Abstract

Background: Plagiarism is considered to be the most vicious type of academic misconduct as it constitutes the theft of intellectual property which is the hallmark of intellectual work.

Objectives: The objectives of the study were to explore the attitude of Faculty members and senior residents toward research as well as plagiarism in a medical school of North India.

Material and Methods: The questionnaire administered to the respondents consisted of three parts. The first part was related to sociodemographic details along with a number of publications and presentations (oral/poster). The second part was pertaining to attitude toward research (ATR) and the third part was related to attitude toward plagiarism (ATP). Both the scales were rated on a 5-point Likert Scale. The positive attitude reflects approval whereas negative attitude expresses disapproval of Plagiarism. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20.

Results: Response rate was 84.21%. A total of 160 respondents comprising 93 faculty members and 67 senior residents constituted our study population. A statistically significant difference was observed for negative domain of ATP in relation to the department (clinical/para or non-clinical), whether formal training in medical writing and research ethics received or not and whether they were conducting research due to personal interest or not (P < 0.05). A significant correlation of ATP score was observed with a number of publications and presentations and ATR score (P < 0.05).

Conclusions: Training in medical writing and research ethics need to be incorporated in UG/PG curriculum. Awareness needs to be generated about academic integrity at all educational levels.

Key words: Research; Plagiarism; Attitudes; Medical Faculty