Who uses the coveted copy-paste combination more often — boys or girls? After studying the behavior of secondary school students, the researchers found that boys are more likely to engage in plagiarism. Especially those who do their homework at the last minute.
“Among copying (or plagiarism), the most common is “collage” — a student copies into his work pieces of various other people’s works found on the Internet or in print publications. At the same time, references to sources are usually not indicated, ”says Ruben Comas-Forgas, co-author of the study, which was conducted by scientists from the University of the Balearic Islands.
Over the last academic year, 81,3% of students copied pieces of text from the Web into their work and did not indicate the source, and 72,5% similarly took materials from printed publications (books, encyclopedias, newspapers and magazines). Less common were attempts to pass off a work downloaded from the Internet as one’s own, or to resubmit a work that had already been published by students of previous years under their own name (1).
The results of the study confirmed the assumption that those students who postpone the completion of work until the last moment are most prone to plagiarism. Often they simply do not have time to do it on their own. Comas-Forgas believes that teachers, who give the task and do not monitor the process of its implementation, may be partly to blame here. He recommends that teachers not only check the finished work, but also monitor its preparation.
He also believes that the problem will not disappear when the children finish school. “It turns out that from the school bench they learn to deceive and fake. Some studies have shown that in adulthood, some of them show a propensity for fraud and bribery.
- What do we expect from the school?
(one). Jaume Sureda-Negre, Rubén Comas-Forgas, Miquel F. Oliver-Trobat. «Academic plagiarism among secondary school and high school students: Differences in terms of gender and procrastination» Comunicar nº 1, v. XXIII, 44
(2). Fang FC, Bennett JW, Casadevall A. «Males are overrepresented among life science researchers committing scientific misconduct» MBio. 2013 Jan 22