Attitudes toward plagiarism among pharmacy and medical biochemistry students – cross-sectional survey study

Abstract

Introduction: Plagiarism is one of the most frequent and serious forms of misconduct in academic environment. The cross-sectional survey study was done with aim to explore the attitudes toward plagiarism. Materials and methods: First year students of Faculty of Pharmacy and Medical Biochemistry, University of Zagreb, Croatia (N = 146) were anonymously tested using Attitude toward Plagiarism (ATP) questionnaire. The questionnaire is composed of 29 statements on a 5 point Likert scale, (1 -strongly disagree, 2 -disagree, 3 -neither agree nor disagree, 4 -agree and 5 -strongly agree) measuring three attitudinal factors (positive and negative attitude and subjective norms) toward plagiarism. Results were presented as score (mean ± SD) followed by reference range (divided in three equal parts: low, moderate and high score). Score range expends from 12 to 60 (low: 12-28; moderate: 29-45; high: 46-60) measuring positive attitude toward plagiarism, from 7 to 35 (low: 7-16; moderate: 17-26; high: 27-35) measuring negative attitude toward plagiarism and from 10 to 50 (low: 10-23; moderate: 24-37; high: 38-50) measuring subjective norms. Response rate was 99% (N = 144). Results: Results revealed moderate positive attitude (36 ± 7) and subjective norms (32 ± 6) toward plagiarism and moderate to high negative attitude (26 ± 4). Plagiarism is perceived as not very important (63% of students), harmless (59%), justi ed under special circumstances (42%), and sometimes necessary (35%). Conclusion: Students' attitudes re ect insu cient level of seriousness and awareness with which plagiarism is perceived. They are lacking knowledge on scienti c methodology, academic and scienti c misconduct. Plan and program to educate students about academic integrity and research methodology is required on all educational level.

Improving knowledge, skills, and attitudes of the nursing faculty members and postgraduate students towards plagiarism in academic writing

“…These results were supported by Pupovac et al [13] in their study conducted in Croatia for evaluating the medical student's ATP and stated that more than half of the students were agreed that plagiarized paper does no harm to science and self-plagiarism should not be considered harm.…”

“…[12] Additionally, academic misconduct in the scientific nursing researches can seriously harm the people's life and health, so it needs a great accountability. [13] Doing researches and publishing articles is mandatory in academic nursing field for both the faculty members and postgraduate students, since both of them are often under the pressure to publish articles for job promotion, which enforce them to have a certain number of publications in scientific journals. They may attempt to copy and paste from the internet, where a massive amount of data is simply accessible.…”

“…Unethical misconduct, including plagiarism in scientific researches may have harmful consequences on peoples' lives. [13] Nursing faculty members are participating in various research projects and disseminate their findings nationally and internationally nevertheless, they may not fully grasp the essence of plagiarism problem and its related aspects. Smedley et al [15] listed some approaches to promote the research ethics and honesty for eliminating plagiarism rate and its susceptibility.…”

Exploring attitude toward research and plagiarism among faculty members and senior residents in a medical school of North India: A cross-sectional study

“…Pupovac et al reported that plagiarism was perceived as not very important (63%), harmless (59%), justified under special circumstances (42%), and sometimes necessary by 35% of respondents. [18] A significant correlation of ATP scores was found to be present with a number of publications, no. of presentations and ATR score (P < 0.05) in the present study.…”

“…Pupovac et al also reported moderate positive attitude and subjective norms toward plagiarism with moderate to high negative attitude (36 ± 7, 26 ± 4, and 32 ± 6, respectively). [18] Gomez et al in a study among dental faculty and postgraduates reported ATP scores in a moderate category which translates into an insufficient level of seriousness and awareness. [19] Shirazi et al reported that majority of respondents confessed that they had plagiarized at least once in their life.…”