/ Sean Gallup/Getty Images Findings come months after The Times exposes 'plagiarism epidemic' among Britain's institutions -- -- Half of the nation’s university students are losing marks for not referencing their work correctly, according to a new survey into attitudes towards plagiarism. Citation tool RefME - which polled just under 2,900 of the country’s -- -- almost 80 per cent are worried about referencing correctly, while a majority of 71 per cent expressed concern about facing disciplinary actions for plagiarism. [GettyImages-170380536.jpg] Read more -- -- Read more Universities in ‘plagiarism epidemic’ as almost 50,000 students cheat RefMe said: “This widespread concern over facing disciplinary actions -- -- ‘ghostwriter’ to complete their work for them constitutes academic misconduct, more than 20 per cent were unable to identify this as plagiarism. The findings have come just months after an investigation by The Times -- -- The findings have come just months after an investigation by The Times newspaper revealed there to be a “plagiarism epidemic” among Britain’s universities with almost 50,000 students being caught cheating in the last three years. -- -- However, RefME said that, although its study unearthed some “concerning” statistics around plagiarism in academia, students are increasingly using tools to help them out; almost half of respondents said they use a referencing tool, and 44 per cent reported using -- -- increasingly using tools to help them out; almost half of respondents said they use a referencing tool, and 44 per cent reported using plagiarism tools prior to submitting. Tom Hatton, CEO and founder of RefME, described how, as a university -- -- “The hope is that we can look back at these numbers in a couple of years and see evidence that the sentiment towards plagiarism has changed.” * More about: -- -- * More about: * RefMe * plagiarism * University of Kent * University of Westminster