New Study Confirms Internet Plagiarism Is Prevalent
August 28, 2003
Contact: Dave Muha (973) 353-5177, dmuha@andromeda.rutgers.edu
NEWARK – In what may be the largest project of its kind, a study of students, faculty and teaching assistants conducted on 23 campuses across the country confirms that Internet plagiarism is prevalent among college and university students. While plagiarism from written sources such as books and journals remains slightly more popular according to survey respondents, Internet plagiarism is a growing concern on most campuses. The study, organized by Rutgers University Management Professor Donald McCabe, was a comprehensive survey of over 18,000 students, 2,600 faculty and 650 teaching assistants on these 23 campuses. The study was conducted in conjunction with the Center for Academic Integrity at Duke University with funding from the John Templeton Foundation.
Thirty-eight percent of the undergraduate students completing the survey indicated they had engaged in one or more instances of cut & paste plagiarism using the Internet in the past year - paraphrasing or copying a few sentences of material from the Internet without citing the source. This is a dramatic increase from the 10% who acknowledged ‘cut & paste’ plagiarism using the Internet in a similar survey conducted only two years ago. Almost half of the students (44%) indicated they considered such behavior trivial or not cheating at all, perhaps explaining its widespread occurrence. Similar figures were reported for cut & paste plagiarism from written sources where 40% of the students reported engaging in such behavior in the last year. Approximately one-quarter of the 2,175 graduate students participating in the survey also reported engaging in cut & paste plagiarism from Internet and written sources. But less than 5% of all undergraduate and graduate students indicated they had submitted an assignment in which most or all of the text had simply been downloaded from a term paper mill or website.
In their efforts to combat plagiarism, 20% of the 2,600 faculty participating in this project indicated they use computer software such as Turnitin.com to help them detect student plagiarism. Approximately a third of the faculty in social sciences and communications and journalism report using such programs, three times the number reported by education and engineering faculty.
Other major findings include:
- Twenty-two percent of the participating undergraduates acknowledged one or more incidents of serious test cheating in the past year (copying from another student on a test, using unauthorized crib notes, or helping someone else to cheat on a test) and slightly more than half acknowledged one or more incidents of serious cheating on written work, including various forms of plagiarism. Among the highest specific behaviors acknowledged by undergraduate students were unpermitted collaboration with other students when an instructor specifically asked for individual work (39%) and sharing information about a test you’ve taken with a student who will be taking the same test in a later class period (36%). Not surprisingly, many students felt these behaviors were trivial or not cheating at all.
- Students majoring in business once again self-reported among the highest levels of cheating with 63% of the business students who responded acknowledging one or more instances of serious cheating in the past year. High levels of serious cheating were also reported by education students (60%) and students majoring in communications and journalism (59%). The lowest levels of serious cheating were reported by students majoring in science (51%).
- Only 4% of the participating undergraduates indicated they had ever reported another student for cheating. The major reason offered by students for not reporting is the belief that what others do is not their concern or responsibility and the fear of being labeled a “rat” or tattle-tale by their classmates.
One of the more disturbing findings in this new project is the observation that first year students report serious cheating at essentially the same rate as upperclassmen. In previous research, first year students have typically reported lower levels of cheating.
Many of the universities participating in this project are currently implementing, or planning to implement, a variety of new academic integrity initiatives. Typical initiatives include:
§ Holding workshops for faculty, TAs and administrators on academic integrity
§ Reviewing and revising campus policies on academic integrity
§ Helping students and faculty better understand the issues surrounding certain behaviors – e.g., collaboration and cut & paste plagiarism
§ Revisiting processes for assigning penalties and the appropriateness of the penalties themselves
§ Enhancing student orientation and training programs
§ Incorporating academic integrity material into new faculty orientation programs
§ Encouraging more student involvement in promoting academic integrity and adjudicating suspected cases of cheating.