LIBRARIANS’ PERCEPTION OF PLAGIARISM IN SCHOLARLY PUBLICATIONS IN UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES IN SOUTH – SOUTH, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study's goal was to determine how university libraries' librarians perceived plagiarism in scholarly publication. In line with the study's goals, two research questions and one hypothesis were posed. The study is restricted to academic librarians working in federal, state, and private university libraries in Nigeria's South-South area. The study employed a descriptive survey design of the co-relational kind. The total enumeration sample technique was chosen because it enables the study of the full population, which in this case consists of 229 librarians working in university libraries in South-South, Nigeria. The researcher's structured questionnaire served as the instrument for gathering data. Both face and content validity tests were performed on the instrument. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. The study found that South-South Nigerian university libraries have a high level of librarians' perception of plagiarism, and that among the reasons librarians plagiarize are laziness, a lack of ability to express someone else's ideas in their own words, the desire to publish a lot of work quickly, and a lack of understanding of what plagiarism is. It was recommended that university administration create regulations against plagiarism to deter individuals from engaging in it.