Walter Enders and Gary Hoover
Abstract
This paper reports the results of a survey regarding academic plagiarism in the economics profession. We received 1208 usable responses from a broad cross-section of economists. As in our previous survey of journal editors, there is substantial variance in what is considered plagiarism and in the appropriate response to a clear case of plagiarism. Many of the respondents are not aware of the distinction between copyright infringement and plagiarism. We also find that risk of damage to ones reputation from plagiarizing is minimal since most cases go unreported. Moreover, a substantial portion of the 295 reported cases of plagiarism could be classified as hierarchal. Hierarchical plagiarism occurs when a superior, such as a major professor or employer, passes off the subordinate’s words or ideas as her/his own.