This quantitative study investigates cyber-plagiarism among undergraduate college students, particularly the prevalence and motives for copying and pasting unattributed sources on written assignments within the theoretically rich and broader context of self-efficacy theory.

Four-hundred-thirty-seven students from three universities completed an online survey designed to examine the relationship between cyber-plagiarism and measures of self-efficacy. A Pearson Correlation revealed no empirical evidence to support the hypothesis that students cyber-plagiarize because they lack an ability to synthesize. The results also indicated that students do not perceive cyber-plagiarism as a socially acceptable practice at their universities, and that they strongly believe in an author's ownership in the digital age. Respondents reported that they almost never participate in cyber-plagiarism, yet perceive cyber-plagiarism as a prevalent practice among their peers.