Plagiarism in Cyberspace: Learning the Rules of Recycling Content with a View Towards Nurturing Academic Trust in an Electronic World

Abstract

This article explores the challenges of instilling a sense of academic integrity among a community of students who grew up in a cut and paste electronic environment. It advocates the adoption and use of a straight forward plagiarism definition without an intent element. Creating a clear understanding of what plagiarism is and how can it can be avoided is necessary to avoid the harms that result from incidents of plagiarism - both to individuals and to the academic community. To achieve this goal, the article proposes teaching ten rules for avoiding plagiarism in order to nurture a community of academic trust.