Attitudes of researchers towards plagiarism: A study on a tertiary care hospital in Riyadh,Saudi Arabia

Plagiarism is one of the most common research misconducts and has many negative consequences. It can potentially destroy the reputation of an institution. Only a few studies have explored plagiarism in Saudi Arabia, and these have focused on academic institutions. Therefore, in this study, we investigated the attitudes of researchers towards plagiarism at a tertiary care hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, using the established Attitudes Towards Plagiarism questionnaire. The questionnaire contains demographic data along with 29 statements divided into three sections: positive attitude towards plagiarism, which reflects the approval and acceptance of plagiarism (12 items); negative attitude towards plagiarism, which reflects deprecation and condemnation of plagiarism (7 items); and subjective norms towards plagiarism, which reflects personal perception of the extent and acceptance of plagiarism in society (10 items). Responses were collected from 237 participants. The overall attitudes of researchers showed a disapproval for plagiarism in medical research but also revealed some ambiguity about self‐plagiarism and a belief that others were more likely to plagiarize than the respondent. Our findings suggest that awareness about different forms of plagiarism among researchers should be increased. We recommend that researchers' attitudes towards plagiarism should be investigated further in a rigorous association study.     

Who Owns the Content and Who Runs the Risk? Dynamics of Teacher Change in Teacher–Researcher Collaboration

We present analyses of teacher professional growth during collaboration between science teachers and science education researchers, with special focus on how the differential assumption of responsibility between teachers and researchers affected the growth processes. The collaboration centered on a new conceptual framework introduced by the researchers, which aimed at empowering teachers to plan teaching in accordance with perceived purposes. Seven joint planning meetings between teachers and researchers were analyzed, both quantitatively concerning the extent to which the introduced framework became part of the discussions and qualitatively through the interconnected model of teacher professional growth. The collaboration went through three distinct phases characterized by how and the extent to which the teachers made use of the new framework. The change sequences identified in relation to each phase show that teacher recognition of salient outcomes from the framework was important for professional growth to occur. Moreover, our data suggest that this recognition may have been facilitated because the researchers, in initial phases of the collaboration, took increased responsibility for the implementation of the new framework. We conclude that although this differential assumption of responsibility may result in unequal distribution of power between teachers and researchers, it may at the same time mean more equal distribution of concrete work required as well as the inevitable risks associated with pedagogical innovation and introduction of research-based knowledge into science teachers’ practice.