Plagiarism: an Ounce of Prevention

Plagiarism: An Ounce of Prevention … by Miguel Roig, psychology professor, St. John’s University

While student cheating, particularly plagiarism, should be old news to most academic observers, it continues to challenge the integrity of undergraduate and graduate education. The results of the latest large-scale study by researcher Donald McCabe of Rutgers University1 are unequivocal about the scope of the problem. Of more than 70,000 undergraduates and 10,000 graduate students surveyed across 83 college campuses in the United States and Canada, 62% of undergraduate and 59% of graduate-student respondents admitted to have engaged in cut-and-paste plagiarism from online sources. While these percentages may seem disproportionately high, there is reason to believe the actual incidence of student plagiarism is much higher—some students may be reluctant to admit they engage in academically dishonest acts. More importantly, there is some evidence suggesting a significant percentage of students—many of whom may believe they engage in appropriate writing practices—actually plagiarize inadvertently.2, 3 Thus, given the current state of affairs, there is an urgent need to address this form of misconduct. Informing students about plagiarism Ideally, every higher learning institution should provide its students with proper guidance and instruction on issues of academic integrity before students set foot in a college classroom. An increasing number of institutions provide coverage on these important matters during freshman orientation. Not all institutions, however, take these steps. Even for those that do, their instruction and guidance probably varies widely in their ability to deter future academically dishonest activity. Differences in quality aside, these types of interventions can be made significantly more effective by having each individual instructor reinforce basic principles of academic integrity in the classroom. For example, although general notions of citation

References: 1. Donald L. McCabe, “Cheating Among College and University Students: A North American Perspective,” International Journal for Educational Integrity, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2005, www.ojs.unisa.edu.au/index.php/ijei/article/viewfile/14/9. 2. Miguel Roig, “Can College Undergraduates Determine Whether Text Has Been Plagiarized?” The Psychological Record, Vol. 47, 1997, pp.113-122. 3. Miguel Roig, “When College Students’ Attempts at Paraphrasing Become Instances of Potential Plagiarism,” Psychological Reports, Vol. 84, 1999, pp. 973-982. 4. Miguel Roig, “Plagiarism and Paraphrasing Criteria Of Psychology Professors and Professors From Other Disciplines,” Ethics and Behavior, Vol. 11, No. 3, 2001, pp. 307-323. 5. Amanda Marks and Miguel Roig, “An Analysis of Academic Dishonesty Statements in a Sample of Psychology Course Syllabi,” Psi Chi Poster presented at the 76th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, Boston, March 2005. 6. Jennifer Salhaney and Miguel Roig, “Academic Dishonesty Policies Across Universities: Focus on Plagiarism,” Psi Chi: Journal of Undergraduate Research, Vol. 9, 2004, pp. 150-153. 7. Joshua D. Landau, Perri B. Druen and Jennifer Arcuri, “Methods For Helping Students To Avoid Plagiarism,” Teaching of Psychology, Vol. 29, 2002, pp. 112-115. 8. Joshua D. Landau, “Understanding and Preventing Plagiarism,” APS Observer, www.psychologicalscience.org/teaching/tips/tips_0403.cfm. 9. Roig, “Can College Undergraduates Determine Whether Text Has Been Plagiarized?” see reference 2. 10. Roig, “Plagiarism and Paraphrasing Criteria of Psychology Professors And Professors From Other Disciplines,” see reference 4. 11. Kell Julliard, “Perceptions of Plagiarism in the Use of Other Author’s Language,” Family Medicine, Vol. 26, 1994, pp. 356-360. 12. Landau, “Methods For Helping Students to Avoid Plagiarism,” see reference 7. ASQ Higher Education Brief June 2010 www.asq.org 13. Elaine S. Barry, “Can Paraphrasing Practice Help Students Define Plagiarism?” College Student Journal, Vol. 40, No. 2, 2006, pp. 377-384. 14. Pamela Schuetze, “Evaluation of a Brief Homework Assignment Designed to Reduce Citation Problems,” Teaching of Psychology, Vol. 31, No. 4, 2004, pp. 257-259. 15. Thomas S. Dee and Brian A. Jacob, “Rational Ignorance in Education: A Field Experiment in Student Plagiarism,” www.swarthmore.edu/Documents/academics/economics/Dee/w15672.pdf (case sensitive). 16. Roig, “When College Students’ Attempts at Paraphrasing Become Instances of Potential Plagiarism,” see reference 3. 17. Miguel Roig and Carol Ballew, “Attitudes Toward Cheating in Self and Others by College Students and Professors,” The Psychological Record, Vol. 44, 1994, pp. 3-12. 18. McCabe, “Cheating Among College and University Students: A North American Perspective,” see reference 1. 19. Donald L. McCabe, Kenneth D. Butterfield and Linda Klebe Trevino, “Academic Dishonesty in Graduate Business Programs: Prevalance, Causes and Proposed Action,” Academy of Management Learning & Education, Vol. 5, 2006, pp. 294-305. 20. S.C. Rennie and Joy R. Crosby, “Are ‘Tomorrow’s Doctors’ Honest? Questionnaire Study Exploring Medical Students’ Attitudes and Reported Behaviour on Academic Misconduct,” British Medical Journal, Vol. 322, 2001, pp. 274-275. 21. Raquel Billiones, “Plagiarism Prevention in Educational Institutions is Extending to Biomedical Journals,” Write Stuff, Vol. 17, No. 1, 2008, p. 43, www.emwa.org/journalarticles/ja_v17_i1_billiones1.pdf. 22, Doug Lederman, “Student Plagiarism, Faculty Responsibility,” Inside Higher Ed, June 1, 2006, www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/06/01/plagiarism. 23. Elia Powers, “‘Distinguished’ No Longer,” Inside Higher Ed, Feb. 22, 2008. www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/02/22/ohio. Miguel Roig is a psychology professor at St. John’s University on Staten Island, NY. He earned his doctorate in cognitive studies from Rutgers University in New Jersey. For the last 15 years, Roig has carried out research with his students in academic dishonesty, with a focus on plagiarism. ASQ Higher Education Brief June 2010 www.asq.org