engleski

Deterring plagiarism among students using plagiarism detection software

Objectives. To determine the prevalence of plagiarism among medical students in writing essays and to evaluate the usefulness of explicit warning that plagiarism is prohibited and plagiarism detection software (WCopyfind) in deterring plagiarism. To determine the difference of student's willing to chose source articles for essays with different complexity and accessibility (printed or electronic format). Materials and methods. During the three academic years, 290 medical students attending lectures in Medical Informatics course wrote an essay based on one of the four offered templates (published scientific papers). Two of the four templates were accessible only in printed copy, while the other two were accessible in electronic form on web site. One of the papers in printed form and one in electronic were considered to be less complex, while the two others were more complex. The first generation was cautioned that the essay was expect to be their own original work, the second generation was strictly prohibited from copying and the third generation received an additional warning that their essays would be examined by plagiarism detection software for uncovering plagiarism and the respective students who had plagiarized would be punished. The essays were examined using &#8220; WCopyfind&#8221; program which counted the number of words from matching phrases containing six or more words. Plagiarism rate was calculated as a ratio of the number of matching words and the total number of words in essay. Results. The average plagiarism rate for the first generation was 17%, for the second 21% and for the third 2% (P<0.001). During the research period students more frequently choose more complex articles (P<0.001) and papers in electronic format (P<0.001) as template. Conclusion. Plagiarism in writing essays is present among medical students. Informing students of the use of plagiarism detection software in evaluation of essays and the consequences of penalties had restrained students from plagiarism. Throughout the generations, students more often choose more complex source subjects and that in electronic form pointing out that electronic form is becoming more common.

Medical Education; Medical informatics; Plagiarism; Research Integrity; Medical school

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