Abstract

The Internet facilitates many types of academic dishonesty. Plagiarism, fraudulence, falsification and piracy have become accessible everywhere in the world. In these conditions, individual factors such as motivation and self-efficacy could help us understand the mechanism that leads to academic misconduct. This research explored the relationship between self-efficacy,  academic motivation and students ‘ perception of Academic dishonesty through the Internet. The data was collected from a sample of 283 Romanian university students. We used four tools: Internet-Triggered Academic Dishonesty Scale (ITADS), The Work Preference Inventory, Academic Self-Efficacy Scale and Self-efficacy Scale. The results suggested that intrinsic academic motivation correlated negatively and insignificantly with self-efficacy, while extrinsic academic motivation correlated positively but insignificantly with self-efficacy. In our research the mediator role of self-efficacy on the relationship between academic motivation and students’ perception of academic dishonesty was not confirmed. We discuss these findings from the perspective of ethics and academic integrity, elements that any student or teacher must be aware of when creating various academic documents. Despite disproving the hypotheses, our research draws attention to the caution of applying research instruments in the case of students who lack the ethical culture and a responsible attitude towards this sensitive area.

Key-words: Academic dishonesty; Internet; motivation; self-efficacy