quick links: Catalog | Periodical Locator | Databases | Hours | Ask-A-Librarian | Home

Plagiarism Guide

Definition of Plagiarism | The Proliferation of Plagiarism | Plagiarism Policies
Preventing Plagiarism | Obtaining Proof | Sources for this Guide

Proliferation-- some statistics

Dr. Donald L. McCabe of Rutgers University and the Center for Academic Integrity at Duke University conducted a survey of high school students in 2001. Among the general conclusions for high school students were:

• 72% of students reported one or more instance of serious cheating on written work
• 15% had submitted a paper obtained in large part froma term paper mill/website
• 52% had copied a few sentences from a website without citing the source

Surveys of college students found that significant numbers of students had plagiarized:

Plagiarism-- college students

	1999-2000	2001-2002
Written plagiarism	16%	8%
Written 'cut & paste'	40%	43%
Internet plagiarism (e.g.paper mills)	5%	5%
Internet 'cut & paste'	10%	41%

On the subject of college student attitudes toward plagiarism, Dr. McCabe found:

College students who consider plagiarism serious

	1999-2000	2001-2002
Plagiarism	70%	83%
Paper from mill	73%	80%
Written 'cut and paste'	35%	29%
Internet 'cut & paste'	68%	27%

On the subject of college faculty attitudes toward plagiarism, Dr. McCabe found:

College faculty who consider plagiarism serious

	1999-2000	2001-2002
Plagiarism	83%	95%
Paper from mill	80%	95%
Written 'cut and paste'	29%	51%
Internet 'cut & paste'	27%	51%

Dr. McCabe presented the results of his survey at a satellite conference presented by NJEdge. on "Internet Plagiarism" on November 14, 2002. as a PowerPoint presentation.

Proliferation-- this may surprise you

Margaret Fain, a librarian at Kimbel Library of Coastal Carolina University, has compiled a list of online paper mills from 1999 to 2002. She states that in 1999 there were 35 such sites whereas in 2002 there were more than 250 general sites on her list of Internet Paper Mills.

Ms. Fain has noted a new trend toward sites devoted to a single author or topic and has located 71 sites that are Internet Subject Specific Paper Mills.

Term papers are available on the Internet for:

• free
• fee or "swap"
• customized to a specific topic for an additional fee

Proliferation-- closer to home

A front page article in the Courier News published January 30, 2002 included the results of a survey of 422 high schoolers in Central New Jersey. It found that:

• 89% had cheated at least once in high school
• 40.5% had plagiarized from online sources
• 10.1% had purchased an online term paper
• Some students who said they never cheated also said that they had "plagiarized from online sources."