Cheating

Definitions and Typologies of Academic Cheating

A cursory review of the literature suggests that there is no universally embraced definition of academic cheating. For example, some researchers have defined cheating indirectly and vaguely, such as ‘a violation of an institution's policy on honesty,’ whereas others seem to have left the meaning of cheating up to students' interpretation by asking them directly how often they ‘cheat’ on their work or use ‘cheat sheets’ when they take tests. More typically, researchers have avoided such ambiguity or subjectivity, respectively, by asking students how often they have engaged in a specific set of behaviors, such as ‘copying from a neighbor during an examination’ or ‘copying material without acknowledging the source.’ This latter approach is sometimes combined with a corresponding set of questions that asks students if they consider the behavior ‘cheating’ or to rate how ‘serious’ they think it is. Not surprisingly, the more likely students are to define a behavior as ‘cheating,’ the less likely they are to report engaging in that behavior.

In addition to the wide variation in how researchers have operationally defined cheating, several investigators [Page 137]have created various typologies of cheating. Gary Pavela, for example, described four general types of academic dishonesty: (1) the use of unauthorized materials on any academic activity (e.g., using ‘cheat sheets’ during an exam); (2) fabrication of information, references, or results (e.g., falsifying lab results); (3) plagiarism (e.g., copying verbatim another's work without proper attribution); and (4) helping others engage in academic dishonesty (e.g., allowing another to copy your homework). Stephen Newstead and his colleagues conducted an exploratory factor analysis on 21 academic behaviors and derived the following five factors: (1) plagiarism (which included a fabrication item); (2) collaborative cheating; (3) exams, collusion; (4) lying (e.g., lying about a medical condition to get an extension); and (5) exams, noncollaborative. More recently, some researchers have made a distinction between traditional or conventional cheating and digital or Internet-based cheating.

Academic cheating or dishonesty (the terms are often used interchangeably) has been defined in numerous ways, and various typologies have been constructed in an effort to map its vast terrain. Taken together, academic cheating can be defined broadly as the use of unauthorized or unacceptable means in any academic work. The means or actions include, but are not limited to, lying, using crib notes during exams, copying other people's work without permission, altering or forging documents, purchasing papers, plagiarism, unpermitted collaboration, altering research results, and providing false excuses to miss assignments or make up exams.

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