Abstract:

In order to assess the knowledge and perception of higher education students about the concept of plagiarism and its implications, two online surveys were performed on a group of students of the Civil Engineering and Architecture Department at the University of Beira Interior. The surveys were conducted at two different moments using two distinct approaches and along two academic semesters. In the first semester, a presentation on plagiarism and good practices of citation and bibliographic referencing were held during lectures of curricular units from different academic years, while in the second semester the choice was a workshop presentation extended to all students. In both cases, online surveys were conducted on students before and after attending the presentation/workshop aiming to evaluate the change in their perception about the concept of plagiarism. The paper presents the main conclusions drawn from the surveys as well as the main guidelines resulting from their analysis, in order to promote a firmer institutional policy, enhance the dissemination of relevant information for a clear definition of the problem and to allow an effective accountability when detected.

Keywords:

Plagiarism, students, higher education.