Concern about plagiarism and academic dishonesty among international students studying in Western institutions has emerged in the academic literature. Debates about the reasons leading to the increased number of students breaking the academic integrity rules are lively in many academic forums. Some researchers have linked plagiarism with cultural norms, values and behaviours, identifying culture as the reason for the tendency to plagiarise among international students.

This study argues that culture is not decisive in shaping students’ understanding and attitude towards referencing and plagiarism. It involves an action research project undertaken with international students enrolled in a diploma program at La Trobe Melbourne and suggests that plagiarism is the outcome of complex personal and situational factors. Students’ English proficiency, the inherent writing style in their home country, their motivation, their learning style (passive or active), together with the different approaches to referencing adopted by different teachers, appear to be the key factors that significantly affect students’ ways of managing citing and referencing in their own work. These factors need to be taken into consideration in the design of activities aimed at familiarising international students with the issue of academic integrity in Western institutions and providing them with adequate support to be able to manage it.