Students’ Perception on Plagiarism and Usage of Turnitin Anti-Plagiarism Software: The Role of the Library

Abstract Plagiarism adversely affects contributions to knowledge and the goal of instilling the skill of academic writing. Thus, most institutions of higher learning strive to develop mechanisms to help students understand the importance of academic integrity and reasons why they should avoid plagiarism. In many of these institutions, libraries/librarians play an integral role in academic integrity instruction as it is incorporated into information literacy instruction. This study examined students’ understanding of plagiarism and the influence of Turnitin anti-plagiarism software on academic writing. The study used the survey research design. Using stratified and simple random sampling methods, questionnaires were administered to 175 students. Findings from the study revealed that efforts made by the university through seminars have influenced the perception of students on the concept of plagiarism and acts which constitute plagiarism. Though respondents agree with the fact that the use of Turnitin software influences academic writing positively, knowledge about the existence and usage of this software is low since the total number of students who had no idea about the university’s subscription to the software was higher than those who did. Additionally, many of the respondents had difficulty understanding originality reports generated by the software and most were not aware of the existence of the university’s policy on plagiarism. The study recommends for the library to intensify training on the usage and interpretation of similarity reports that are generated by the software as well as making the university’s policy on plagiarism more visible or otherwise lose the capital and efforts invested in producing graduates who can contribute to knowledge and scholarship ethically.