Academic misconduct is a threat to the validity and reliability of online examinations, and media reports suggest that misconduct spiked dramatically in higher education during the emergency shift to online exams caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study reviewed survey research to determine how common it is for university students to admit cheating in online exams, and how and why they do it. We also assessed whether these self-reports of cheating increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, along with an evaluation of the quality of the research evidence which addressed these questions. 25 samples were identified from 19 Studies, including 4672 participants, going back to 2012. Online exam cheating was self-reported by a substantial minority (44.7%) of students in total. Pre-COVID this was 29.9%, but during COVID cheating jumped to 54.7%, although these samples were more heterogenous. Individual cheating was more common than group cheating, and the most common reason students reported for cheating was simply that there was an opportunity to do so. Remote proctoring appeared to reduce the occurrence of cheating, although data were limited. However there were a number of methodological features which reduce confidence in the accuracy of all these findings. Most samples were collected using designs which makes it likely that online exam cheating is under-reported, for example using convenience sampling, a modest sample size and insufficient information to calculate response rate. No studies considered whether samples were representative of their population. Future approaches to online exams should consider how the basic validity of examinations can be maintained, considering the substantial numbers of students who appear to be willing to admit engaging in misconduct. Future research on academic misconduct would benefit from using large representative samples, guaranteeing participants anonymity.

学术不端行为对在线考试的有效性和可靠性构成威胁，媒体报道表明，在 COVID-19 大流行导致紧急转向在线考试期间，高等教育中的学术不端行为急剧增加。这项研究回顾了调查研究，以确定大学生承认在线考试作弊的常见程度，以及他们这样做的方式和原因。我们还评估了这些自我报告的作弊行为在 COVID-19 大流行期间是否有所增加，并对解决这些问题的研究证据的质量进行了评估。我们从 2012 年的 19 项研究（包括 4672 名参与者）中确定了 25 个样本。总共有相当少数（44.7%）的学生自我报告了在线考试作弊行为。在新冠疫情之前，这一比例为 29.9%，但在新冠疫情期间，作弊率跃升至 54.7%，尽管这些样本更加异质。个人作弊比集体作弊更常见，学生举报作弊的最常见原因很简单，就是有机会这样做。尽管数据有限，但远程监考似乎减少了作弊的发生。然而，有许多方法学特征降低了人们对所有这些发现的准确性的信心。大多数样本的收集方式可能导致在线考试作弊行为被低估，例如使用便利抽样、样本量适中以及计算回复率的信息不足。没有研究考虑样本是否代表其总体。未来的在线考试应考虑如何维持考试的基本有效性，考虑到大量学生似乎愿意承认自己有不当行为。未来对学术不端行为的研究将受益于使用大量具有代表性的样本，保证参与者的匿名性。