Abstract:

The current study aims to investigate awareness of research students about the concept of plagiarism and to suggest possible ways to avoid it; a descriptive survey study was conducted. The objectives of the study were to examine the researcher’s knowledge about concept of plagiarism, knowledge about specific terminologies, types of plagiarism, and consequences of plagiarism and to suggest possible ways to avoid it. Study was delimited to the research students of Faculty of Education at PhD, M.Phil. and MA level in Allma Iqbal Open University. A sample of hundred students was selected through snowball sampling technique, five point Likert scale questionnaire was used to collect the data. Data were analyzed through descriptive statistics. Major finding were that most of the students had misconception of plagiarism, most of them were unaware about the specific terminologies and types of plagiarism. Majority of the students were unaware about the consequences of plagiarism. On the basis of findings it was concluded that they were not properly taught about the concept of plagiarism during their course work in research and it had implications on the quality of research. The major recommendations were to add sufficient material about plagiarism in research courses and students may be informed about the HEC polices about plagiarism.

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