The Perception of Academic Plagiarism in Industrial Engineering Students at a Public University in Lima

Abstract

The objective of this research was to study the perception of academic plagiarism as a dishonest behavior and the factors that characterize it in industrial engineering students at a public university in Lima. This work corresponds to a basic type of study with a quantitative approach, non-experimental design and cross-sectional descriptive level. From the operational field, the study variable was the perception of academic plagiarism, and its dimensions were knowledge, motivations and practices. The population consisted of 2145 students, and intentional non-probabilistic sampling was carried out, resulting in a sample of 155 students in the 8th and 9th cycles of this public university. For data collection, a questionnaire was designed with 35 questions referring to the variable and its dimensions, with each question having five response options according to a Likert-type scale which were answered virtually by the students. The results from the descriptive point of view reflect that 56.1% of the students perceived plagiarism in a negative way and 43.9% perceived it in an irrelevant way. In the inferential field, the results did not show significant statistical differences (p > 0.05). In conclusion, most students believe that academic plagiarism is a behavior that affects their education and is unethical and dishonest.