The relationship between knowledge of what constitutes academic plagiarism, knowledge of citation norms, and academic plagiarism perpetration among students in their final year of Economics at an average size Spanish university is analyzed. The research counted on the participation of a sample (n=325) of students who responded to a questionnaire prepared adhoc for this study. This research highlights the deficits that participating students had in determining when a text is plagiarized and in recognizing a citation or a reference. The results suggest an absence in students’ ability to recognize plagiarism relates directly to the commission of it. The study provides data on students who commit plagiarism accidentally and those who do it intentionally
