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Table 1 Results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of the revised plagiarism attitude scale

From: Validating the revised plagiarism attitude scale among Malaysian medical sciences students: a psychometric study in multilingual contexts

Factors and items

h2

EFA factor loading

CFA factor loading

λ

% Variance

Cronbach’s alpha

Composite reliability

Maximal reliability

Average variance extracted

Plagiarism Triggers

   

4.272

22.861

0.897

0.889

0.890

0.500

Q33. I am tempted to plagiarise if I currently have more important obligations or tasks to do.

0.642

0.789

0.700

      

Q9. Short deadlines or a heavy workload give me the right to plagiarise a bit.

0.575

0.762

0.732

      

Q29. Sometimes, it is necessary to plagiarise.

0.574

0.757

0.727

      

Q18. A plagiarised paper does no harm to the value of a university degree.

0.526

0.731

0.720

      

Q36. I am tempted to plagiarise because, even if caught, the punishment will be light (the reward outweighs the risk).

0.498

0.703

0.705

      

Q21. Those who say they have never plagiarised are lying.

0.466

0.686

0.629

      

Q30. I am tempted to plagiarise if I have permission from a friend to copy his or her work.

0.467

0.679

0.732

      

Q28. Plagiarism can be justified if I currently have more important obligations or tasks to do.

0.479

0.674

0.708

      

Rationalising Plagiarism

   

2.94

15.622

0.866

0.831

0.857

0.503

Q27. Since plagiarism is taking other people’s words rather than tangible assets, it should not be considered a serious offence.

0.653

0.807

0.774

      

Q3. Self-plagiarism is not punishable because it is not harmful (you cannot steal from yourself).

0.626

0.792

0.818

      

Q11. It is justified to use your own previous work, without providing citation, in order to complete the current work.

0.634

0.785

0.775

      

Q2. It is justified to use previous descriptions of a concept or theory, because they remain the same.

0.482

0.700

0.562

      

Q1. Sometimes you cannot avoid using other people’s words, because there are only so many ways to describe something.

0.483

0.679

0.572

      

Perceptions of Plagiarism Severity

   

2.963

14.301

0.821

0.811

0.813

0.518

Q25. Plagiarism is not a big deal.

0.559

0.750

0.736

      

Q19. Since plagiarism is taking other people’s words rather than tangible assets, it should not be considered a serious offence.

0.550

0.742

0.697

      

Q4. Plagiarised parts of a student’s paper should be ignored if the paper is otherwise of high quality.

0.537

0.727

0.747

      

Q5. Self-plagiarism should not be punishable in the same way as plagiarism is.

0.507

0.712

0.698

      
  1. Note: h2: Communalities, λ: Eigenvalues, the item numbers presented in this table correspond directly to those in the Howard, Enrich, and Walton (2014) study, ensuring consistency in the categorization and interpretation of questions across the subscales
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BMC Medical Education

ISSN: 1472-6920

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