear in many, different forms, but it can be mainly categorized into the intentional and unintentional. Intentional plagiarism is when the person presents their work, while knowing that it doesn't consist of their own, original idea. In other words, its deliberately stealing someone else work. The unintentional plagiarism can be just as harmful. It happens when the person fails or forgets to cite their source, put the quotation marks on the quote they used or even
Daniel Owunwanne, Narendra Rustagi, & Remi Dada. (2010). Students' perceptions of cheating and plagiarism in higher institutions. Journal of College Teaching and Learning, 7(11),59
The type that is hardest for me is remembering to do the in-text cite. Correcting it is and should be a little more easier than I make it seem. Remember to use in text citation and put quotation marks around what the writer quoted. That way I would be giving the credit to the author or publisher for what they have written. I will then be avoiding plagiarism and will not have to worry about getting put out of school for it. Therefore, I will be able to continue my career goal of completing this degree.
Since you’re a small child you’re told never to steal from others. It’s one of the fundamental virtues that are drilled into your head your entire life. It seems as people age, they forget the lessons of their youth. A perfect example of this can be seen in the constant use of academic dishonesty. Elmira College defines academic dishonesty as “…any treatment of, or representation of work as if one were fully responsible for it, when it is in fact the work of another or work in which one has received unacknowledged assistance from others.” (46) One of the top ways college students preform academic dishonesty is through plagiarism. The Marian-Webster definition of plagiarizing and academic dishonesty is “to steal and pass off (the ideas or words
Plagiarism is increasingly becoming a more significant issue in colleges nowadays. It destroys creative thinking of a person and needs to be tackled with conscious efforts from colleges and students. Plagiarism is a fraudulent act in which you use another person’s work and fail to give a reference. It is ethically wrong, and breaks the academic code of conduct, affecting the student’s reputation and performance. In colleges, plagiarism can occur because students fear to fail or due to poor time management, thus, they are unable to conduct research efficiently.
One purpose of the study was to provide Higher Education Administrators with information on plagiarism in campuses of higher education (Heckler et al. 2014). Heckler et al. desired to identify whether societal values caused an environment contributing to plagiarism. Also, they expected to identify what correlates were predictable in the use of this particular academic dishonesty.
According to our readings, "the type of plagiarism deliberate or unintentional has an impact upon the perception of the offence for both faculty and students" (Academic Integrity 2011). This is an important distinction to some people, although the act of plagiarism remains unacceptable no matter why it is done.