Internal and External Factors of Plagiarism: Evidence from Chinese Public Sector Universities

ABSTRACT

This study explores the effects of internal and external factors that encourage plagiarism from the perspective of students. We collected student data from five public sector universities in Anhui Province, China, by randomly distributing survey questionnaires to 250 students, 176 of which were usable. We analyzed the collected quantitative data through multiple regression analysis. Our research results demonstrate that external and internal factors have a great influence on plagiarism. The control behavior and teaching factors have a significantly positive impact on plagiarism, while ICT and web does not have a considerable impact on plagiarism. Among the external factors, a significant positive correlation exists between external stress, pride, and plagiarism; however, no significant relationship exists between academic skills and plagiarism. The article concludes that grade level and enrollment status (full-time or part-time) are inversely correlated to plagiarism, which proves that the higher the academic level, the less the plagiarism behaviors occur. This concept may be due to the fact that the higher the academic level, the stronger the plagiarism constraints might be, which in turn leads to a drastic decrease in plagiarism. Moreover, a negative relationship emerges between enrollment status (full-time or part-time) and plagiarism because part-time students who are committed to employment are less likely to give their full attention to their studies.

KEYWORDS:

• Academic integrity
• academic dishonesty
• China
• influential factors
• higher education
• plagiarism
• public sector universities
• part-time students

Acknowledgments

The first author (Anam Fatima) would like to express gratitude to the Chinese government for awarding China Scholarship Council (CSC) Master’s scholarship at the University of Science and Technology of China, especially the School of Public Affairs. We are thankful to Dr. Shuliang Zhao, Associate Professor, USTC School of Public Affairs for helping us during data analysis and also Mishal Mufti, Shamsa Kanwal, and ShiJiaQi for data collection. We are also grateful to all students who became a part of our paper-based survey. The authors thank the receiving editor Adil E. Shamoo, associate editor David B. Resnik, and the anonymous reviewers whose thoughtful critique helped to improve the article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.