Background Plagiarism has been described over the past decades as a multi-layer dishonesty phenomenon emerging in higher education. A number of research papers have described a host of factors such as gender, socialization, productivity benefit, study motivation, methodological uncertainty, or easy access to electronic information through the Internet and new technologies as the driving forces for plagiarism. The effects of plagiarism are pervasive and no one is exempted. Neither unfamiliarity nor ignorance excludes a person from the compulsory plagiarism’s ethical and legal problems. Institutional misconduct threatens student integrity, academic reputation, and professional reputation along with legal ramifications and financial penalties. Methodology The goal of the study is to investigate students’ propensity to use the Internet to plagiarize, factors affecting their tendencies, and plagiarism reasons. In this research, we analyze the perception of plagiarism and academic misconduct among students at Jazan University, study major dishonesty factors, and study students’ views on plagiarism and misconduct laws. Results Examination of the responses of the students to various plagiarism situations showed misunderstandings and misconceptions about many forms of plagiarism. Conclusion Our study emphasizes that the problem in our society is that students or budding innovators are being pressured to get involved in academic dishonesty in order to perform better. To have a safe environment, the amount of academic misconduct, theft, and plagiarism must definitely be reduced to a minimum.

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