Causes and consequences of plagiarism of the students at the University of Zadar

Problem ovog istraživanja bio je plagiranje radova studenata Sveučilišta u Zadru. Cilj istraživanja bio je utvrditi zašto te u kojoj mjeri studenti plagiraju svoje radove te otkriti jesu li studenti ikada bili uhvaćeni u plagiranju te koje su posljedice snosili. Također se htjelo ispitati pomaže li plagiranje studentima ostvariti bolju ocjenu iz njihovih studentskih radova. U svrhu ovog istraživanja konstruirana je on-line anketa u programu Google obrasci koja je provedena anonimno i uz suglasnost ispitanika. U istraživanju je sudjelovalo ukupno 145 studenata različitih godina studija i studijskih grupa Sveučilišta u Zadru, a anketa je provedena u ljetnom semestru akademske godina 2016./2017. Rezultati istraživanja pokazali su kako su studenti upoznati s terminom plagiranje (90,4%), međutim ne znaju prepoznati sve vrste plagijata, već samo one očigledne. Većina ispitanih (84,1%), smatra da zna pravilno navoditi izvore u svojim radovima i bitno im je da su u svojim radovima pravilno citirali i referirali sve korištene izvore (89%). Skoro pa polovica ispitanika (39,3%), priznala je da su plagirali svoje radove a kao najčešće razloge navode da nemaju volje pisati rad (44,8%) ili su shvatili da neće stići napisati rad na vrijeme (53,4%). Ispitanici rijetko ili ponekad koriste plagijate većinom za pisanje manjeg dijela rada. Najveći postotak onih koji su plagirali radove nikad nisu bili uhvaćeni u plagiranju (37,2%), dok su oni uhvaćeni većinom samo trebali ispraviti rad (13,1%). Studenti su podijeljeni kada je riječ o pomoći plagijata za ostvarivanje bolje ocjene. Smatraju da je plagiranje radova moralno neispravno te pozdravljaju uvođenje kazni za plagiranje radova na Sveučilištima u Hrvatskoj (60,7%). Ispitanici se slažu da bi se na svim kolegijima Sveučilišta u Zadru trebao uvesti obvezni kolegij koji bi studente educirao o pravilnom pisanju studentskih radova (96,6%), ali da bi se uvođenjem takvog kolegija tek djelomično reduciralo plagiranje radova (72,4%), iz razloga što će oni studenti koji su navikli ići linijom manjeg otpora i uz dodatnu edukaciju i dalje plagirati radove.The problem of this research was the plagiarism of students at the University of Zadar. The aim of the research was to find out why and in what measure students plagiarized their works and to find out if the students were ever caught in plagiarism and what were the consequences. It was also important to investigate whether plagiarism helps students achieve better ratings for their works. For the purpose of this research was created an on-line survey in Google Forms that was conducted anonymously and with consent of the respondents. A total of 145 students from different years of study and study groups of the University of Zadar participated in the survey that was conducted in the summer semester of the academic year 2016/2017. The results of the research have shown that students are familiar with the term plagiarism (90,4%), but they cannot recognize all types of plagiarism, just the obvious ones. Most of the respondents (84,1%) consider that they know how to specify correctly all the sources used in their papers and they find important that they quoted and referenced properly all the sources used in their works (89%). Almost half of the respondents (39,3%) admitted that they had plagued their works and, as the most common reasons, stated that they didn’t want to write their work (44,8%) or realized that they would not be able to write their work on time (53,4%). Respondents rarely or sometimes use plagiarism, mostly to write a smaller part of the work. The highest percentage of those who plagued the work were never caught in plagiarism (37,2%), while those who were caught, only needed to correct the work (13,1%). Students are divided when it comes to plagiarism and its help to achieve better grades. They find that plagiarism is morally incorrect and support the introduction of punishments for plagiarism at the universities in Croatia (60,7%). The respondents agree that all compulsory courses in the University of Zadar should introduced an extra course in order to educate the students about the proper writing of student works (96,6%), but with introducing such a course the plagiarism will be only partially reduced (72,4%), because there will always be students who will continue to plagiarize their works regardless of additional education