The coronavirus pandemic has completely changed our lives. Everything is different now: work processes, family life, transportation, health care, international trade, global connections, attitude towards the natural environment, etc. The educational process, which is almost exclusively conducted online in these changed circumstances, has also been facing new challenges. As students are given even more written assignments, using different sources, I decided to examine if the current crisis had encouraged them to direct any additional thought to research integrity (plagiarism, intellectual property, citing unverified data, etc.). The aim of our project Integrity is to develop a set of tools to promote research integrity at the level of secondary schools and universities. I made a short survey to explore the knowledge of and compliance with the rules of conduct for research integrity as well as the potential impact of the current crisis on their implementation. I tried to determine to what extent students need additional knowledge and training in this field.

The survey was conducted from 25 to 30 March 2020 via the 1ka web application used by researchers at the University of Ljubljana. The participants were invited via e-mail and Facebook. I asked also the Dean of the Faculty of Theology, University of Ljubljana, and Director of St. Stanislav’s Institution in Ljubljana to allow the invitation to be sent to their employees and students. In total, 369 participants took part in the survey, while 332 of them responded to all questions. When analysing the data, I only took those into account that completed the entire survey: 199 secondary school students, 78 university students, and 55 secondary school and university teachers.

The overwhelming majority, with no significant difference between the different categories of participants, agrees that the spread of coronavirus has changed their way of teaching and studying. 67% of them believe that the current pandemic has partially or to a certain extent restricted their studies, 15% think that their studies have been completely or severely restricted, and as many as 11% of the participants feel motivated to study in the current circumstances. Interestingly, as many as 16% of the teachers responded that the current situation has stimulated their innovativeness. Both secondary school and university students emphasized that although the learning process is now more time-consuming, the subject matter absorbs them more deeply. Nevertheless, they miss their teachers’ live explanations, access to libraries and the company of their fellow students. The current situation has encouraged many university students to start working on their bachelor’s or master’s thesis early. Teachers see the toughest restriction in the fact that they are not able to offer their students practical lessons.

I wanted to find out if the respondents have been faced with any plagiarism dilemma during their studies in the time of the coronavirus pandemic. 90 persons (27%) acknowledged the dilemma of translating, editing or summarizing part of a text they found on the Internet and presenting it as their own work (74 secondary school students, 13 university students, and 3 teachers). 41 persons (12%) admitted that they considered shortening and rewriting a text by another author and presenting it as their own work (34 secondary school students and 7 university students). 7 respondents considered copying part of a text by another author without properly citing their sources (6 secondary school students and 1 teacher). 24 participants considered citing only part of a text and presenting the rest as their own work (21 secondary school students and 3 university students), while 33 participants considered entrusting someone else with their assignment (parents, friends, colleagues) and presenting it as their own work (28 secondary school students and 5 university students). Almost half of the respondents (150) said that they had not confronted any such dilemma recently. Several students and teachers admitted that they had faced a challenge of “recycling” their old assignments and research.

As for the knowledge of the ethical rules relating to research and the use of sources (plagiarism, citing, attribution of authorship), just over half of all participants (54%) believe that they know the rules well, 39% think that they know them partly, and 5% claim that they do not know the rules well. The lowest proportion of those who assessed that they know the rules adequately is among secondary school students (43%), while the highest proportion is, as expected, among teachers (78%). I then asked those who claimed to know or partly know the rules of conduct for research integrity to what extent they follow them. The rules are consistently followed by 36% of the respondents and mostly by 52%, while 5% of the respondents act according to their needs in a given situation. The rules are consistently followed by 28% of secondary school students, 50 % of university students, and 45% of teachers. Two-thirds of the participants learned about the rules of conduct for research integrity in school or university during regular lectures, only 4% during a special lecture or course (4 secondary school students, 1 university student, 9 teachers), 16% on the Internet and 6% nowhere, while 8% of the participants named other sources (family, mentors, university publication, colleagues, etc.).

What is more, I was interested in the self-assessment of participants’ research integrity and the assessment of their colleagues’ general research integrity. Similar to other studies[1], the survey confirmed that the participants are much more critical of their colleagues than of themselves. Only a handful of respondents claimed that they quite often (2%) or very often (1%) illegally copy the texts of others, that they quite often (8%) or very often (6%) summarize the texts of others without citing the sources, that they quite often (7%) or very often (2%) translate and summarize the texts of others without properly citing them, and that that they quite often (5%) or very often (1%) receive unauthorized help from others during their work. However, when assessing their classmates and colleagues, they were much more critical. 25% of the participants agree or strongly agree that their classmates or colleagues often copy from the Internet, 32% agree or strongly agree that their classmates or colleagues summarize the texts of others without properly citing them, 30% agree or strongly agree that their classmates or colleagues often translate the texts found on the Internet or in other sources without properly citing them, and 35% believe that their classmates or colleagues receive unauthorized help from others and then present the results as their own work. In all groups of participants, there is a large discrepancy between the self-assessment and assessment of others; secondary school students are most critical of themselves and their classmates, while teachers assessed both themselves and others most positively. 7% of all respondents admitted that their unacceptable behaviour (e.g. plagiarism) was discovered by their teachers.

44% of all respondents believe that ethical principles in research should receive more attention, 43% are undecided on this issue, and 13% gave a negative answer. While 75% of the teachers gave a positive response regarding respecting ethical principles, the proportion was 45% in the case of university students and 35% in the case of secondary school students. The majority of secondary school students (51%) were undecided. Furthermore, the explanations of respondents’ answers are very interesting. Several participants pointed out that many are not even aware that they are doing anything wrong when copying the texts of others. Some believe that certain people would not be discouraged from unethical behaviour even if they knew the rules and that plagiarism would always exist. It is mentioned several times that the solution is not to formulate rules of conduct and codes of ethics, but rather to strengthen the personal ethical responsibility of each individual. Moreover, the teachers emphasize the importance of students’ thorough knowledge of the principles of research integrity. One of the teachers referred to a “thin line of plagiarism” – when it is unclear what my idea is and what I have taken from others.

As for the central question of the survey – if participants believe that personal integrity in research and the educational process is even more important in the time of the coronavirus pandemic – 26% of all participants gave a positive answer, arguing that there is currently less direct contact and more is left to individual’s personal responsibility. Another 11% of participants also gave a positive answer, explaining that it is possible to complete certain assignments more easily and more rapidly in the current situation, without respecting ethical standards. The majority, however, gave a negative response. 52% believe that the pandemic made no difference and that this is a matter of personal integrity, not dependant on a crisis situation. 8% think that the current crisis does not make it impossible to effectively control plagiarism. 6 persons pointed out a more difficult access to literature due to the closure of libraries and sudden increased number of assignments, posing new challenges to both teachers and students. There was no significant difference between the responses of individual groups.

I gave the participants the opportunity to share their thoughts on respecting ethical principles in the time of pandemic. Some secondary school students claimed that they became more aware of certain ethical principles related to the use of sources in these times, while others pointed out that compliance with the rules depends on personal integrity. Some of them, however, emphasized that individuals can take advantage of such crisis situations. One of the secondary school students made an interesting statement: “I believe that copying and summarizing the texts of others is so widespread nowadays that the young people take it for granted. Nobody teaches us how to write for ourselves and the computer is often too tempting.”

At the end of the survey, I asked the participants to what extent they agree with certain social measures imposed in the time of the coronavirus pandemic. The vast majority agrees (39%) or strongly agrees (55%) with the government measures of restrictions on movement. Likewise, almost all participants agree (31%) or strongly agree (64%) that individual freedom is restricted to protect the most vulnerable members (the elderly, the sick) in society. As for the question if the aim of these measures is to protect ourselves, the results are similar: 44% agree with the statement and 50% strongly agree. However, only 3% of the participants agree and 1% strongly agree with the point that the general restriction measures are pointless and that the whole population should catch the viral infection as soon as possible. Similarly, only 4% of the respondents agree and 2% strongly agree with the statement that everyone should have the freedom to choose whether or not to follow government recommendations. The overwhelming majority agrees (54%) or strongly agrees (32%) that the current situation makes it necessary to follow the precautionary principle: we need to act as if there is a great danger in uncertain situations. There is hardly any difference between individual groups in this scope of questions, except for the question of whether the individual freedom is restricted to protect the most vulnerable members in society: 97% of secondary school students, 88% of university students, and 98% of teachers (strongly) agree with this statement.

When asked about the personal experience of the pandemic, 7% of all respondents claimed that they are afraid of the infection and that they often feel distressed, 38% stated that they sometimes think about the possible consequences of the infection but are mostly not bothered with it, 38% replied that they are not afraid of the infection although they are aware of the possibility of being infected, and 2 % claimed that their lives are exactly the same as before the news of the pandemic. As many as 14% of the participants drafted their own answer. Most of them said that they are not afraid for themselves but rather for their loved ones. They also worry about the economic consequences of the crisis. Quite a few participants pointed out that they have now found time for personal development and creativity and for strengthening personal relationships among family members.

Finally, the survey focused on participants’ thoughts about the future of our society after the coronavirus pandemic. The participants are very optimistic about the impact of the current crisis on the future development of humanity. As many as 49% of them (strongly) agree that the crisis will have positive effects. They expect people’s cohesion and solidarity on the local level to be strengthened significantly (52% agree with the statement and 12% strongly agree). However, the respondents made much poorer prognosis about the increase in cohesion and solidarity on the global level (37% agree with the statement and 5% strongly agree). Moreover, many of them assume that the current crisis will undermine the principles of free market and capitalism. 36% of the respondents agree with this statement, 11% strongly agree, 20% disagree, and 4% strongly disagree, while the others are undecided. It is also very encouraging that many participants expect the current crisis to enhance people’s sense of responsibility towards the natural environment. This is believed by 49% of the participants, 27% believe the opposite, and 24% are undecided. The majority of the respondents feels that the current crisis has increased trust on a personal level (55%) as well as compassion and solidarity (56%), while only a minority believes the opposite.

The participants in our survey are mostly positive about the long-term social impacts of the current pandemic. The message of the crisis is that it is possible to live a different life. A better life. Even though the virus has deprived us of many things in certain areas, it has also given us a lot in others.

[1] “While only a small portion of students admit giving into the temptation to copy others’ work and submit it as their own, a large majority of students perceive cyber-plagiarism as a practice that is prevalent among their peers.” (Junko Yamamoto and Simeon Ananou. 2015. Humanity in the Digital Age: Cognitive, Social, Emotional, and Ethical Implications, Contemporary Educational Technology 6 (1): 1-18, 7).