Level of awareness among veterinary students of GADVASU towards plagiarism: a case study
| Published date | 02 October 2017 |
| Date | 02 October 2017 |
| Pages | 899-915 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/EL-06-2016-0132 |
| Author | Nirmal Singh |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
Level of awareness among
veterinary students of GADVASU
towards plagiarism: a case study
Nirmal Singh
University Library, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University,
Ludhiana, India
Abstract
Purpose –Plagiarism is wrecking the academic spheres all around the world. The internet is accused
for causing exponential increase in plagiarism. This paper aims to examine the prevalence of
plagiarism among veterinary students and assess the impact of the internet on their plagiarism
practices, so that the corrective measures can be suggested to ensure the originality of academic and
research work.
Design/methodology/approach –A survey of undergraduate and postgraduate students of
veterinary science was conducted at Guru Angad Dev Veterinary & Animal Sciences University
(GADVASU), Ludhiana using questionnaire as data collection tool. The responses of total 147 students
have been analysed using percentage calculations and mean values. The t-test has been applied using
SPSS-16 to find the significance of difference in the plagiarism practiced by students using the internet
and print sources of information.
Findings –Results revealed the prevalence of plagiarism among both groups of students. There was no
significant differencein the frequency level of plagiarism among UG and PG students using both the internet
and print sources of information, advocatingthat the internet has not influenced the plagiarism frequency of
students.
Originality/value –This is the first known attempt to examine the plagiarism habits of veterinary
students.
Keywords Internet, Students, Impact assessment, Plagiarism, Veterinary science
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Plagiarism has a negative effect on academic integrity, which is the essence of a vibrant
academic life, scientific progress and preparing students for responsible citizenship
(Heneghan, 2012). Plagiarism is regarded as academic misconduct and includes activities
such as deception, cheating,intellectual dishonesty, ethical waning and so forth. Thoughthe
concept of plagiarism is not very old, there have been numerous incidences in scholastic
spheres. Even famous writers, journalists and thinkers, such as William Shakespeare,
Laurence Sterne, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Oscar Wilde, Martin Luther King, Jr., George
Harrison, Alex Haley and JaysonBlair, have been accused of borrowing content from others
without giving due attributions (Hannah, 2015). In the contemporary era, the role of the
internet as a supplement to academic and research activities is beyond doubt. At the same
time, the ready availability of content via the internet has been accused of causing
the exponential growth in plagiarism among academics. The internet is said to have made
plagiarism less labour intensive and fast, and sometimes accidental. Turnitin.com found
that in 2011 and 2012, more than 50 per cent of college papers contained plagiarized
material, likely retrieved from theinternet, with out attribution. C utting and pasting f rom
Awareness
among
veterinary
students
899
Received14 June 2016
Revised11 November 2016
Accepted15 January 2017
TheElectronic Library
Vol.35 No. 5, 2017
pp. 899-915
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0264-0473
DOI 10.1108/EL-06-2016-0132
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0264-0473.htm
the most common online sources including Wikipedia, Yahoo Answers and eNotes was
found to be the most common form of internet plagiarism (Casil, 2016). Plagiarism is
infecting scholarly work in most colleges (Shivnani, 2015). Marshall and Garry (2005a,
b) noted that there is a reported incidence of plagiarism by students nearly daily.
Though the internet has made plagiarism easier, the emergence of software, such as
Turnitin, Urkund, iThenticate and others, has opened new avenues for plagiarism
detection. Universities and other institutions of higher education around the globe are
increasingly requiring that dissertations be run through such software before final
submission to ensure the originality of the content. However, plagiarism detection
softwares are not completely flawless. These sense only the most blatant form of
plagiarism where the text is copied from one source and pasted into another without
any change. Moreover, they capture the similarity with electronic documents available
online only, with free access. The studies of Baruchson-Arbib and Yaari (2004) and
Introna et al. (2003) revealed that students consider plagiarism from electronic
information resources less serious than plagiarism from print information sources, as
they perceive the information on the internet as free for use. Bilokon (2015) believed
that, although ways to plagiarize from the internet are effective and easy, the situation
was most likely even worse in the past.
Veterinary science is a highly knowledge-intensive field. Advancements in
diagnostic measures and clinical procedures are basic to identifying and curing known
and emerging diseases. Thus, innovative ideas are central to the success of veterinary
science. As with other fields, the internet has influenced education and learning in this
discipline too. This makes it imperative to examine the prevalence of plagiarism among
veterinary students and to assess the impact of the internet on plagiarism practices, so
that corrective measures can be suggested to ensure the originality of academic and
research work.
Literature review
A review of the literature providesa better understanding of the problem and is essential to
learning about the current situation of a subject or topic. Plagiarism is receiving attention
from different quarters. Numerous studies are being conducted in different institutions
across the world to explore various aspects of this act of academic dishonesty. However,
currently, no efforts have been made to explore plagiarism practices among veterinary
students. A review of the available and relevant studies relatedto the problem is presented
below.
Studies have suggested an alarming level of plagiarism among academics. Coughlin
(2015) examined the 48 licenciatura theses and 102 masters’theses from five
universities of Mozambique and found that 75.0 per cent of theses contained significant
plagiarism and 39.0 per cent contained a very high level of plagiarised content.
Similarly, Rathore et al. (2015) found that the majority of medical students and faculty
in Pakistan had moderate or high scores on their attitudes towards plagiarism. Jeergal
et al. (2015) found that 76.0 per cent of the students of dental institutions in India
accepted participating in the act of cheating and 57.2 per cent students agree that it was
part and parcel of life. Hu and Lei (2015) explored the perceptions of students attending
Chinese universities towards plagiarism and reported that almost all (90.0 per cent) of
the participants regarded slack attitudes, such as reluctance to think and low
investment in assignments, as a cause of plagiarism and the majority of participants
(50.0 per cent) identified both inadequate academic ability and academic pressure as
probable causes of plagiarism.
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