:: Article Review : Web Plagiarism: Empirical Study ::

Article Review: Web Plagiarism: Empirical Study

Alexander E. Voiskounsky

Lomonosov Moscow State University

Moscow

2009

The article review entitled “ Web Plagiarism: Empirical Study “ was published in 2009 by Alexander E. Voiskounsky as the author. The study was done to 292 science undergraduates from four technical universities in Moscow Russia. Alexander E. Voiskounsky mention that web plagiarism as an academic cheating because students took the materials or information from the internet and they declare it as their own sources. They know plagiarism is against their cultural or moral values but they tent to do it because the others are doing it too. This closely refers to behavioral (John B Watson, Pavlov and Freud) and social cognitive theories (Albert Bandura).

Web plagiarisms are becoming a practice lately. The findings show that first year students more prone to get involve in plagiarism compared to their seniors. Undoubtedly some of them avoid plagiarism because of their principle and moral obligations. Plagiarism amongst the undergraduates occurs mostly in their assignments. According to gender, males are more proficient in English language compared to females. Thus, they tend to do plagiarism in both languages. Plagiarism happen due to a few factor such as they think that their assignment are difficult and most of them try avoiding failure. Students that perform plagiarism believes that their lecturer won’t notice it and most of them are not very sure whether they will be caught plagiarize or not. They did it because others are doing it and they get through it.

The main point from this article is about plagiarism among Russian Undergraduate science student. Result from the surveys shows that, they are not heavy plagiarizers. Some of the students avoid plagiarisms because it against the moral values. Some juniors plagiarizes due to a few factors, part of them follow their friends while others because the don’t want to fail their subjects. According to the writer’s, theoretically because they were influence by their behaviors, environment and cognition (Social Cognitive Theory by Albert Bandura). Secondly, according

Bandura’s Social Cognitive Model

To John B. Watson and Pavlov, behavior can be learning through their experience with the environment and observation. The next point is, students have to go to limited option of classes and most of them are compulsory and they are tied to assignments. Students usually plagiarize in order to submit their written assignments. The writer’s conclude that that from the study, undergraduate science students in Russian university web-plagiarize a few time a year during their junior year. Cases of plagiarism reduce during their senior years as they become more proficient with the languages and aware of plagiarism.

In conclusion, this article is understandable and plagiarism somehow have to be avoided no matter how pressure the students feel. It is against the moral of any religions and even the writer’s did not biased with the writing, students that do plagiarism should feel guilty about what they did. Overall this is a great article and can be a good reference.

 xoxo

image googled from  http://ihaveaplaniowa.wordpress.com/2012/06/13/career-development-through-career-fairs/