Pathology Analysis of Plagiarism: A Qualitative Research

Introduction: Today with development of university, that have the responsibility for scientific and ethical training of educated generation, plagiarism is not limited to special people and its ignorance especially in academic area will bring terrible consequence. Thus, it is necessary to discover reasons of plagiarism for preventing its growing development. This study aimed to explore experiences of faculty members in Isfahan University of medical science about the reasons of plagiarism. Methods: This is qualitative study using in-deep interview. Participants were faculty members experienced at Isfahan University of Medical Science in 2011-2012. Purposive sampling was used. Sampling was continued until achieving data saturation. Results: based on emerged finding reasons of plagiarism in academic community were categorized in the five groups: cultural, economic, upbringing, social and educational reasons. Conclusion: Final findings were classified in internal and external categories. Internal factors are related to personal talents, self-perceptions and understanding that is achieving through family and social channels. External factors are environment force, which are effective on person's action. Person is influenced by environment consciously or unconsciously