Plagiarism Perceptions among Undergraduates at Olabisi Onabanjo University, Nigeria

Abstract

Despite universities’ increasing awareness of the importance of maintaining academic integrity, students are still involved in plagiarism and other forms of academic misconduct. In order to address challenges associated with plagiarism, a thorough examination of conceptions and issues associated with plagiarism is required. This article therefore explores the knowledge and perceptions of plagiarism, reasons for committing plagiarism, and forms of plagiarism found among undergraduates at Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ogun state, Nigeria. A descriptive survey research design and a multistage sampling technique were adopted for the study. A questionnaire with a reliability index of 0.89 was used to collect data from 378 undergraduates, sampled from six faculties of the selected institution. The findings reveal that the respondents have good knowledge of plagiarism (  = 3.31) and that the majority perceive plagiarism as a menace and a criminal act (  = 3.20). The findings further reveal the desire to achieve high marks, fear of failure, and poor academic planning as respondents’ major reasons for committing plagiarism. It was also found that gender does not significantly influence perceptions of plagiarism, whereas the faculty the student belongs to does influence perceptions of plagiarism. Among other things, the study recommends that university management acquire and implement good commercial plagiarism detection software and also formulate, implement, and enact regulations on plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty.