Plagiarism Project
Information about the Project
The rapid evolution of information and communications technology has made it much easier for individuals to access information via Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW) at the click of a mouse. However, such easy access to information is being negatively exploited through an ever-increasing phenomenon of plagiarism. The rise in plagiarism in higher education is becoming a worrying concern as such practices not only undermine the quality and standards of education but also negates the principle of intellectual property rights. Research findings have identified a variety of reasons why students plagiarise. A few of such factors include lack of adequate study skills, poor academic writing and referencing skills, poor time management, 'being under pressure as a result of too much assessment workload; sheer laziness, etc.
Some research findings have identified cultural factors as a reason why foreign students plagiarise (Briggs 2003; Carroll, 2002; Juwah, 2004; Sherman, 1992 and Xueqin, 2002). A major finding of these research studies point to the notion that international students have a different cultural understanding of the concept of plagiarism. This factor more than any other has been the reason why some international students fall foul of academic practice as it relates to referencing. Recently, a huge amount of effort and resources including the use of technology have been channelled towards detecting plagiarism and punishing culprits, and quite rightly too.
This Higher Education Business Support Network funded project aims to:
- investigate international students' understanding of the term plagiarism;
- identify the cultural factors which may cause some international students to plagiarise;
- investigate and identify effective strategies and/or measures for overcoming the cultural factors that cause international students to plagiarise;
- build a knowledge base which will contribute in informing the practice and policy of dealing with cultural factors that cause international students to plagiarise;
- report on the strategies identified for improving academic writing and referencing skills of international students thereby enabling them to cope better with academic work and in turn prevent incidences of plagiarism.
Project Report
Overcoming the cultural issues associated with plagiarism for International students
Information and Resources
All about plagiarism provides some useful information about plagiarism deterrence:
News Items
Academic Misconduct Video
The Robert Gordon University has produced a video providing an overview of plagiarism (length approximately 9 minutes) and is available online for internal users. A short 30 second preview of the video is available below:
Discussion Forum
- If you wish to join the discussion on plagiarism issues, please click below:
- Chris Park (2003) In other (people's) words: plagiarism by university students - literature and lessons.
Discussion Forum.
Staff Training and Development for Plagiarism Deterrence
Software/Tools for Plagiarism Detection
