Türk Kütüphaneciliği (Jun 2015)
Undergraduates’ Misconceptions Concerning Plagiarism
Abstract
In their education lives undergraduate students’ one of the most encountered difficulty is to provide citations for their research projects and term papers. This difficulty drives students to two kinds of plagiarism: intentional or unintentional plagiarism. In this context, plagiarism is a no ethical scientific behaviour we encounter most frequently among undergraduate students. When plagiarism is investigated in national and international literature, which is considered as an important problem regarding scientific communication and ethics principles, it is seen that research focused on intentional plagiarism. In this context the present study aimed to focus on university students’ unintentional plagiarism, a nonethical academic behaviour, based on their misconceptions. Adding it is aimed to attract the attention of the researchers in librarianship and information sciences to the problem, increase their awareness and to encourage them to make in-depth research. Thus the present study includes issues of conceptions; learning concepts; misconceptions; plagiarism; misconceptions of university students regarding plagiarism and the reasoning; defining and preventing misconceptions; the roles of librarianships and teachers in correcting the misconceptions regarding plagiarism. Present study followed a comprehensive review utilizing descriptive approaches to reveal the situation. At the end of the study a short summary evaluating the situation depending on the literature analysed is also added. Adding ideas and suggestions in how to reveal probable misconceptions and how to prevent or decrease their formation are also presented.
