Relation of gender, course enrollment, and grades to distinct forms of academic dishonesty

A thorough understanding of academic dishonesty and the students who engage in it is necessary to develop appropriate policies and educational interventions to discourage such actions. The present study examines the frequency of academic dishonesty and the characteristics (i.e. gender, course enrollment, and grades) of students who engage in distinct forms of the behavior by surveying undergraduates at a large public university in the USA. Of 292 students, 57.19% reported some form of academic dishonesty in the previous six months, with cheating on a test being the most frequent form (51.71%). Men and students in a study strategies course had a significantly higher report rate for both plagiarism and making false excuses in comparison to women and students in a science course, respectively. Low grades corresponded with high rates of academic dishonesty, specifically in terms of having provided false excuses. Implications for college teaching settings are discussed.