2012 Study of Student Use of Writing Sources by Turnitin…

Among the findings…

“KEY FINDINGS INCLUDE:

  • Only just over half of Internet sources in student writing come from legitimate educational resources. 57% of matches come from academic and homework sites, news and portal sites and encyclopedias.
  • Poor research practices lead students to a significant number of sites that are notauthoritative. 43% of matches lead to sites that are academically suspect, including cheat sites and paper mills, shopping sites, and social and user-generated content.
  • More pointedly, 19% of content matches come from paper mills and cheat sites.In looking at the issue of plagiarism, it is safe to assume, at minimum, 19% of matchedcontent comes from sources of academic disrepute.
  • Already the most popular student source, reliance on Wikipedia continues strong. Wikipedia remains the most popular source for unoriginal content in student writing.
  • Higher education students need further instruction on proper research habits. Educators should incorporate the teaching of proper research habits upfront in order to reduce the number of academically dubious sources that appear in student writing.”

You can request the full report here: http://pages.turnitin.com/sources_in_writing_he_2012.html