Naslov
Prevalence of plagiarism among medical students

Autori
Bilić-Zulle, Lidija ; Petrovečki, Mladen

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, sažetak, znanstveni

Izvornik
ORI Research Conference on Research Integrity, Abstracts Book / - San Diego (CA) : Office of Resarch Integrity, US Department of Health and Human Services, 2004

Skup
2004 3rd Research Conference on Research Integrity

Mjesto i datum
San Diego (CA), Sjedinjene Američke Države, 12.11.2004. - 14.11.2004

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Međunarodna recenzija

Ključne riječi
Education; Medical; Ethics; Medical; Fraud; Intellectual property; Copyright; Medical Informatics; Plagiarism; Scientific Misconduct; Schools; Medical; Universities

Sažetak
Aims and objective. No doubt that plagiarism exists but is hard to investigate and rarely quantified. Aim of this study was to find the rate of plagiarism among medical students while writing papers, and to find out influence of covariates (sex, paper subject, clear warning of plagiarism prohibition, examination grade) on plagiarism rate. Method. During two years we evaluated student papers written in electronic form on Medical Informatics (MI) curriculum. Four source papers from MI journal were offered to students, two of them also in electronic form (web). Papers were assigned as less or more complicated, one of each in paper/electronic form. Group of students was not given warning about plagiarism, and the other was clearly advised not to copy from source text. Papers (N=199) were compared with source using WCopyfind 2.1 program (Louis Bloomfield), adjusting comparison rule parameters according authors recommendations. The rate of plagiarism was calculated from total and copied word count. Findings and general conclusions. Median plagiarism rate was 19% (0-88%, 5th-95th%). There was no difference in plagiarism rates between males and females (p=0.535), publishing form (electronic vs. traditional, p=0.855), source complexity (p=0.155) and warning on plagiarism (p=0.320). Our students obviously still do not use computer copy/paste function more than copying text directly by typing. Warning itself is not strong enough to reduce plagiarism. Only significant difference was found in plagiarism rate related to MI examination grade (p=0.033), which was not influenced by quality of paper. Finding proves that better students with higher grades are more responsible and plagiarize less than students with lower grades.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

POVEZANOST RADA