Academic integrity: attitudes and practices of students of a public university in Honduras

Abstract

Academic integrity should be a structural value for all higher education institutions. The present study describes the prevalence of, and attitudes towards, cheating, plagiarism and authorship misbehaviors in a sample of students from a public university in Honduras. This was conducted through a non-experimental quantitative methodology, using questionnaires. Results suggest that a considerable amount of the participants admitted they had either cheated on an assignment/test or helped someone else do it. Participants rated paying someone else to do one’s test as the most severe of the listed academic misbehaviors, followed by plagiarism, granting undeserved authorship, and data fabrication. Respondents with prior cheating experience tend to be more indulgent when rating the severity of those acts. Most students reported they had been warned about cheating on tests, assignments and plagiarism. Comparisons are also made by student’s sex and age. Results are discussed according to their implications for higher education institutions.