Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the most common form of academic misconduct and may occur intentionally or unintentionally due to lack of understanding or poor scholarship. Plagiarism is defined as taking another person’s thoughts, words, results, judgement, ideas, images, etc, and presenting them as your own.

Examples of plagiarism include but are not limited to:

  • copying: using someone else’s work or thoughts and passing them off as your own, even with their permission; this includes using images and audio-visual presentations without acknowledgement
  • incorrect referencing: inserting others' writing or thoughts into your work without correct referencing
  • copying and pasting: copying text verbatim or closely paraphrasing a source's text and passing it off as your own without using quotation marks and citing the original source
  • paraphrasing: changing the words or order of someone else’s work slightly and not acknowledging the source with proper citation.

Self-plagiarism

Self-plagiarism is submitting material for academic credit which has been submitted, previously or simultaneously, for academic credit from us, or from another awarding body, or work produced by you for other purposes e.g. published articles.  Previously submitted work may be included as long as permission to do so has been granted and where such work is properly referenced so that it is clear it has previously been submitted, or where re-submission of previously failed work has expressly been permitted.

Examples of self-plagiarism include but are not limited to:

  • undergraduate or postgraduate essays containing work from a previous institution, including A-level work
  • MA, MSc or MPhil thesis containing work previously submitted in pursuit of the subject of the thesis, such as from an undergraduate or postgraduate research project
  • undergraduate or postgraduate work reproduced from work undertaken by you for other purposes, such as published articles, audits or other public domain materials
  • undergraduate or postgraduate work previously submitted within another degree programme (e.g., where a protocol or an introduction is submitted for one degree and incorporated into a PhD final thesis).

Poor academic practice

Poor academic practice occurs when a student shows a lack of understanding of scholarly practices and appropriate academic representation. This can include incorrect or inadequate citation of sources, or failing to use quotation marks even though the author is listed in the references. 

There are a number of reasons why someone investigating a case of alleged academic misconduct might decide that the student's actions could be called Poor Academic Practice. These include:

  • if it is your first offence
  • if you are in your first year
  • if the conduct relates to minor referencing issues
  • if there is compelling evidence that the conduct arose from a genuine lack of understanding of academic integrity expectations.

Poor academic practice should only be found where the misconduct is not extensive or blatant and does not result from an obvious lack of effort overall.

 

Collusion

Collusion is when two or more students collaborate without permission to produce individual assessments that significantly overlap in content, order, structure and/or format.

Examples of collusion include but are not limited to:

  • unauthorised collaboration to produce the same or substantially similar pieces of work claimed as individual efforts
  • submitting another student’s work (in part or as a whole) as your own
  • allowing another student to have sight of a piece of assessed course work before you have submitted that work yourself (where you may be submitting the same course work at different times in the year).

 

Cheating

Cheating is adopting working methods that are outside the spirit of the university regulations and involve acting in a dishonest way to gain an unfair advantage compared to other students.

Examples of cheating include but are not limited to:

  • making up or falsifying data for an assignment such as a research project
  • falsifying medical conditions or evidence to gain an advantage, e.g., a deadline extension
  • submitting a summative assessment written by a third party or obtained from a professional writing service (essay bank)
  • taking unauthorised material into an examination
  • not complying with the instructions on an examination paper
  • not complying with the instructions of an invigilator
  • copying someone else’s work while under examination conditions
  • talking to other students under examination conditions
  • using unauthorised aids, such as a calculator or phone, during an examination when not expressly permitted.

Contract cheating

Contract cheating involves purchasing or commissioning an assessment from a professional writing service or third party and presenting it as your own. It also includes using a professional writing service or third party to edit an assessment or parts of it to change its structure or content. The University only allows proofreading to check spelling and basic grammar. For further information, see the Student Conduct and Appeals page.

 

What is acceptable?

The following practices do not constitute plagiarism or collusion:

  • Quoting from other people’s work with the source clearly identified and the quotation enclosed in quotation marks.
  • Summarising or paraphrasing other people’s work, provided they are acknowledged as the source of the ideas (again, this will be via a reference to the book, journal, or website from which the information was obtained).
  • Asking the module lecturer for help with difficult material, provided it is clear that the question is related to the assessment.

 

How to avoid plagiarism and collusion

If you are found to have committed plagiarism or collusion, your intent doesn’t matter - unawareness is no excuse. To avoid committing an offence, a useful rule of thumb is: if in doubt, don’t do it. Make sure any work you submit is your own unaided effort. Here are some tips to help you stay on track: 

  • Plan your work schedule carefully to allow enough time to complete each piece of assessment.
  • If you have genuine problems meeting a deadline, talk to your module lecturer instead of borrowing a friend’s work. 
  • If you are stuck with an assessment, discuss it with the module lecturer instead of asking another student for help.
  • If another student asks you for help with an assessment or to see your work, suggest they approach the module lecturer; remember, if someone else copies or uses your work, you will be penalised as well, even if you didn't expect them to.

Visit the Student Conduct and Appeals page for further information.