Audrey Poh Choo Cheak, Cheah Chew Sze, Yeow Jian Ai, Chow Mei Min, Siow Jun Ming / International Research Conference 2013, Pearl International, KualA Lumpur, 26-27 September 2013

International Research Conference 2013

Internet Plagiarism: University Students’ Perspectives
Audrey Poh Choo Cheak, Cheah Chew Sze, Yeow Jian Ai, Chow Mei Min, Siow Jun Ming
Faculty of Business, Multimedia University, Jalan Ayer Keroh Lama, 75450 Melaka, Malaysia.

Abstract
These days, with the availability of the Internet, vast amount of information can be found in just a second ready to be copied. This can be done by just typing the keyword to search via any search engines. Hence, the Internet has greatly increased the temptation for students to plagiarize. Educators have noticed this new trend or behavior of “copy and paste” without acknowledging the author and found it to be the latest form of academic misconduct that must be put into serious attention. This research examines the contributing factors to Internet plagiarism activities from university students’ perspectives especially the postgraduates. Survey method is used to collect the data for this research in which questionnaires were selectively distributed to six (6) public/private universities in Melaka, Pahang and KL. The selective public/private universities were each given 50 questionnaires to distribute to their postgraduate students. A total of 252 usable questionnaires were collected and the data were keyed into SPSS and analyzed to obtain the descriptive statistics and Pearson’s correlation results. The main contribution of this research will be the identification of the contributing factors toward Internet plagiarism so that proper measures can be taken to deter this academic misconduct. Besides, this study would also allow for a more effective and efficient implementation of a revised university’s policy on Internet plagiarism and proactive approaches in the teaching and prevention of plagiarism activities for the betterment of the nation’s quality of education. Keywords: Plagiarism, Internet, Internet plagiarism, online plagiarism, lack of writing skills, misconception of plagiarism.

1. Introduction
Internet plagiarism which is also known as online or cyber plagiarism has become a trend amongst university students, in which they find that copying from the website is easier and save time. There is evidence showing that students engaging in Internet plagiarism activities have increased and the Internet is likely to boost up the problem (McCabe, Trevino and Butterfiled, 2001). According to Breen and Maassen (2005), studies on American students have shown that 50% of university students were found committing online plagiarism during their studies life in university.

In Malaysia, the Star Online has conducted a research to determine students’ involvement in Internet plagiarism showed that, about 57% of the students agree that Internet is the main reason that leads to plagiarism activities (Fredericks, 2000). According to Fredericks (2000), 39% of the students think that they are not committing plagiarism if they are not copying the entire work. Thus, 28% of the students believe that it is acceptable to extract a sentence or two from several sources. However, only 17% of respondents agree that plagiarism is a serious offense and the rest of 16% respondents have different opinion.

Internet plagiarism is nothing new to the education sector; the rate has increased in scale to the point where it is almost an epidemic! This will pose a great obstacle for the university to achieve a higher education quality. D...

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