Source misuse in applied linguistics articles: Exploring proficient and novice English writersʼ perceptions of plagiarism

Abstract

The source misuse practices of non‐English speaking academic authors are a controversial but less researched topic in plagiarism studies. The present study investigated the illegitimate textual borrowing practices of proficient and novice (co)authors as well as multi‐ and single‐authored articles in Iranian scholarly journals of Applied Linguistics. The similarity check was performed by the use of the text matching software (iThenticate) along with human inspection. The results revealed no significant difference in the plagiarism levels of proficient and novice (co)authors nor in multi‐author and single‐author articles. The study further continued through interviews to explore several proficient and novice academic authors' perception and knowledge about plagiarism. The proficient writers, as faculty members, showed better understanding of textual borrowing strategies. The evidence suggested that postgraduate students still have not developed an intrinsic drive to avoid plagiarism because they think they do not receive proper training in source attribution and in plagiarism avoidance. Thus, the plagiarism debate including the practice of source use conventions and ethics of knowledge should gradually flow in all students' activities. This process can take effect as long as it is supported by the institutional measures along with appropriate use of both educational and developmental programs.