ABSTRACT

Plagiarism is a common issue in written academic assignments and graduation theses. This multicenter study was conducted to assess the knowledge, attitude, opinion, perspective, and agreement of Palestinian medical students on strategies/recommendations to curb plagiarism. The study was conducted in a cross-sectional design using a questionnaire in all universities with medical education programs. The questionnaire contained 12 knowledge items, 8 attitude items, 6 opinion/perspective items, and 8 strategies/recommendations to curb plagiarism. Of the 550 invited medical students, 474 completed the study tool. Knowledge, attitude, opinion, perspective, and agreement on strategies/recommendations scores correlated positively. Higher knowledge, attitude, opinion, perspective, and agreement on strategies/recommendations scores were significantly associated with higher academic/training year, grade point average, satisfaction with academic achievement, academic writing skills, informational skills, using citation managers, receiving courses/workshops/lecturers on plagiarism, using plagiarism checking tools, and participation in a scientific paper/graduation thesis writing. Gaps in knowledge about plagiarism were identified among Palestinian medical students. Educators/trainers and other decision-makers in medical schools and higher academic institutions might use the strategies on which the students agreed to curb plagiarism.

KEYWORDS: 

• Knowledge
• attitude
• plagiarism
• medical students
• medical education

Title

Accountability in Research Ethics, Integrity and Policy

Publisher

taylor and francis

Publisher Country

United States of America

Indexing

Thomson Reuters

Impact Factor

3.0

Publication Type

Both (Printed and Online)

Volume

--

Year

--

Pages

1-23