University Students' Knowledge and Attitudes about Plagiarism: A Web-Based Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Plagiarism is the act of using someone else's ideas, words, or work without giving them proper credit and presenting it as your own. It is considered a serious ethical and academic offense in most educational institutions and professional settings. The main objective of this research was to find the level of knowledge and attitudes about plagiarism among university level students and various associated factors affecting for level of knowledge and attitudes.

An analytical cross-sectional study was conducted among 288 universities level students using non probability sampling. Collected information was checked for completeness and coded with serial number and then analyzed using SPSS-22. Descriptive and inferential statistical tools were used for data analysis. In the descriptive statistics frequency and percentage were calculated for the categorical variable while mean and SD were calculated for continuous variables. In the inferential statistics to find the association between level of knowledge and attitude Chi-Square test were used. p-value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant.

The mean±SD of age was 24.4±3.15 years. This study revealed that 68.4% students know the meaning of plagiarism. Also, 46.2 % students had good (with 95% CI 40.44%-51.95%). Likewise, 51% students had positive attitude level of attitude (with 95% CI 45.22 %-56.77%). Academic year, level of education, type of university was found to be statistically significant with outcome variable (knowledge and attitude) (p-value<0.05).

More than half of university students were still unaware of the concept condition as well as of type, its significance, consequences and remedies for plagiarism. So, the academic community of concerned authorities needs to pay close attention, not just as a breach of ethics and regulations, in order to create a harmonious academic environment.