“Plagiarism is the act of claiming to be the author of material that someone else actually wrote. Students have plagiarized book reports, term papers, essays, projects, and graduate-degree theses. Teachers—including college professors—have plagiarized journal articles, course materials, and textbooks. Researchers have plagiarized reports, articles, and book chapters.” ( Encyclopædia Britannica Article)

Likely, plagiarism has always been part of the academic world, but in recent time it appears to have increased. According to a report from the Swedish National Agency for Higher Education (HSV) concerning the number of cases dealt with by the disciplinary boards at Swedish colleges and universities, the number of cases that involved plagiarism rose with 90% between 2002 and 2003. The report also stated that plagiarism is the principal cause of students being suspended from their education. ( HSV Rapport 2004:17 R)

Surveys
There are many surveys that confirm the situation of a serious and growing problem of plagiarism.

www.s tudent.se is the largest Swedish internet portal for students at university colleges or universities. During November/December 2004 the following question were put to the visitors of the site: ”Have you, during your studies at university/university collage submitted a paper, exam or thesis that you in whole or in part copied from a fellow student, the Internet or magazine/book without quoting or making references to in an honest manner?” 9.8% of the respondents said yes and stated that they had done so several times. 15.9% said yes and stated they had done so once. .

According to a survey performed by the Knowledge Foundation ( Sweden ) 37% of the teachers had experience of students plagiarizing. 42% of the teachers did not think they had sufficient knowledge to deal with the problem.

In an Australian study, the content of 1751 essays written at six different universities were checked for plagiarism. The result were that 8% of all submitted papers contained 25% or more plagiarized material. 14% of the papers contained 5% or more plagiarized material. (The Chronicle of Higher Education, 11/2002)

In an American study involving 200 economy students it turned out that 80% cheated on a regular basis, whereof 19% stated that they did so by plagiarizing. (Walker, J, i Higher Education Research and Development, 17/1998)

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