Plagiarism Awareness among Students: Assessing Integration of Ethics Theory into Library Instruction

Connie Strittmatter is Head Librarian, Access Services & Collection Maintenance in Boston College University Libraries, e-mail: [email protected]; Virginia K. Bratton is Assistant Professor in the College of Business at Montana State University, e-mail: [email protected]. ©2014 Connie Strittmatter and Virginia K. Bratton, Attribution-NonCommercial (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc/3.0/) CC BY-NC The library literature on plagiarism instruction focuses on students’ understanding of what plagiarism is and is not. This study evaluates the effect of library instruction from a broader perspective by examining the preand posttest (instruction) levels of students’ perceptions toward plagiarism ethics. Eighty-six students completed a preand posttest survey that measured their ethical perceptions of plagiarism scenarios. The survey used the multidimensional ethics scale (MES) developed by Reidenbach and Robin that is used commonly in business ethics research. The study found that the MES is a reliable tool to measure changes in ethical perceptions of plagiarism. Further, results indicate that students had higher posttest perceptions of plagiarism ethics than they did prior to library instruction. These results suggest that library instruction was effective and had a meaningful impact on students’ perceptions toward plagiarism ethics.