Perception of plagiarism factors among students from the health careers training institute

Abstract

Plagiarism is an act that negatively affects the quality of students training and the professional skills development. The aim of this study is to examine the perception of plagiarism factors among students from the health careers training institute. To carry out this quantitative study, seventy students were recruited. To collect the data, we used a questionnaire that included participants' socio-demographic characteristics and plagiarism factors. The results highlighted factors attributed to the students, factors relating to the teacher and factors relating to the training institution. Thus, the inability to manage time was raised by 61.3% of participants, ignorance of the rules for citing references (57%), easy access to information (46.8%), lack of awareness (51.6%), insufficient training (52%) and lack of disciplinary measures (76%). Minimizing plagiarism as much as possible requires the involvement of all actors in the teaching-learning process. An approach based on prevention, detection and sanction is proposed. Penalty should only be applied as a last resort, and need be accompanied by an in-depth analysis of the causes of plagiarism.