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The University is committed to engendering a culture of academic integrity among our students, and educating students about academic honesty. Plagiarism is a form of academic dishonesty. The design of your assessment plays an important role in discouraging students from plagiarising (Macdonald & Carroll, 2006; Ward & Trigwell, 2015). Knowing more about students’ reasons for plagiarising can help you to develop and use assessment and teaching strategies to discourage students from plagiarising in the first place.

Students may plagiarise because they:

do not think it is dishonest to paraphrase a person’s work and present it as their own without acknowledgement (Franklyn-Stokes & Newstead, 1995)
do not know how to reference appropriately in the relevant discipline (Wilhoit , 1994; Owens & White, 2013)
have not developed sufficient skills in reading and taking notes from sources to be able to effectively compose their own academic writing (Wilhoit, 1994)
have not developed sufficient skills in academic writing, and specifically, using an ‘original voice’ and ‘authorial identity’ (Owens & White, 2013)
lack confidence in their ability to express an argument using an ‘original voice’
are anxious and under stress because of study workload and/or financial pressures, and feel they must plagiarise to succeed in their studies (Ashworth, Bannister & Thorne, 1997; Zobel & Hamilton, 2002)
are seeking ways to expend the least amount of effort in obtaining high grades in assessment tasks (Wilhoit, 1994)
perceive that the assessment task is trivial and/or irrelevant and so is not worth their genuine effort, and does not require ‘original thought’ or an original voice (Ashworth, Bannister & Thorne, 1997), and/or
perceive that academic dishonesty by other students is condoned by staff, and there are no consequences in their unit of study or course if they cheat or plagiarise (McCabe, Trevino & Butterfield, 2001).

Adapted from The Institute for Interactive Media & Learning, University of Technology Sydney.

Many of the reasons why students plagiarise are related to their skills and their confidence in their ability as academic writers. For a range of other reasons see Zobel and Hamilton (2002).

Assessments that are more authentic and less contrived are more likely to discourage students from plagiarising. Click here for a list of other practical assessment-related strategies that you can use to prevent students from plagiarising. For more advice and further information about preventing students from plagiarising see the 'Teaching for Educational Integrity' module.

Sources

Ashworth, P., Bannister, P., & Thorne, P. (1997). Guilty in whose eyes? University students' perceptions of cheating and plagiarism in academic work and assessment. Studies in Higher Education, 22(2), 187-203.

Franklyn-Stokes, A., & Newstead, S. E. (1995). Undergraduate cheating: Who does what and why? Studies in Higher Education, 20(2), 159-172.

Macdonald, R., & Carroll, J. (2006). Plagiarism - a complex issue requiring a holistic institutional approach. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 31(2), 233-245.

McCabe, D. L., Treviño, L. K., & Butterfield, K. D. (2001). Cheating in academic institutions: A decade of research. Ethics & Behavior, 11(3), 219-232.

Owens, C., & White, F. A. (2013). A 5-year systematic strategy to reduce plagiarism among first-year psychology university students. Australian Journal of Psychology, 65, 14-21.

Ward, M-H., & Trigwell, K. (2015). Literature review on academic misconduct and plagiarism. DVC Education Portfolio, June.

Wilhoit, S. (1994). Helping students avoid plagiarism. College Teaching, 42(4), 161-164.

Zobel, J., & Hamilton, M. (2002). Managing student plagiarism in large academic departments. Australian Universities Review, 45(2), 23-30.

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