Since Internet plagiarism has become an increasing concern for educators, strategies to deter this latest form of academic misconduct must be developed. After reexamining the university's existing policy on plagiarism, educators must implement proactive approaches in the teaching and prevention of such behavior. Such activities should include critically evaluating web sites for instructional purposes, teaching students about electronic citation, limiting or directing the use of Internet resources for assignments, and creating a systematic program that addresses the importance of citing references. To assist with this instruction, there are many web sites that provide models of policies, citation guides, and suggestions to deter plagiarism.
Some sites even offer sample lessons for instructors to use in their own curriculum.
In turn, it is the responsibility of all educators to teach and train students about the ethics of research and scholarship. As more students use the Internet for research, the temptation to plagiarize has greatly increased. Students can refer to any search engine, type in the keywords associated with a topic, and in a matter of seconds, retrieve a number of web sites that offer full text information ready to be copied. Instructors who are confronted with Internet plagiarism often face the burden of trying to locate the evidence as proof that cheating has occurred. Unlike most traditional information resources, the Internet is difficult to search.