TY - JOUR
T1 - Measuring students' perceptions of plagiarism
T2 - modification and Rasch validation of a plagiarism attitude scale
AU - Howard, Steven J.
AU - Ehrich, John F.
AU - Walton, Russell
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - Plagiarism is a significant area of concern in higher education, given university students' high self-reported rates of plagiarism. However, research remains inconsistent in prevalence estimates and suggested precursors of plagiarism. This may be a function of the unclear psychometric properties of the measurement tools adopted. To investigate this, we modified an existing plagiarism scale (to broaden its scope), established its psychometric properties using traditional (EFA, Cronbach's alpha) and modern (Rasch analysis) survey evaluation approaches, and examined results of well-functioning items. Results indicated that traditional and modern psychometric approaches differed in their recommendations. Further, responses indicated that although most respondents acknowledged the seriousness of plagiarism, these attitudes were neither unanimous nor consistent across the range of issues assessed. This study thus provides rigorous psychometric testing of a plagiarism attitude scale and baseline data from which to begin a discussion of contextual, personal, and external factors that influence students' plagiarism attitudes.
AB - Plagiarism is a significant area of concern in higher education, given university students' high self-reported rates of plagiarism. However, research remains inconsistent in prevalence estimates and suggested precursors of plagiarism. This may be a function of the unclear psychometric properties of the measurement tools adopted. To investigate this, we modified an existing plagiarism scale (to broaden its scope), established its psychometric properties using traditional (EFA, Cronbach's alpha) and modern (Rasch analysis) survey evaluation approaches, and examined results of well-functioning items. Results indicated that traditional and modern psychometric approaches differed in their recommendations. Further, responses indicated that although most respondents acknowledged the seriousness of plagiarism, these attitudes were neither unanimous nor consistent across the range of issues assessed. This study thus provides rigorous psychometric testing of a plagiarism attitude scale and baseline data from which to begin a discussion of contextual, personal, and external factors that influence students' plagiarism attitudes.
KW - modification
KW - rasch
KW - validation
KW - plagiarism
KW - attitude
KW - perceptions
KW - scale
KW - students
KW - measuring
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84909642728&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://jampress.org/pubs.htm
M3 - Article
C2 - 25232671
AN - SCOPUS:84909642728
SN - 1529-7713
VL - 15
SP - 372
EP - 393
JO - Journal of applied measurement
JF - Journal of applied measurement
IS - 4
ER -