A recent study made some alarming findings on the extent of plagiarism and other forms of unethical academic behaviour at Moroccan tertiary education institutions, but also proposes measures to combat this scourge.
This work discovered a worrying prevalence of plagiarism, Morocco is moving to implement strategies to improve research culture, including and increased focus on professional development. We suspect similar challenges confront countries worldwide and professional development that genuinely engages participants with practical exercises where they apply their learning, is the most effective way to promote lasting change in attitudes and practice.
The study, ‘Exploring scientific misconduct in Morocco based on an analysis of plagiarism perception in a cohort of 1,220 researchers and students’, was authored by Khalid El Bairi of the faculty of medicine and pharmacy at the Mohamed I University, Nadia El Kadmiri of the polydisciplinary faculty of Taroudant at the Ibn Zohr University and Maryam Fourtassi of the faculty of medicine and pharmacy at the Abdelmalek Essaâdi University.
“To the best of our knowledge, this is the largest study to examine the issue of plagiarism in Morocco and Africa,” it states.
The researchers used a descriptive survey to explore perceptions and attitudes on plagiarism in several categories of scholars, including university professors, PhD researchers and postdoctoral fellows, PhD students, scientific graduates and undergraduate students. The survey also investigated various factors associated with plagiarism with the aim to implement interventions at Moroccan universities.
