Chinese Authorial Identity: a Model for Scoring the Student Authorship Questionnaire

This study explores authorial identity and plagiarism among Chinese students studying accounting and business in China by drawing on Pittam et al.’s (2009) Student Authorship Questionnaire (SAQ). Chinese students’ attitudes to authorship and plagiarism are reported as being similar to those of UK students from the same disciplinary background. This finding challenges the traditional view that Chinese students, because of cultural influences, are less likely to take ownership of their writing and more accepting of plagiarism than western students. The study also investigates the psychometric properties of the SAQ in the context of Chinese students and offers a distinct Chinese model for scoring the instrument which takes account of Chinese students’ approaches to writing and, in particular, reflects the paradox of the Chinese learner.