Abstract
This study examined academic dishonesty of undergraduate students in two disciplines (business and arts and humanities) at a public university in the southeast. Students' views regarding the nature of academic dishonesty (i.e., what is and what is not considered cheating) were examined and the extent to which 14 specific types of academic dishonesty occurred. Subjects included 400 students (98 percent response rate) enrolled in upper-division (junior and senior level) courses during the fall 3nd spring of 1997 and 1998.The research questions were: (1) To what extent, if any, do students view certain academic behaviors (academic dishonesty) to be cheating? (2) What is the relationship between major field of study and students' views regarding certain academic behaviors (academic dishonesty)? (3) To what extent, if any, do students view cheating to be common among other students? (4) What is the relationship between students' major fields of study and their views regarding the commonality of cheating among other students? (5) To what extent, if any, do students report engaging in certain academic behaviors (academic dishonesty)? (6) What is the relationship between students' major fields of study with regard to certain self-reported academic behavior (academic dishonesty)? (7) To what extent, if any, do faculty reported instances of student cheating differ between business and the arts and humanities over a three year period? The McCabe Academic Integrity Survey was used.The major findings of the study were: Students viewed cheating on examinations and plagiarism to be an occasional occurrence; Students reported that they had engaged in seven types of cheating behaviors at least once while enrolled at the institution. Cheating behaviors included: getting questions or answers from someone who had already taken a test; helping someone else cheat on a test; copying material, almost word for word, from any source and turning it in as your own; fabricating or falsifying a bibliography; receiving substantial, unpermitted help on an assignment; working on an assignment with others when the instructor asked for individual work; and copying a few sentences of material without footnoting them in a paper. Students viewed five of the fourteen cheating behaviors to be 'trivial' forms of cheating (i.e., getting questions or answers from someone who had already taken a test; fabricating or falsifying a bibliography; receiving substantial, unpermitted help on an assignment; working on an assignment with others when the instructor asked for individual work; and copying a few sentences of material without footnoting them in a paper). No significant relationship was found between students' major fields of study and their views regarding the nature of cheating, the commonality of cheating among other students, or rates of self-reported cheating.