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What Prevents Students from Reporting Academic Misconduct? A Survey of Croatian Students

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Abstract

Academic misconduct is widespread in all cultures, and factors that influence it have been investigated for many years. An act of reporting peers’ misconduct not only identifies and prevents misconduct, but also encourages a student to think and act morally and raises awareness about academic integrity. The aim of this study was to determine factors that prevent students from reporting academic misconduct. A questionnaire to assess views on reporting the academic misconduct of a colleague was developed and sent to all students enrolled at the University of Rijeka, Croatia. Results indicate that a tendency to protect fellow student and to comply with other opinions is the most influential factor that prevents students from reporting peers’ misbehavior. Furthermore, scientific discipline, gender, and age are all significant factors in students’ intention to report peer misconduct. Understanding the factors that influence students’ willingness to report academic misconduct enables faculties, administrators and students to strengthen the ethical culture in the academic community.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Medicine, Department of Social Sciences and Medical Humanities, University of Rijeka, Brace Branchetta 20, 51000, Rijeka, Croatia

    Vanja Pupovac & Stjepka Popović

  2. Faculty of Health Studies, Department of Public Health, University of Rijeka, Viktora Cara Emina 5, 51 000, Rijeka, Croatia

    Stjepka Popović

  3. Faculty of Medicine, University of Rijeka, Brace Branchetta 20, 51000, Rijeka, Croatia

    Vedran Blažina

Authors
  1. Vanja Pupovac
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  2. Stjepka Popović
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  3. Vedran Blažina
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Correspondence to Vanja Pupovac.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

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Pupovac, V., Popović, S. & Blažina, V. What Prevents Students from Reporting Academic Misconduct? A Survey of Croatian Students. J Acad Ethics 17, 389–400 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-019-09341-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-019-09341-5

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