Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia
Knowledge of plagiarism and related academic writing skills of Australian academics were compared to explore variations based upon discipline. Academics were asked to define and identify plagiarism and paraphrased text, and to paraphrase text during the course of a workshop. Analyses revealed that there was considerable heterogeneity in academics’ criteria for plagiarism. Junior academic staff tended to have the least informed definition of plagiarism. There were clear differences between disciplines in terms of their definition of plagiarism and paraphrasing skills. Academic staff from the pure disciplines appeared to have the most stringent definitions of plagiarism. Academic staff from the soft/applied disciplines demonstrated least accurate paraphrasing ability compared with those from soft/pure disciplines. Tackling plagiarism at an institutional level will require connecting staff from the disciplines to highlight these issues.
Keywords: plagiarism, disciplines, professional practice