Factors that influence on students’ attitudes towards plagiarism: The case of Vietnam

Plagiarism is a frequent form of misconduct in academic environment, however the way that students recognize it is quite a new subject in Viet Nam. This research is to examine different factors affecting attitudes of students towards plagiarism in Viet Nam by questioning 845 students. The methodologies of Cronbach‟s Alpha, Exploratory Factor Analyzing (EFA) and linear multiple regressioning were used by SPSS program. The results show that there are 4 major factors having significant influence on students‟ attitudes towards plagiarism, including institution, lack of awareness, personal attitudes and lack of competence. Pressure and internet facilities have no impact on student‟s attitudes towards plagiarism. From that result, we also suggest that on the long term there must be some solutions to reduce the proclivity towards plagiarism.

FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE ON STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS PLAGIARISM: THE CASE OF VIETNAM

Hoang Thi Hue

hoanghue@neu.edu.vn Faculty of Human Resources Economics and Management, National Economics

University, Hanoi, Vietnam

Nguyen Thi Thom

thomnguyen30111997@gmail.com,

Trinh Thi Nhat Le

lektqdk57@gmail.com Human Resources Economics and Management 57, Faculty of Human Resources Economics and Management, National Economics University, Hanoi, Vietnam

Abstract:

Plagiarism is a frequent form of misconduct in academic environment, however the way that students recognize it is quite a new subject in Viet Nam This research is to examine different factors affecting attitudes of students towards plagiarism in Viet Nam by questioning 845 students The methodologies of Cronbach‟s Alpha, Exploratory Factor Analyzing (EFA) and linear multiple regressioning were used by SPSS program The results show that there are 4 major factors having significant influence on students‟ attitudes towards plagiarism, including institution, lack of awareness, personal attitudes and lack of competence Pressure and internet facilities have no impact on student‟s attitudes towards plagiarism From that result, we also suggest that on the long term there must be some solutions to reduce the proclivity towards plagiarism

Key words: Attitudes, plagiarism, Viet Nam

1 Introduction

The rationale of the study

The education system in every area of the country has been facing a real challenge, which is cheating in academic In the case of higher education, the time that students have

to complete tasks that require innovative thinking more than ever before, plagiarism is a typical form of academic misconduct McCabe et al (2001) claimed that student‘s academic misconduct, such as cheating and plagiarism, has increased in recent decades and

is an important concern in higher education According to an article pulished on Thanh Nien online (2012), in fact, plagiarism from each other has been taken openly and popularly by not only students but also teachers in academic environment of Viet Nam Gullifer and Tyson (2010) suggested that theory and research in psychology show that a thorough understanding of an individual's view of an issue or problem is an essential requirement for successful change of that person's attitudes and behaviour

Purpose statement

The purpose of this research is to explore what factors that have impact on students‘ attitudes towards plagiarism are Also studying how to measure each factor influences on this attitudes Morever, we generate a model and validate the model of the impact of these factors on students‘ attitudes towards plagiarism

Research questions

To better understand factors that affect students‘ attitudes towards plagiarism, we sought to answer these questions:

1 How does pressure influence students‘ attitudes towards plagiarism?

2 How does internet facilities influence students‘ attitudes towards plagiarism?

3 How does institution influence students‘ attitudes towards plagiarism?

4 How does lack of awareness influence students‘ attitudes towards plagiarism?

5 How does personal attitudes influence students‘ attitudes towards plagiarism?

6 How does lack of competence influence students‘ attitudes towards plagiarism?

2 Literature review

Attitudes towards plagiarism

Plagiarism is a popular problem also is misunderstood by lacking of knowledge and skills Researchers claimed that many people do not actually comprehend what plagiarism

is According to Smith et al (2007), plagiarism is using other‘s words and ideas on purpose without accepting sources clearly In addition, Smith et el said that plagiarism is a form of dishonest about mind, it is relevant to using other‘s words without citing and acknowledging fully The intentional behavior including copy someone‘s idea and turn

it into themselves is also considered a type of plagiarism

According to Fishbein‘s literature (1961, p14), ―Attitude is viewed as effective or evaluative in nature, and that it is determined by the person‘s beliefs about the attitude object Most people hold both positive and negative beliefs about an object, and attitude is viewed as corresponding to the total affect asscociated with their beliefs‖ Fishbein and Ajzen (1975) also claimed that attitude towards an object is viewed as related to the person‘s intentions to perform a variety of behaviours with respect to that object So we can conclude that attitude towards plagiarism is related to an individual‘s intention of plagiarizing behavior

Many different studies have given factors that influence on plagiarism tendency Harding et al (2001) divided into three main group: demographic characteristic factors, social - economics factors and circumstance factors Demographic characteristic factors include: gender, extracurricular activitie joining, age and educational level (graduate and postgraduate) Dordoy (2002) claimed that important factors that have impact on plagiarism are promotion, laziness or untimely management, accessibility to Internet materials, unaware of rules and regulations, and unintentional theft Love and Simmons

(1998), together with Scanlon and Neumann (2002), proposed six factors contributing to plagiarism: lack of awareness, individual attitudes, availability of resources Internet, lack

of capacity, pressure and institutional characteristics

Base on Smith et al (2007), our research team decided to investigate six factors which have influence on students‘ attitudes towards plagiarism They are: pressure, internet facilities, institution, lack of awareness, personal attitude and lack of competence

Pressure

Collins and Morris (2008) said that stress is a phenomenon involving the process of complex interaction between a person and their environment, which is constantly changing As a result of stress, psychological, behavioral and physical symptoms can occur, increasing dissatisfaction and anxiety, which may produce a variety of illness In term of academic, pressure of time that students have to complete assigment is the factor that promotes students to choose to plagiarize instead of doing by themselves Moeck

(2002) claimed that some students feel pressure to get better grades and some students

struggle academically and feel that cheating is their only path to any kind of success With tremendous pressure and competition for grades, some will cheat or plagiarize to maintain

a high GPA, which can please parents, result in selection to school leadership roles, and impress corporate recruiters

Internet facilities

Accoding to Razera (2011) the development of the internet for the past decades made possible the spread of information (any information) worldwide Thus, almost everything is possible to be found in the internet, from articles and papers presented/ published in prestigious conferences, journals to websites with texts written by anonymous persons Within the ambit of this study, internet facilities were mentioned as the things that enable to disseminate any kind of information by a simple way all over the world That also means that it is so easy and quick to access and copy available documents via internet

It has been alleged that the widespread availability of access to the Internet, and online academic journals have contributed much to the rising incidence of plagiarism, as they have made it possible for students to find and save large amounts of information from diverse sources with little reading, effort or originality (McKenzie, 1998) In addition, the use of the Internet for assignment completion was found to be strongly positively correlated to plagiarism (Eccles et al., 2006)

Institution

Smith et al (2007) said that institution-specific factors can take many forms, including the attitudes of lecturers and administrators to the incidence of plagiarism, and the associated prevention, detection and punishment mechanisms in place Franklyn-Stokes and Newstead (1995) argued that administrators and academic staff may not be doing enough to identify and implement measures to limit student plagiarism In addition, Kibler (1994) also said institutional action on student plagiarism is generally of a reactive nature and is not nearly proactive enough in attempting to prevent or reduce it

Lack of awareness

Lack of awareness is understood here as the case of students do not keep track of things which significantly component plagiarism so they don‘t consider it as a problem Although students have a sound understanding of plagiarism‘s definition, their knowledge

of actions forming plagiarism is also diversified Walker (1998) said that some forms of plagiarism may merely stem from lack of awareness of academic conventions or simple carelessness on the part of the student Share Walker‘s views, Harris, R (2002) claimed that there may be a similar lack of awareness about the significance of the offence and likely penalties Many other students know what plagiarism is, but don't consider it wrong The belief that ―information wants to be free‖ and the idea that copying from sources with

a few words of one's own is merely ―patch writing‖ a normal way to write, support these students in their beliefs Dawson and Overfield (2006) determined that students were aware that plagiarism is bad but they were not clear of what constitutes plagiarism and how to avoid it Students required that teachers should also observe the rules to avoid plagiarism and they should be consistently reminded of awareness about plagiarism to enforce the university resolve to control this academic sin

Personal attitudes

Most of previous studies had shown that if students don‘t seriously attempt and be willing to complete assignments, they will choose cheating or plagiarising for certain Plagiarism rate is directly proportional to the hardness‘ rate of assignment They are not compassionate to work or learn, they fear large amount of tasks which are need to do Thomas and Znaniecki (1918-1920) - the first people using attitude‘s defininition - claimed that ―attitude is individually mental state towards a value‖ There are two forms of personal attitude: positive and negative According to Ashworth et al (1997) another reason was revealed by students is that lectures‘ neutral towards plagiarist, they are also aware of plagiarism as a small problem

Lack of competence

There are some studies had shown that study and teaching method also have parts in factors that influence on plagiarism Sterngold (2004) argued that normal teaching methods have suggested and led to plagiarism behaviour He also claimed that most of students have poor research and writing skills Nearly all have no idea how to evaluate source‘s quality and suitability or collect and integrate data from numerous sources but they are unble to use it to write themselves‘ in a clear and logical way They also do not know how

to support their own ideas by proofs and arguments

Proposed model

The model as proffered by Smith et al (2007) explained the impact of six factors which include pressure, internet facilities, institutions, lack of awareness, personal attitudes and lack of competence on the students‘ attitudes towards plagiarism We used Smith et al.‘s model (2007) as our original model for our study In addition to proposing the direct impact of six factors on students‘ attitudes plagiarism (Figure 1)

Figure 1: Proposed model

Source: Smith et al (2007) Hypotheses

Hypothesis 1 (H1): Pressure has a negative impact on students' attitudes towards plagiarism

Hypothesis 2 (H2): Internet facilities have a negative impact on students' attitudes towards plagiarism

Hypothesis 3 (H3): Institution have a negative impact on students' attitudes towards plagiarism

Hypothesis 4 (H4): Lack of awareness has a negative impact on students' attitudes towards plagiarism

Hypothesis 5 (H5): Personal attitudes have a negative impact on students' attitudes towards plagiarism

Hypothesis 6 (H6): Lack of competence has a negative impact on students' attitudes towards plagiarism

3 Method

Research instruments

Our study used the Likert scale of 5 points from 1 - ―absolutely not agree‖ to point

5 - ―absolutely agre‖ for both dependent and independent variables based on the scale listed in Table 1

Presure

Internet facilities

Institution

Lack of awareness

Personal attitudes

Lack of competence

Students‘ attitudes towards plagiarism

Table1: Variables

1 Pressure

PR1 PR2 PR3 PR4

I have limited time to finish work

I feel pressure to complete too many assignments during a given time period

I have too many subjects in one particular semester

I feel pressure from peers

Applied scale adjustments of Smith et al (2007) and Husain et al (2017)

2 Internet

facilities

IF1

IF2 IF3

I think that cutting and pasting from the internet and word processing is much easier and faster

I find it is easy to download articles from websites

I find that there is too much information available in electronic format especially from websites

Applied scale adjustments of Smith et al (2007)

3 Institution IN1

IN2 IN3 IN4

I do not know the legal implication of plagiarism Lectures do not care about plagiarism, they are too busy so usually do not response to develope

my writing

Normal lecture method does not make me acquire new knowledge that leads to plagiarism

Universities do not have a clear policy on academic misconduct behaviours

Applied scale adjustments of Smith et al (2007); Amiri and Razmjoo (2016)and Husain

et al (2017)

4 Lack of

awareness

LA1 LA2 LA3 LA4

I do not understand what constitutes plagiarism

I do not see plagiarism as a problem

I was not aware of plagiarism when in high school

I was not aware of serious level of plagiarim

Applied scale adjustments of Smith

et al (2007) and Madray (2007)

5 Personal

attitudes

PA1 PA2 PA3 PA4

I do not have the desire to work or learn

I do not feel the need for knowledge in the future

I am not interested in the topic

I am lazy and used to delaying work

Applied scale adjustments of Smith et al (2007)

6 Lack of

competence

LC1

LC2 LC3

I do not have the confidence to prepare a good assignment

I have poor research skills

I have difficulty in studying abouts subjects

Applied scale adjustments of Smith et al (2007)

7 Attitudes

towards

plagiarism

ATP1 ATP2 ATP3

Sometimes I feel tempted to plagiarise

I know what plagiarism is

Plagiarism is as bad as stealing an exam

Applied scale adjustments of Ehrich et al (2015)

Factor Observed

ATP4 ATP5

ATP6 ATP7

ATP8 ATP9

ATP10 ATP11 ATP12

Using others‘ work with their permission is ok Plagiarism is ok if the Professor gives you too much work

Punishment for plagiarism should be light Downloaded papers and using as one‘s own should mean expulsion from university

Plagiarism is against my ethical values Plagiarism involves taking others‘ words, not property, so it‘s no big deal

You can‘t plagiarise yourself

If I lend a paper to a student to look at who plagiarises, I should not be punished also Plagiarists should receive a special grade for cheating, which would deter them

Sample and Data collection

Because our study seeks to explore what factors and how these factors affects students‘ attitudes towards plagiarism, we use a sample of some universities in Vietnam: National Economics University, Hanoi University of Science and Technology, University

of Labor and Social Affairs, Hanoi Medical University, Hanoi University of Industry, Trade Union University, Thuyloi University These universities‘ students are highly representative for economic and technological students in Ha Noi To achieve the objective

of the study, we conducted the survey by sending questionnaires to students from the above selected universities in Ha Noi We received 871 replies and used 845 qualified answers in the analysis We analyzed the data using SPSS software version 20.0 with the following specific steps:

Firstly: Do statistics describing the observable variables of the scale

Secondly: Assess the reliability of the scale

Thirdly: Verify the value of the scale by means of exploratory factor analysis - EFA Fourthly: Analyze correlation and multiple regression

4 Result

Cronbach‟s Alpha

The ―Pressure‖ independent variable has a coefficient of Cronbach's Alpha of 0.614, ranging from 0.6 to 0.8, so that the scales are linked together and it is an usable measurement scale However, the fourth observation variable was rejected due to inadequate requirements that the total variable correlation coefficient is 0,299 (less than 0.3)

The independent variable ―Attitudes towards plagiarism‖ has a Cronbach's Alpha coefficient greater than 0.6, so the scale can be used relatively well However, after five times, there are five observation variables have a total correlation coefficient of less than

0.3 are eliminated They are ATP2, ATP3, ATP7, ATP8, ATP12 with the total variable correlation coefficients in turn are 0.159, 0.211, 0.226, 0.182, 0.283

Other independent variables all have coefficients of Cronbach‘s Alpha more than 0.8 So, this is a relatively good scale

After eliminating inappropriate observational variables, we conducted a test to check reliability again The values of the Cronbach's Alpha coefficient showed that the scales were good, reasonable and consistent The results are shown in Table 2

Table 2: Reliability Variables Cronbach’s alpha Number of varibales

Thus, the results of evaluating reliability of the scale by scale by Cronbach's Alpha indicated that the scale is reliable and can be used in future analysis

Exploratory factor analysis (EFA)

To eliminate scales that are not sufficiently reliable, retaining high adhesion scales, can be grouped into factors that accurately reflect the variables measured in the model, we conducted exploratory factor analysis Factor analysis is conducted once Scales‘ reliability

is quite high, no observed variables are excluded and independent variable groups, dependent variable groups remain unchanged Independent variables include pressure, internet facilities, institution, lack of awareness, personal attitudes, lack of competence Dependent variable is attitudes towards plagiarism

Table 3 Exploratory factors analysis - EFA

Average Variance Extracted

Factor Loading Conclusion

Table 3 shows that the KMO coefficients are greater than 0.5, indicating that factor analysis is appropriate Bartlett's test is statistically significant at the 5% significance level, indicating that the observed variables are correlated in magnitude When analyzing the

EFA factor for independent variables, all the factor load of the observed variables satisfies the condition (factor load > 0.5) and the number of factors created is coincide with the number of factor we had in the beginning They are "Pressure‖, ―Internet facilities‖,

―Institution‖, ―Lack of awareness‖, ―Personal attitudes‖, ―Lack of competence‖ Table 3 also shows that the cumulative of variance is 59.939% (greater than 50%), it means there are 59.939% changes in attitudes towards plagiarism explained by the observed variables When analyzing dependent variables, the factor load of all observed variable satisfies the condition that the factor load is greater than 0.5 To sum up, after using the EFA exploratory factor analysis, the results show all factors have all the same observation variables that load a factor Therefore, the scales selected for the variables in the model are guaranteed to be required, capable of better interpretation and analysis

Correlation analysis

From the results of Cronbach‘s Alpha, the independent variable of model is adjusted Y: Attitudes towards plagiarism (disregard ATP2, ATP3, ATP7, ATP8, ATP12)

We used Pearson correlation coefficient to evaluate the correlation between variables in the model (the results of correlation analysis of variables in the model are presented in Table 4) The results showed that the correlation coefficient (r) has a value of r>0, indicating that the variables are positively correlated

Table 4: Mean, standard deviation and correlation coefficient

The ―Attitudes towards plagiarism‖ variable is strongly correlated with the ―Lack of awareness‖ variable and the ―Institution‖ variable, and the coefficients are 0.371 and 0.349 respectively The correlation coefficients of the ―Pressure‖ variable and the variable

―Internet facilities‖ was 0.280, respectively, therefore the ―Pressure‖ variable quitely correlated with ―Internet facilities‖ The correlation between the ―Lack of awareness‖ variable and the two variables ―Lack of competence‖ and ―Institution‖ are 0.352 and 0.326,

so these two variables are closely related to ―Lack of awareness‖ Correlation coefficient between the ―Personal attitudes‖ variable and the ―Lack of competence‖ variable is 0.285,

so the two variables have a relatively correlation Thus, most of the independent variables

in each model are quite close correlated

Regression analysis and hypothesis testing

Six factors (presssure, internet facilties, institution, lack of awareness, personal attitudes, lack of competence) influencing on students‘ attitudes towards plagiarism

Table 5: Regression between six above factors and students’ attitudes towards plagiarism

Model

Unstandardized Coefficients

Standardized Coefficients

Collinearity Statistics

a Dependent Variable: Students‘ attitudes towards plagiarism

According to table 5, the results of the regression analysis showed that there are two factors including ―Pressure‖ and ―Internet facilities‖ have sig values are 0.272 and 0.535 (more than 0.05) so these factors do not influence on students‘ attitudes towards plagiarism We can conclude that the hypotheses H1 and H2 were rejected Statistical results of the regression analysis on the standardized β coefficient resulted that ―Lack of awareness‖, ―Personal attitudes‖, ―Lack of competence‖ and ―Insitution‖ all have sig values less than 0.05 That means these four factors have impact on dependent variable so the hypotheses H3, H4, H5, H6 were improved Thus, the factor that has the greatest impact on students' attitudes towards plagiarism is the factor ―Lack of awareness‖ Then the second factor‘s impact is ―Insitution‖ The weaker impact factors is the ―Personal attitudes‖ and the ―Lack of competence‖

From the above result, there is regression model:

TD = 0.24*LA + 0.106*PA + 0.074*PA + 0.213*IN

4 Discussion and Conclusion

Misconduct in academic environment, specifically plagiarism behaviour of students is a serious problem which education has to face To reduce and prevent this behavior, we need to understand students‘ attitudes towards it and what factors have impact on plagiarism It is also this study‘s aim To find the answer, we carry out by quantitative research