Causes of the plagiarism: A grounded theory study

Abstract

Background: Plagiarism is an ethical and academic issue, which is affected by several factors. Objectives: This study is an attempt to introduce a model for elaborating on the causes of plagiarism in Iran. Research design: The study was carried out as a grounded theory study. Participants and research context: Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews with 32 university professors and postgraduate students at Iranian universities of medical sciences. The participants were selected through purposeful and theoretical sampling. Data analysis was done following Strauss et al.’s work. To ensure study rigor, Lincoln and Guba’s measures were used. Ethical considerations: All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Results: A conceptual model of the causes of plagiarism was developed based on analyzing and coding the data. The main core of the model was the emergence of plagiarism, and other cores were (1) causal condition: lack of skills, pressure by education system, and lack of awareness; (2) intervening factors: technological advances, legal gaps, and lack of efficient supervision; (3) ground factors: personal traits and attitudes of the academic community; (4) strategy and interventions: role model, supervision, national/international coordination, and higher awareness; (5) outcomes: regeneration of plagiarism and negative attitudes toward Iranian authors in the world academic communities. Conclusion: Several factors affect plagiarism. Among the approaches to attenuate plagiarism in Iranian academic communities are improving self-esteem and self-efficacy in Iranian researchers, emphasizing on quality rather than quantity of published works, discouraging boasting attitudes in the practitioners, denouncing intense competition among researchers, and introducing clear laws and severe punishments for plagiarism.

University students’ understandings, attitudes and experiences on plagiarism

“…Finally, this study reveals that time pressure is the most popular reason for students to plagiarise. This finding is the same as that in many other studies (Abbasi et al, 2020;Fatima et al, 2019;Phan & Nguyen, 2017;Razera, Verhagen, Pargman & Ramberg, 2009;Tindal & Curtis, 2020). Other factors including lacking learning motivation (Fatima et al, 2019), low English language competency (Tran, 2012), Internet access (Aasheim et al, 2019;Elshafei & Jahangir, 2020), the pressure for good grades, poor writing skills and time management (Selemani et al, 2018), working pressure and unfair competition (Santoso & Cahaya, 2019), gender, productivity benefit and easy Internet access are not found in this study.…”

“…In Sweden, Razera, Verhagen, Pargman and Ramberg (2010) surveyed 47 students and found that the main factors of plagiarising were lacking learning motivation as well as facing time pressure. Stress and time pressure were also the main reasons for plagiarism in several other studies (Abbasi, Yoosefi-Lebni, 2020;Fatima, Abbas, Ming, Hosseini & Zhu, 2019). A study by Tran (2012) revealed that international students from China, Vietnam, Thailand, Japan, Oman and Saudi Arabia, who were studying at La Trobe University, plagiarised due to low English language competency.…”

Plagiarism through Paraphrasing Tools—The Story of One Plagiarized Text

“…Plagiarism can lead to reinforcement of negative attitudes toward plagiarists, or even researchers from the same university or country, in academic communities all around the world [55]. Some journals blacklisted an author who regularly submitted plagiarized manuscripts [56].…”

Exploring the Causes of Plagiarism among Post Graduate Research Students- A Phenomenological Case Study Approach

“…Another pertinent reason is lack of knowledge. A few studies support the preceded claim (Abbasi et al, 2020;Bašić et al, 2018;Elshafei & Jahangir, 2020;Idiegbeyan-ose et al, 2016;Memon et al, 2019;Murtaza et al, 2013;Ramzan et al, 2012). However, the questions arise, is there any association between awareness and the incidence of plagiarism?…”

“…Other studies have highlighted social and inadequate language skills, time constraints, academic pressures, inadequate ideas, lack of confidence, competition, fear of failure, limited skills, scant awareness, and lack of policy intervention as determinants (Abbasi et al, 2020;Cleary, 2017;Dergisi, 2017;Farahian et al, 2020;Hopp &Speil, 2020;Husain et al, 2017;Jereb et al, 2017;Memon & Mavrinac, 2020;Moss et al, 2017).…”