This paper is a case study of first-year science and engineering students' understandings of plagiarism. Students were surveyed for their views on scenarios illustrating instances of plagiarism in the context of the academic work and assessment of science and engineering students. The aim was to explore their understandings of plagiarism and their…

The ready availability of Internet resources has made it easier than ever for students to plagiarize and many higher education institutions have resorted to checking essays with plagiarism detection software. Student behaviour is likely to change in response to this increased scrutiny but not necessarily in the desired direction. Internet…