On academic plagiarism in Europe. An analytical approach based on four studies

With the development of information and communication technology (ICT), plagiarism becomes an ever more serious problem in the academic community. According to the studies on academic plagiarism conducted at universities in four different European countries, plagiarism rates among students are quite high and students mostly ignore or allow plagiarism because of a lack of knowledge, lack of consequences, or simply because ICT makes plagiarism easy to commit. The findings of the studies presented in this paper indicate that strict policies against plagiarism need to be introduced at universities. We believe that the problem of plagiarism should be brought to public attention and discussed at a higher level and that effective measures against plagiarism should be implemented. Prevalence of plagiarism among students and their attitudes towards plagiarism are influenced by cultural environment as well as the academic setting. In multicultural communities, such as the European community, it is necessary to investigate and compare academic behaviour in different countries in order to establish equivalent standards in education across Europe.