There is an epidemic of cheating spreading through America which has permeated academia. Since early in the 1900's, researchers have been studying cheating behaviors and the factors that influence cheating among undergraduate students at the university level. Cheating comes in many forms, but in science, there is a shared concern about scientific misconduct in research and writing in science. It is well known and accepted that the training of future scientists begins at the undergraduate level, both in course work and the research laboratory setting. This study investigated the use of scientific writing strategy in General Chemistry I at Wright State University in Ohio. The goal of the study was to determine if providing scientific integrity and ethics training, while teaching students to write journal article-like laboratory reports, reduced the number of ethical violations committed in General Chemistry I. There were three main components to this study: 1) pre- intervention data collection, 2) intervention presentations and 3) post-intervention data collection. Pre-intervention data included both a pre-test on the Integrity Principles and Ethics in Scientific Publications and a pre-intervention laboratory report. The intervention was a training on the Integrity Principles and Ethics in Scientific Publications which occurred during the participants' laboratory periods. Post- intervention data included post-tests and the evaluation of another laboratory report, written after the intervention. An ethics rubric was developed and used to evaluate both the pre-and post-intervention laboratory reports. The evaluation of the laboratory reports was completed using this ethics rubric that focused on six facets of plagiarism. The results showed a statistically significant increase in students’ scores on the pre-and post-tests on the Integrity Principles and Ethics in Scientific Publications. Evaluations of laboratory reports with the ethics rubric showed that there was a decrease in the number of ethical violations related to plagiarism. The study also found that students who earned A grades on the laboratory reports had the least number of ethical violations post-intervention. Finally, the study evaluated the likeliness of females vs males to engage in plagiarism. Though the incidences of plagiarism decreased throughout the study, it is evident that more training is needed in the area of ethics and scientific integrity at Wright State University.

Stop cheating! An evaluation of a scientific integrity writing strategy in General Chemistry I

249th National Meeting (2015)

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