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This paper considers the problem of source code plagiarism by students within the computing disciplines and reports the results of a survey of students in Computing departments in 18 institutions in the U.K. This survey was designed to investigate how well students understand the concept of source code plagiarism and to discover what, if any, specific aspects might cause particular confusion. An analysis of the results was carried out to assess understanding by topic and to discover whether various demographic factors may have an influence on that understanding. Within the survey sample, it appeared that the demographic factors tested did not generally affect students' understanding of source code plagiarism. However, analysis of the data for specific topics revealed that there are several areas of activity where the boundary between acceptable and unacceptable behavior is not clearly understood. These findings have implications for plagiarism education programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A survey using a scenario-based questionnaire format has provided insight into the perceptions of U.K academics who teach programming on computing courses. This survey across various higher education (HE) institutions investigates what academics feel constitutes source-code plagiarism in an undergraduate context. Academics' responses on issues surrounding source-code reuse and acknowledgement are discussed. A general consensus exists among academics that a "zero tolerance" plagiarism policy is appropriate; however, some issues concerning source-code reuse and acknowledgement raised controversial responses. This paper discusses the most important findings from the survey and proposes a definition of what can constitute source-code plagiarism from the perspective of U.K. academics who teach programming on computing courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]