Missing Citations, Bulking Biographies, and Unethical Collaboration: Types of Cheating among Public Relations Majors

Students cheat. For the field of public relations, which continually struggles for credibility, the issue of student cheating should be paramount, as the unethical students of today become tomorrow’s practitioners. Through a survey of 170 public relations majors, this study examined the importance students place on the Public Relations Society of America Code of Ethics, the extent to which they cheat, and the types of cheating behaviors in which they participate. Results of the study indicated cause for concern as close to 80 percent of students admitted to cheating. Moreover, the extent to which students cheated was significantly related to the number of their friends and close acquaintances whom they perceived as engaging in such behaviors.