Plagiarism in South African management journals

Authors

  • Adele Thomas Department of Industrial Psychology and People Management, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
  • Gideon P. de Bruin Department of Industrial Psychology and People Management, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2015/20140017

Keywords:

academic values, ethics, government subsidy, reputation, universities

Abstract

Plagiarism by academics has been relatively unexplored thus far. However, there has been a growing awareness of this problem in recent years. We submitted 371 published academic articles appearing in 19 South African management journals in 2011 through the plagiarism detection software program Turnitin™. High and excessive levels of plagiarism were detected. The cost to government of subsidising unoriginal work in these journals was calculated to approximate ZAR7 million for the period under review. As academics are expected to role model ethical behaviour to students, such a finding is disturbing and has implications for the reputations of the institutions to which the authors are affiliated as well as that of the journals that publish articles that contain plagiarised material.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

Published

2015-01-29

How to Cite

Thomas, A., & de Bruin, G. P. (2015). Plagiarism in South African management journals. South African Journal of Science, 111(1/2), 1–3. https://doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2015/20140017

Issue

Section

Research Letter