PHILLIP N. RODRIGUEZ
TEXAS A&M INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY
Abstract
Plagiarism is not only unethical but it is a form of robbing the ideas and creations or thoughts of someone else. Now that the internet and other online reference data is so accessible, cyber plagiarism or when someone gets information from the World Wide Web while not giving credit to the original author is a common thing nowadays. Students want to succeed in class and sometimes instead of studying students will be willing to do anything at any cost to be able to do so including plagiarize. Students have come up with two reasons for academic dishonesty including no knowledge of the behavior and also concluding that since everyone else does it that they should also be able to do so. In order to control and eliminate this problem there has to be a culture created that is against such behavior and also firm disciplinary actions against those who continue to engage is plagiarism and cheating.
PLAGIARISM IS
Plagiarism is the unethical act of stealing the thoughts of another
(Stonecypher, Karen, Willson, Pamela, May/June2014 page 3). Cheating in universities and colleges which includes plagiarism is very prevalent. Academic rules have given the building blocks for honor codes and use of different methods to maintain integrity amongst students and give help to the legal aspects of this problem. Honor codes are made available through books, flyers, and student handbooks to faculty and students. If faculty and staff are committed to implement these rules then the success of lowering plagiarism and cheating will improve. Several different publications, articles, etc. were researched over a period of many years and found that multiple publications were duplicated concluding that plagiarism was a larger than expected epidemic. Honor codes, student integrity, and also honesty by the faculty are key components in developing a way to stop this bad academic behavior from happening in the future. Giving the definition of plagiarism and informing the students of how cheating and plagiarism lowers their integrity level is very important and education sees those plagiarize with lower professionalism and could be used a deterrent strategy. Nursing is thought to be one of the most trustworthy professions by nearly eighty five percent of society which