Perception of academic plagiarism among dentistry students

Abstract

While plagiarism has existed since human beings first learnt to write, it has become an issue of greater concern since we became aware of the financial and intellectual damage it can cause. Yet despite an increased awareness of the dangers of plagiarism in academic circles and in the media, the term itself has not yet been clearly defined. The present study addresses full, conceptual and partial plagiarism, with the aim of assessing the knowledge of students enrolled in the Dentistry course of the Universidade Estadual do Sudoeste da Bahia regarding plagiarism, relevant legislation, research sources and image copyright. Through the use of a questionnaire and subsequent analysis of the responses of students using SPSS software, it was found that while students use reliable sources in their research, they are not fully aware of what plagiarism is and do not respect image copyright.