Academic plagiarism among secondary and high school students: differences in gender and procrastination

Dataset of article published in Journal COMUNICAR number 44 This paper analyses the phenomenon of academic plagiarism among students enrolled in Secondary Education and Baccalaureate. It is a subject poorly studied in the pre-university level and very scantily discussed in the Spanish-speaking context. It investigates the frequency in the commission of plagiarism and the relationship between gender and procrastination and such practices. A questionnaire was administered to a representative sample (n=2794). Results show that the plagiarism is certainly present in the classrooms of educational media cycles. Furthermore, it shows that men have significantly higher levels of perpetration than women and students who tend to leave the tasks until the last moment is more likely to plagiarize. The fruits of this research suggest the need to take into serious consideration the magnitude and severity of the problem identified, the secondary schools should peremptorily plan and undertake measures in order to reduce and prevent the commission of this type of academic fraud. Secondly, results are useful to give clear guidance to teachers about the need for them to follow up and apply an effective control of the elaboration process of academic essays and tasks by students. Improving information competences of the students has been identified as one of the main strategies needed to effectively address the problem.