Perceptions of and Attitudes toward Plagiarism and Factors Contributing to Plagiarism: a Review of Studies

• Published in: Journal of academic ethics Vol. 15; no. 2; pp. 167 - 195
• Main Authors: Husain, Fauzilah Md, Al-Shaibani, Ghayth Kamel Shaker, Mahfoodh, Omer Hassan Ali
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.06.2017; BioMed Central, Ltd; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Academic Language; Administration; Attitudes; Cheating; Context Effect; Cultural Influences; Discourse Communities; Education; English; Ethics; Higher education; Information technology; Language Skills; Native Speakers; Organization and Leadership; Perceptions; Plagiarism; Researchers; Social Influences; Student Attitudes; Teacher Attitudes; Writing Ability; Writing Skills; Attitudes; Perceptions; Plagiarism; Higher education; Factors; Academic misconduct
• ISSN: 1570-1727; 1572-8544
• DOI: 10.1007/s10805-017-9274-1

The abundance of information technology and electronic resources for academic materials has contributed to the attention given to research on plagiarism from various perspectives. Among the issues that have attracted researchers’ attention are perceptions of plagiarism and attitudes toward plagiarism. This article presents a critical review of studies that have been conducted to examine staff’s and students’ perceptions of and attitudes toward plagiarism. It also presents a review of studies that have focused on factors contributing to plagiarism. Our review of studies reveals that most of the studies on perceptions of plagiarism and attitudes toward plagiarism lack an in-depth analysis of the relationship between the perceptions of plagiarism and other contextual, sociocultural and institutional variables, or the relationship between attitudes toward plagiarism and students’ perceptions of various forms of plagiarism. Although our review shows that various factors can contribute to plagiarism, there is no taxonomy that can account for all these factors. Some suggestions for future research are provided in this review article.