Engineering Students’ Understanding of Plagiarism

The engineering profession has clearly embraced the importance of ethical behavior among students and working professional engineers. The prevalence of unethical behaviors, such as plagiarism, among college students has increased significantly in the past 30 years 10 . Research suggests that science and technology students have the highest levels of cheating including plagiarism 10 . University educators often debate whether plagiarism is committed willfully or unintentionally out of ignorance and research investigating this area appears equivocal. Therefore, we sought to investigate first-semester freshmen engineering students’ understanding of plagiarism at a science and technology university. Nearly 1,100 first year engineering students at a Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri ST 60%, 38%, and 87%; respectively, selected the correct answer. The incorrect answer was selected 33%, 51%, and 4% of the time. “I don’t know” was selected 7%, 10%, and 8% of the time. These preliminary findings indicate shortcomings in first semester, freshmen engineering students’ understanding of plagiarism and its significance. Although the vast majority of participants’ self-identified themselves as ethical and as having previous training regarding academic integrity, when specifically tested on their understanding of plagiarism on average only 60% of students answered correctly. These data suggest the possibility that, in some situations, students failure to follow proper academic guidelines maybe a lack of understanding rather than a willful violation of academic integrity. The paper concludes with recommendations for improving engineering students understanding of plagiarism and its consequences. An annotated list of references and online training available for instructors’ use is provided. A discussion of plagiarism software (such as iThenicate) and referencing software (such as Endnotes) is included.