Good policy, bad results: an investigation into the implementation of a plagiarism policy in a faculty at a South African university.

Abstract

This paper reports on an investigation into the implementation of a plagiarism policy and the perceptions of plagiarism among lecturers in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities at a university in South Africa. A questionnaire was administered to explore these perceptions and a total of 52 completed questionnaires were collected. Unstructured interviews were also conducted in a faculty board meeting and a total of 16 written responses were collected, bringing the total number of responses to 68. The findings indicate that despite the existence of a plagiarism policy there is no comprehensive and integrated approach to addressing plagiarism. Although many lecturers admitted to being familiar with the policy, most did not implement the actions and processes suggested in the policy. To be more effective in addressing plagiarism, the author makes a number of recommendations.