“Does Plagiarism Mean anything? LOL.” Students’ Conceptions of Writing and Citing

This study focuses on the intersection of research ethics and academic writing, i.e. the use of sources, assignment of credit
to the contributors in the research, and the dissemination of research findings. The study utilized a set of semi-structured
and open-ended questions. The sample consisted of 269 undergraduate (BA) and graduate (MA) students at a U.S. university department
of psychology including major and non-major students. The data showed that although an overwhelming number of the students’
examples related to ethical issues in citation dealt with plagiarism, a broad range of examples of other types of issues were
also provided. Understandably, students tended to view the questions about both the assignment of credit to those involved
in conducting the research and the dissemination of research findings from the research participant’s perspective, which is
more familiar to them than the researcher perspective. In order to help the students to expand their notions beyond the immediate
own experience to a broader understanding for the ethical principles that ought to guide a researcher in his or her work,
it is desirable that students be provided with opportunities to participate in authentic research projects. With a deeper
understanding of the students’ conceptions of ethics in research and academic writing, we can become more attuned to the common
limitations and misconceptions that students harbor, and thus better equipped to support students in their learning process.