•  
  •  
 

Abstract

Purpose. Plagiarism is a common form of academic misconduct with damaging consequences to researchers and science. There is a need to explore attitudes towards plagiarism and adopt strategies to mitigate its effects.

Method. A cross-sectional analytical study was conducted among health professionals attending a course at Khyber Medical University. Data were collected from 1st September 2022 to 31st January 2023. Attitudes towards plagiarism questionnaire, with 29 items on a five-point Likert scale, was distributed on google forms to 240 participants. Age, gender, qualification, previously attended course on scientific writing and authoring an article were described as proportions. The unpaired t-test was performed to compare the mean score of each factor between those who had previously attended a course on scientific writing (group A) and those who had not (group B). The P-value of ≤ 0.05 was considered significant.

Results. The response rate was 165/240(68.7%). Females were 88(53.3%) and Males were 77(46.7%). Most of the participants belonged to the age range 78(47.3%) 25 to 35 years. The majority of participants,110(66.66%) had a post graduate qualification, authored an article 112(67.87%), and previously attended a course on scientific writing105(63.03%). The three factors average scores, positive attitudes (32.73±6.86), negative attitudes (21.20±3.30) and subjective norms (27.43±5.60) were in the moderate range. There was a significant difference in the average scores of positive attitudes (p=0.001) and subjective norms (p=0.004) between group A and group B.

Conclusion. Receiving training in scientific writing demonstrated more favorable attitudes toward academic integrity, suggesting that such training enhances understanding of plagiarism. This effect of training may contribute to a reduction in plagiarism prevalence.

Additional Files
HPE-1347-ATP-final proof read responses.docx (16 kB)
List of responses to queries compiled
ATP-final proof read -changes incoporated.pdf (429 kB)
-
Download

Share

COinS