Plagiarism is a rampant issue in schools and colleges throughout the US. With so many students having easy access to information on the internet, it is hardly any surprise that they get tempted to copy content for an essay or an assignment. Several studies and surveys have shown that plagiarism is steadily on the rise. In fact, one such report states that there has been a 10 percent jump in plagiarism – from 35 percent to 45 percent – post COVID-19.
One of the most comprehensive studies on academic integrity was conducted by Dr. Donald McCabe and the International Center for Academic Integrity. Surveys were conducted between Fall 2002 and Spring 2015, during which more than 50 percent of participants admitted to plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty.
Noteworthy Plagiarism Statistics
Here are some notable facts and figures on plagiarism:
- Plagiarism – a form of academic dishonesty – is a punishable offence.
- An investigation by Harvard University revealed that 125 Harvard students had resorted to plagiarism while attempting a take-home final exam.
- In a survey conducted by Dr. Donald McCabe and the International Center for Academic Integrity over a period of 12 years, it was found that about 58% of graduate and undergraduate students admitted to plagiarism.
- 40% of students admitted to plagiarism in a survey conducted as part of the Center of Academic Integrity’s Assessment project.
- A poll conducted by the website CollegeHumor revealed that about 60.8% of 30000 participants admitted to cheating in college, of which 16.5% didn’t regret cheating.
- A survey conducted by Florida State University found that:
- 72.3% of faculty members chose not to address suspected plagiarism or cheating due to lack of evidence.
- 29.2% of faculty members believed that students often plagiarized written assignments.
- 47% of the students responded saying that plagiarism was a common high-school cheating behavior.
- 48.8% of the students indicated that they had paraphrased or copied content off of the internet without providing citations.
- Another survey conducted by Dr. Donald McCabe of Rutgers University for a duration of three years, with over 63,700 US undergraduate and 9,250 graduate students participants, revealed that:
- 36% of undergraduates and 24% of graduate students admitted to “paraphrasing/copying a few sentences from Internet sources without footnoting it.”
- 38% of undergraduates and 25% of graduate students admitted to “paraphrasing/copying a few sentences from a written source without footnoting it.”
- 14% of undergraduate students and 7% of graduate students admitted to “fabricating/falsifying a bibliography.”
- 7% of undergraduates and 4% of graduate students self-reported copying materials “almost word for word from a written source without citation.”
- 7% of undergraduates and 3% of graduate students self-reported “turning in work done by another.”
- 3% of undergraduates and 2% of graduate students reported “obtaining a paper from a term paper mill.”
- A comprehensive essay on plagiarism states that:
- 83% of undergraduate and postgraduate students who had English as an Additional Language (EAL) were more likely to plagiarize than non-EAL students.
- A study by Gilmore et al. found that 42% of research proposals by STEM students were plagiarized.
With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing digital transformation of education worldwide, academic misconduct, especially plagiarism, will prove to be a major challenge for schools and universities the world over. It is now more important than ever before for educational institutions to have proper academic integrity policies in place to discourage students from cheating.
