Students’ and Instructors’ Perceptions of Turnitin: A Plagiarism Deterrent?

Abstract

Academicians consider plagiarism a major threat to academia. To combat that threat, a lot of universities, including the researcher’s university, have been using Turnitin. It is believed that this software is likely to deter students’ plagiarism. The aim of this study is, therefore, to investigate 1) the impact of Turnitin on students’ plagiarism from the perspectives of both students and instructors in a private Lebanese English-speaking university and 2) the reasons that push students to plagiarize. A concurrent mixed-methods design is employed, and different data collection methods are used. The data are analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Findings reveal that although a lot of the participants perceive Turnitin as a good deterrent to plagiarism, it did not completely inhibit it. The findings also reveal that not all instructors were committed enough to use Turnitin in their courses. Some of the reasons for plagiarism that the participants named are lack of citation skills, laziness, and indifference among students to abide by ethical writing norms. Besides reinforcing the use of Turnitin among all instructors, the researcher recommends that students’ writing and citation skills be improved and that students be helped to become more ethical writers.