Faculty Perceptions of Student Self Plagiarism: An Exploratory Multi-university Study
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Faculty Perceptions of Student Self Plagiarism: An Exploratory Multi-university Study Colleen Halupa & Doris U. Bolliger
# Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013
Abstract The purpose of this research study was to evaluate faculty perceptions regarding student self-plagiarism or recycling of student papers. Although there is a plethora of information on plagiarism and faculty who self-plagiarize in publications, there is very little research on how faculty members perceive students re-using all or part of a previously completed assignment in a second assignment. With the wide use of plagiarism detection software, this issue becomes even more crucial. A population of 340 faculty members from two private universities at three different sites was surveyed in Fall 2012 semester regarding their perceptions of student self-plagiarism. A total of 89 faculty responded for a return rate of 26.2 %. Overall, institutional policies on self-plagiarism did not exist and faculty did not clearly understand the concept and believed their students did not either. Although faculty agreed students need to be educated on self-plagiarism, faculty assumed students had previously been educated on plagiarism as well as self-plagiarism; only 13 % ensured students understood this concept. Keywords Faculty perceptions . Self-plagiarism . Recycling . Academic honesty
Introduction Can you plagiarize something you own that has not been officially published and covered under copyright? There are a significant number of research studies on plagiarism and C. Halupa (*) Curriculum Design and Technology, LeTourneau University, Longview, TX, USA e-mail: [email protected] Colleen. Halupa e-mail: [email protected] C. Halupa School of Health Management, A.T. Still University, Kirksville, MO, USA C. Halupa A.T. Still University, Mesa, AZ, USA D. U. Bolliger College of Education, Department of Professional Studies, University of Wyoming, Dept. 3374, 1000 E. University Avenue, Laramie, WY 82071, USA e-mail: [email protected]
C. Halupa, D.U. Bolliger
plagiarism detection software, but very little on how to handle self-plagiarism or recycling assignments. There is no current information on suggested policies for handling recycling of student assignments and only one study (Bennett et al. 2011) examines if students and faculty perceive this as an acceptable practice. Plagiarism can be easily defined. The submitting of two articles that have significantly the same text to two different research journals in considered an ethical violation for academics and researchers. However, at this point in time, there is not an industry standard for student recycling of created but unpublished work. This can result in very different perceptions of the acceptability of this practice among professors and the students themselves. In addition, although there is published research on the practice of student plagiarism, there is almost none on faculty perceptions of this practice. In addition, there is almost nothing written on the practice of self-plagiari
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