Academic Dishonesty: Behaviors, Sanctions, and Retention of Adjudicated College Students

Academic dishonesty, also known as academic misconduct, includes a variety of actions such as plagiarism, cheating on tests using text messaging or concealed notes, exchanging work with other students, buying essays from students or on the Internet, and having other students write examinations (Diekhoff, LaBeff, Shinohara, & Yasukawa, 1999; Ellery, 2008; Underwood & Szabo, 2003). Although academic dishonesty is believed to be widespread among college students, very few are caught and fewer still are sanctioned. This study examined students who were accused of academic misconduct at a large institution. We used an unobtrusive behavioral indicator of misconduct, collecting and analyzing 421 Description of Alleged Academic Misconduct forms over two academic years (2007–2009). Plagiarism accounted for 49% of the violations, while receiving external assistance accounted for (35%). Approximately 91.5% of reported cases occurred among undergraduate level classes (freshman=43.5%, sophomore=15%, junior=9%, senior=24%). Approximately 98% of individuals were found responsible with 80% or more receiving three or more sanctions.