A survey regarding awareness of ‘plagiarism while writing articles’ among students and faculty members of Indian colleges/universities

Abstract

Originality concerning scientific and research publications is of vital importance in this day and age and must be protected. With literary piracy reaching celestial heights in recent times, ethics must be maintained so that research integrity prevails. Plagiarism ranges from copying a few words to entire paragraphs and even ideas. The contribution(s) of the original author are not mentioned, not even using in-text citations. Plagiarism occurs largely due to the writer’s ignorance, but may be deliberate on occasion. The aim of the study was to understand the level of awareness among students and faculty members of Indian colleges/universities about plagiarism and its related aspects while writing and publishing articles. A virtual cross-sectional survey was conducted on students and faculty members using Google Forms. A 20-item self-administered questionnaire was framed by the authors after an extensive review of the literature and circulated through various WhatsApp groups to extract information from the participants about causes of plagiarism, paraphrasing, money-oriented publication agencies, plagiarism checker software and preventive measures. Of 63 total respondents, 93.7% of participants were just aware of the term plagiarism in relation to writing papers and research articles, although 54% admitted that they had never written an article. The overall analysis highlighted that around 93% of responders had preliminary knowledge about plagiarism, but were still unaware of the seriousness of the problem and its grave consequences. Extensive campaigning and workshops need to be conducted to guide writers about the rules of publication ethics to prevent such malpractice.