Attitude toward Plagiarism among Postgraduate Students of a Medical Institute in South India

Background: Academic integrity is an essential quality to uplift the standards of higher education and plagiarism destroys it. Aims: This study aimed to explore the attitude toward plagiarism (ATP) and its association with gender, hours of Internet use among postgraduate (PG) students in a tertiary care teaching and research institute in South India. Methods: PG students from different disciplines (N = 383) formed the study participants for cross-sectional study and we used the ATP questionnaire (ATP-Q) that consisted of 29 statements measuring three attitudinal factors: positive, negative attitude, and subjective norms. Participants were given pro forma to fill the ATP-Q and data collected immediately. Results: Female students formed 58.7% of the participants and 41% were in their 1st year of the course. Our study noted that only 19.58% had the attitude that seems to approve plagiarism. Their scores on the questionnaire fell in the low-score category of positive attitude factor, low-score category of subjective norms factor, and high-score category of negative attitude factor. We did not see any association between approving ATP (categorized as Yes or No) with gender or hours of Internet use. However, a significant proportion of students in the 3rd year had approving ATP compared to those in the preceding years (Chi-square (df), p: 18.05(2),