title: Attitudes towards students who plagiarize: a dental hygiene faculty perspective.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine baccalaureate dental hygiene faculty members' attitudes and practices regarding student plagiarism. An email containing a link to a thirty-two-item survey was sent to fifty-two baccalaureate dental hygiene program directors in the United States; thirty of those agreed for their faculty members to participate. Of the 257 faculty members who received the survey link, 106 completed the survey, for a response rate of 41.2 percent. The responding faculty members reported thinking plagiarism is a rising concern in their dental hygiene programs (54.5 percent, 54/99). The majority said they check for plagiarism on student class assignment/projects (67.1 percent, 53/79). For those who did not check for plagiarism, 45.8 percent (11/24) stated it took "too much time to check" or it was "too hard to prove" (16.6 percent, 4/24). The most frequent form of student plagiarism observed by the respondents was "copying directly from a source electronically" (78.0 percent, 39/50). Most respondents reported checking for plagiarism through visual inspection (without technological assistance) (73.0 percent, 38/52). Of those who said they use plagiarism detection software/services, 44.4 percent (16/36) always recommended their students use plagiarism detection software/services to detect unintentional plagiarism. For those faculty members who caught students plagiarizing, 52.9 percent (27/51) reported they "always or often" handled the incident within their dental hygiene department, and 76.5 percent (39/51) said they had never reported the student's violation to an academic review board.
authors.affiliation: Caruth School of Dental Hygiene, Texas A&M University Baylor College of Dentistry, 3302 Gaston Ave., Dallas, TX 75246;. hgp209@nyu.edu.
authors.forename: Hemali G
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Patel-Bhakta
authors.forename: Kathleen B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Muzzin
authors.forename: Janice P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Dewald
authors.forename: Patricia R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Campbell
authors.forename: Peter H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Buschang
mesh_terms: D000288:Administrative Personnel / Q000941:ethics; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003756:Dental Hygienists / Q000193:education*; D004990:Ethics, Dental; D005179:Faculty, Dental; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D015714:Plagiarism; D013336:Students, Health Occupations / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States
keywords: academic integrity; dental hygiene; dental hygiene program; dental hygiene students; plagiarism