Indonesian University Students’ Understanding of
Plagiarism
Bambang Yudi Cahyono
This paper presents the results of the investigation of Indonesian
university students’ understanding of plagiarism. This research study is part
of a broader research project examining university students’ attitudes toward
plagiarism, understanding of plagiarism, and understanding of university policy
on plagiarism across two different cultures, Australian and Indonesian. Data
were collected using questionnaires from 120 university students in Indonesia and using focus group interviews involving 34 students of the same
group. The analysis of the questionnaire data showed that most of these
students understood that using other people’s ideas or words without
acknowledgment constituted plagiarism. However, many of them did not understand
that certain behaviours leading to plagiarism, such
as lending an essay to a friend or failure in writing a reference accurately,
were considered to be forms of plagiarism. The focus group interviews exploring
the students’ personal definitions of plagiarism and their responses to a
hypothetical instance of plagiarism involving several students supported these
findings.
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Cahyono, B. Y. (2004,
October). Indonesian university students’ attitudes toward
plagiarism. Paper presented at the 11th Indonesian
Postgraduate Roundtable, Melbourne, Australia.
Website: www.geocities.com/eltindonesia
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