Academic Dishonesty: Are More Students Cheating?

ACADEMIC DISHONESTY, with Internet plagiarism as one of the most common forms, is a concern on college and university campuses more than ever before. A review of the literature validates these con-cerns. According to a 2003 nationwide research study of 23 public and private colleges and universities, conducted by Donald L. McCabe, Internet plagiarism is on the rise. Thirty-eight percent of the under-graduate students surveyed indicated that they had engaged in Internet plagiarism (as cited in Rimer, 2003). Brown, Weible, and Olmosk (2010) found that 49 % of students in undergraduate marketing classes admitted cheating in 1988 versus 100 % of the students in an under-graduate management class in 2008; a national survey published in Education Week found that 54 % of the students surveyed admitted to Internet plagiarism and 76 % admitted to cheating; and the Center for Academic Integrity found almost 80 % of the college students surveyed admitted to cheating at least once (“Facts About Plagiarism, ” 2011).