The Good, the Bad, or the Ugly: Examining Iranian Efl University Teachers' and Graduate Students' Perceptions of Plagiarism

Abstract

This study attempted to investigate Iranian EFL teachers' and students' perceptions of plagiarism, the reasons for committing it, and the ways through which it can be resolved. To do so, a questionnaire was administered to a convenient sample of university teachers (N=9) and students (N=34). Results revealed that compared to their students, teachers reported greater amount of plagiarism in the writing samples given to them, which might imply that they were more strict in detecting plagiarism. In terms of the unfairness of plagiarism, both groups pointed out that plagiarists are primarily unfair to the original author because they take the credit that s/he really deserves. Regarding the reasons for doing plagiarism, too, both groups concurred that the most prominent reason is the students' inability to write scientifically. Finally, while students thought that this problem could be solved through open discussion and negotiation, teachers posited that open discussion as well as severe punishment methods could be used to solve the problem.

Examining the Role of Gender and Educational Level in Committing Plagiarism by Iranian EFL Graduate Students

“…and Ph.D. students regarding the main reasons for engaging in plagiarism. This finding may partially contradict results of previous research which pointed out that factors such as insufficient linguistic abilities, inadequate research and writing skills, lack of enough instruction and unfamiliarity with the concept are the main contributing reasons leading to plagiarism (Alimorad, 2018;Babaii & Nejadghanbar, 2016;Rezanejad & Rezaei, 2013;Riasati & Rahimi, 2013;Tahriri & Eslam-Navaz, 2014). It may also be indirectly in contrast to BavaHarji et al 's (2016) conclusion that referred to the prevalence of plagiarism among juniors (Year 1) as compared to seniors (Years 2 & 3).…”

“…Recently, as one part of her study, Alimorad (2018) attempted to uncover Iranian graduate students' perceptions of their reasons for plagiarizing. The participating students in her study thought that the most important reason for this misconduct was their being unable to write scientifically.…”

“…(Stuhmcke et al,p. 3) Even though plagiarism has recently been a matter of considerable concern for Iranian scholars and researchers (e.g., Alimorad, 2018;Babaii & Nejadghanbar, 2016;Khamesan & Amiri, 2011;Rashidi, Rahimi, & Dehghan, 2016;Rezanejad & Rezaei, 2013;Tahriri & Eslam-Navaz, 2014; to name a few), there are still several unexplored territories which need to be attended to in this context. One of the important areas in need of closer examination is the main perceived reasons for committing plagiarism.…”

Struggling Motivation of Three Indonesian Novice Writers in Scholarly Publication

“…The narrative analysis of this semi-structured interview unveiled that the participants struggled to employ various attempts to sustained motivation in writing for scholarly publication processes. This study portrayed multi-facet complexities encountered by the participants in their motivation for scholarly publication, ranging from limited knowledge on writing for scholarly publication (Alimorad, 2018), time constraints (Cabanas et al, 2018), writer block experiences (Casanave, 2019;Li, Franken, & Wu, 2019), low of academic writing skill (Karimnia, 2013), and complicatedness in avoiding plagiarism (Yang, Stockwell, & McDonnell, 2019). Interestingly, this study documented that these participants make use of their innovative learning locks to write for scholarly publications.…”

“…Comprising such issues as the level of academic writing (Karimnia, 2013), they do not know how to deal with grammatical structure, paraphrasing, and organizing ideas (Harmawan et al, 2023). They also have limited knowledge of writing for publication (Alimorad, 2018), time constraints and little experience in writing for publication (Cabanas, Bridgeman, & Hermes-DeSantis, 2018), institutional pressure to publish in reputable international journals (Jiang, Borg, & Borg, 2017) and being trapped to publish in predatory journals (Chavarro, Tang, & Ràfols, 2017). The challenge of writing for publication becomes higher because the Indonesian government issues a policy for scholarly publication in higher education.…”