Evaluating the Psychometric Properties of a Questionnaire on Reasons Influencing Student to Plagiarize and Comparing the Perception of Teachers and Students

Abstract

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Plagiarism in undergraduate programs has been an increasing concern for teachers and administrators, since its propagation in recent years, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and rapid evolution of generative artificial intelligence. It is by better understanding the reasons inciting students to plagiarize that actors in universities can implement the required support mechanisms to prevent plagiarism and promote academic integrity. As part of an international partnership on plagiarism prevention, we developed questionnaires administered to 1357 teachers and 4661 students across 31 universities in North America and Europe. The respondents identified their perceptions of reasons why students plagiarize by selecting among a list of 31 items. Then, we conducted exploratory and confirmatory factorial analyses to evaluate the psychometric properties of the questionnaire, and we propose a model allowing for the comparison of perceptions between teachers and students. The findings allowed for the validation of the factor structure in three theoretical dimensions: task characteristics, subjective norms, and personal characteristics. When comparing results in both groups, teachers are significantly more likely than students to perceive subjective norms as an incentive to plagiarize, whereas for students it is the components of the task that prevails. Finally, we suggest further scientific exploration of contextual or individual factors influencing the empirical structuring of responses, such as the impact of cultural or motivational variables. 

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