Abstract:

Introduction:
The widespread, almost monopolistic use of the Internet as a documentary source for academic purposes (Morey, 2011), combined with the ease and convenience to manipulate (copy, paste, edit, etc..) large amounts of written content by using processors text, has led to a sharp and alarming increase in cases of plagiarism in academic settings (Comas & Sureda, 2010; Comas, Sureda, Casero & Morey, 2011; Scanlon, 2003, Underwood & Szabo, 2003). Thus, it is therefore not surprising that recently the phenomenon of plagiarism has become the main focus of studies on academic integrity and honesty (Comas, 2009; Mut, 2012). This is an area for study, as Bertram Gallant maintains (2006) has strengthened from the nineties of the last century, despite the existence of unique and remarkable as those of previous research Browers (1964 ), Singhal (1982) and Haines, Diekhoff, LaBeff and Clark (1986). Our paper presents the results of a study carried out in Spain amongst secondary school students about the hints that make them suspect of an essay to be plagiarized and what do they do when they face a situation in which they suspect that an essay has been plagiarized.

Method:
Sample
The study was carried out by surveying a representative sample of teachers of ESO of Andalusia and the Balearic Islands. The sampling process was randomized and an individual questionnaire was administered anonymously by four previously trained interviewers to 460 teachers (361 Balearic Islands and Andalusia 99), representing a sampling error of ± 4.5% estimated for a confidence level of 95% and under the most unfavorable condition of p = q = 0.5. No teacher refused to complete the questionnaire. A total of 7 questionnaires were invalidated by a variety of responses to the same question, answering less than 50% of the questionnaire and / or inability to interpret / read the responses, which means that data processing was developed with a n=453.

The field work was developed by administering a questionnaire entitled "Survey on academic plagiarism among students of Secondary Education: teachers opinion", designed specifically for the research project "The academic plagiarism among students of Secondary Education" consisting of a total of 17 questions. Dimensions of study addressed in the questionnaire are based on various analysis of the existing literature on the subject (Erzegovac & Richardson, 2004; Park, 2004; Comas, 2009; Comas & Sureda, 2010; Mut, 2012): prevalence and extension of plagiarism phenomenon, causes associated with academic plagiarism, measures against plagiarism, severity of various forms of plagiarism and consequences relating to the commission of academic plagiarism.

Results:
The main elements that make suspect of a plagiarized essay are: the lexic and the writting style, followed by an anormal quality of the work and some formal aspects of the document. The main decisions that teachers take in front of a suspected plagiarized essay are: to contact the students and explain the doubts about his/her work, search in the Internet for the sources of the potential plagiarism case.

Keywords:

Academic plagiarism, secondary education, school, teachers.