Attitude to plagiarism and the personal information management behaviour of undergraduates at Babcock University, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated attitude to plagiarism and the personal information management behaviour of undergraduates in the Department of Information Resources Management, Babcock University. The descriptive research approach was used for the study. The population was made up of 214 students. Stratified sampling technique was employed for sample selection. A questionnaire titled “Attitude to plagiarism and information management behaviour questionnaire (PIMB)” was used for data collection. Data was analysed using percentage count, Pearson’s Product-Moment Correlation and One-way ANOVA. Findings revealed that respondents have a positive attitude towards plagiarism. The most popular form of managing information was found to be the creation and tagging of related files in folders while the least used methods were the use of Cloud (e.g. Dropbox) and social bookmarking sites. A significant relationship was found to exist between attitude to plagiarism and personal information management behaviour. There was, however, no significant relationship between the level of study and attitude towards plagiarism. Based on the findings, the study concluded that education is necessary for curbing the menace of plagiarism in higher institutions and therefore, recommended that faculty should keep educating students’ on issues pertaining to plagiarism while students also endeavour to utilise Cloud and bookmarking applications as these would improve their management of personal information.

Keywords: Babcock University, Information Resources Management, information behaviour, Plagiarism