Socio-cognitive Determinants of Plagiarism Intention Among Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences Students: A Cross-sectional Study in 2018

Background: Plagiarism is one of the most common and important misconducts in the educational and research environment. Plagiarism means transcribing the works or ideas of others without authenticating the source and the original author and assigning them to self. Objectives: The current research aimed to investigate the socio-cognitive constructs associated with plagiarism among Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences (KUMS) students using the theory of planned behavior (TPB). Methods: This cross-sectional study was done at KUMS, the west of Iran, among 231 medical university students in 2018, which were selected randomly to participate voluntarily. Students filled out a self-report questionnaire that included the demographics and TPB variables. Data gathered were analyzed by the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (version 16) using a t-test, Pearson correlation, and linear regression. Results: The determinants of attitude, subjective norms (SN), and perceived behavioral control (PBC) accounted for 15% of behavioral intention (BI) to plagiarism. Linear regression showed that SN (beta = 0.229; P = 0.001) and PBC (beta = -0.217; P = 0.001) were the most influential predictors of plagiarism intention. Conclusions: According to the result, it seems that planning programs to increase perceived behavioral control against doing plagiarism and reduce subjective norms encouraging plagiarism may be useful for the prevention and reduction of plagiarism among university students.