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Much discussion is taking place in the academic community about
academic integrity and unethical academic behavior because of the
perception (and perhaps reality) that more unethical academic behavior
is taking place on college campuses. There is also the perception
that text freely available on the World Wide Web is exacerbating
plagiarism since it is quite easy for students to simply cut and
paste text. Some also contend that students do not acknowledge the
author in Web based information since information on the Web is
generally considered commonly held or free. Thus, goes the argument
if the information is commonly owned, it must be commonly authored
and attribution is not necessary. However, these beliefs are contrary
to certain academic standards, not to mention copyright law.
Recent survey studies indicate that Internet plagiarism—where
students cut and paste text taken from the Internet without attribution—has
increased to 41 percent among college students (McCabe). Students’
unpermitted collaboration at some medium and large institutions
increased from 11 percent in a 1963 survey to 49 percent in 1993
(McCabe). And in a 1999 survey, over 75 percent of the college students
surveyed admitted to some type of cheating (McCabe). Although some
are quick to blame the culture of the Internet as the root of the
problem, some scholars note that the shift towards increasing plagiarism
has taken place since the 19th century. For example, Simmons states:
My contention is that by the end of the nineteenth century, two
discourses about plagiarism and cheating were emerging: the official
discourse of professors and textbooks, and the unofficial discourse
of students, from student literary magazines and college novels.
A comparison of these discourses reveals different models of authorship—the
individual model of authorship students were taught in school, and
the collaborative and collective model of authorship students practiced
through plagiarism (Simmons, 1999).
Although there is disagreement about when unethical student behavior
became a problem on campuses, there is agreement that pervasive
academic dishonesty is contrary to the core mission of higher education
institutions. The Virtual Academic Integrity Laboratory hopes to
be a space where students, faculty and administrators can engage
in constructive dialogue about the issue and also increase their
knowledge and share that knowledge with others on their campuses.
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