General perspective to plagiarism acts among Masters-Professors and postgraduate students of Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences

Abstract

The word Greek origin "Plagion" is the root of word plagiarism and in Latin it is "plagiarius", which mean kidnapper, seducer, plunderer and literacy thief. Plagiarism is a serious violation of publishing ethics in academic institutes. This study aimed to examine the conceptual awareness of masters- professors and postgraduate students of Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences (AJUMS) related to plagiarism issues. A self-made questionnaire was used with two different parts included the demographic variables and questions to elicit their conceptual awareness to five more common issues of plagiarism. Participants were 155 Masters-professors and 305 Postgraduate students in AJUMS in South West of Iran. The results show that less than half of the total number of masters-professors and 26.5% of postgraduate students succeeded in giving the right perception of all five common plagiarism forms, so are not familiar enough with plagiarism issue. If we add uncommon types in our list, knowledge level may become less than this rate. The academic institutes have to plan a comprehensive research ethics educational program for increasing understanding and awareness of academicians.

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