The faces of unconscious plagiarism in academic writing

Abstract

Plagiarism is a complex phenomenon with a growing presence in academia. Writing an academic text requires the use of other people’s ideas, data, etc. and the risk that these sources are not correctly referenced or that the ideas are reflected without due recognition to its author is high. However, it is necessary to distinguish between deliberate plagiarism, carried out with full knowledge of its severity, and unconscious plagiarism, which occurs due to lack of knowledge of the use of sources. This study analyzes the written productions of 100 freshmen in the Degree of Primary Education. These are conference proceedings resulting from a project-based methodology course that aimed to develop students’ academic communicative competence. They received instruction on the APA citation system. The analysis is based on the qualitative study of the reports by plagiarism detection software. The purpose is to observe the use of information that could be considered plagiarism but are due to a lack of strategies for the use of information. This analysis leads to the creation of a taxonomy of cases of unconscious plagiarism. The results obtained will be key when designing proposals for the training of students in academic writing.