Effect of Stream and Gender of Research Scholars on Various Dimensions of Attitude towards Plagiarism

Plagiarism is dispensing other’s “work or ideas as one’s own” without full acknowledgement of its source in order to achieve better grades or some other benefits. It is a kind of fraud wherein the plagiarist stands on the shoulder of others by denying “credit to the original author” whose work they call as their own. This study explores the effect of stream and gender on various dimensions of attitude towards plagiarism of research scholars of university of Kashmir. For this study quantitative research approach was adopted with survey as research method. Data were collected with the help of questionnaire developed by Martina Mavrinac, Gordana Brumini, Lidija Bilic-Zulle and Mladen Petrovecki (2010). Two-way ANOVA in the study revealed that stream of research scholars had a significant effect on positive attitude towards plagiarism and subjective norms towards plagiarism in the surveyed university. However, there was no significant main effect of stream on negative attitude towards plagiarism of research scholars in the surveyed university. Moreover, there was no significant main effect of gender and interaction of gender and stream of research scholars on positive attitude towards plagiarism, negative attitude towards plagiarism and subjective norms towards plagiarism in the surveyed university. Based on these findings, it is recommended that university administrators should be sincere in addressing the issue of plagiarism by framing the strict and rational policies for diminishing the extent and impact of plagiarism. Supervisors should also train their scholars in ethical scientific writing and in ethical use of information.