Perceptions and experiences of plagiarism among graduate students at Makerere University College of Health Sciences

Abstract

Introduction: Plagiarism is a global challenge in academia and in most scholarly work. In recent years, many countries have come up with policies, both legal and institutional, to mitigate it. In Uganda, graduate students are increasingly plagiarizing their work, which may have negative implications on the credibility of research. The aim of this study was to assess the perceptions of graduate students on plagiarism at Makerere University College of Health Sciences. This was a cross-sectional study conducted among 364 graduate students at the College of Health Sciences Makerere University. Data was collected between April-July 2021, using a self- administered questionnaire. Data was analysed using STATA version 14 to generate frequencies and percentages. Chi-square tests were used to test for statistical association between variables. Results were presented in form of tables.

Results:The mean (SD) age of the respondents was 31 ± 3.9 years. 93.3% were master’s students, from the School of Public Health (172/315, 54.6%). About half, (170/315, 54%) of the respondents had negative perceptions towards plagiarism. Most participants (80%) participants rightly indicated that reuse of one’s previous work should be cited, while 70.8% rightly said that literally transcribing text from another source without quotation mark should not be done. Participants agreed that the likely factors influencing plagiarism were access to research material using internet (202/315; 64.1%), easy access to new technologies (117/315; 37.1%), a student’s difficulty to express their own ideas (154/315; 48.9%), a student’s fear to fail (121/315; 38.4%), as well as a student not wanting to look stupid (156/315; 49.5%).

Conclusion: Students at MakCHS agreed that they commit plagiarism accidentally in academic works during university studies. Academic institutions should continue to educate their students on the potential negative outcomes of plagiarism.