Plagiarism guideBased on advice by City University London, 2015

Image by jobadge “Wordle from Academic Integrity research project” available through CC license

What is plagiarism?

• Taking other peoples' thoughts, ideas or writings and presenting them as your own.

• TIP! Copying other peoples’ work can usually be easily spotted as the style of your own work may be inconsistent.

• Using another person’s work or ideas without properly crediting them e.g. paraphrasing or quoting someone else without citing the original in your work.

• Plagiarism is a serious academic offence and is equivalent to stealing academic property.

Common knowledge

“If you are new to a subject and unsure if a fact or information is common knowledge, you should ask yourself the following:

• Did I know this information before I started my course?• Does this information/idea come from my own brain?

If the answer to either of the questions is “no”, then the information is not common knowledge to you and you should cite and reference your sources.”

Pears (2013, p.2.)

Examples of plagiarism

•Copying & pasting text or images from the web without crediting (citing) the original source.

•Quoting, summarising or paraphrasing material in your work without citing the original.

•Citing and referencing sources you have not used.

•Unintentionally forgetting to acknowledge your sources is also plagiarism.

FAQ

Q - Is it okay to get a family member to help me finish a

piece of coursework?

A - You need to be careful!

This might be seen as plagiarism or ghosting if your family

Member gave you the key ideas for the coursework, or if

they actually wrote the work for you. It would normally be

fine for you to speak through your general ideas with

another person, before you wrote the final assignment. If in

doubt, check with your course tutor.

FAQ

Q - Is it okay to work with members of my study group to help complete an assignment?A - That depends

This depends on what your assessment guidelines say about collaborative working. If the guidelines say you can submit a joint assignment, then it is alright to work with the other members of your group, but you have to make sure that you contribute to the group submission.

If they say you have to submit an individual piece of work, check to see if that means you have to do the whole thing on your own or if you can discuss ideas as a group first. But, whichever it is, always make sure you demonstrate individual ideas.

FAQ

Q - Is it okay to copy stuff from the Internet?

A - Only if you do it properly

The only legitimate way to do this is through using a direct

quotation - you would need to acknowledge and reference it

in the approved referencing style, in a similar way to

the ways you reference information from books or journals.

Material from the Internet or found using Google always needs

referencing.

FAQ

Q - I forgot to do my survey. Is it okay to make up the data

to help me complete my assignment?

A - Definitely not

Inventing or changing data is classed as falsification. You have

to remember that the quality of the data is an important part of

the overall quality of the assignment, and inventing figures

lessens that quality. Also, when you undertake a research

project, your lecturers will normally want to see evidence of how

you undertook the work.

FAQ

Q - Is it okay to give my essay to another student?

A - Probably not.

Unless your classmate is only going to read through your

work in your presence and then hand it straight back to

you, this could be considered plagiarism.

Be careful! If you help someone else to copy your work,

you are just as guilty of plagiarism as the person who does

the copying. Make sure your own work is safe.

FAQ

Q - I've been doing some research. Is it okay to hand in the analysis of the results twice, for different assignments?A - Probably yes.

There are checks to be made here. When you hand in the second piece, you should reference your earlier submission, as you would reference any other author's work. Otherwise, youmight be seen as trying to get double credit for one piece of work and can be accused of duplication. It should be ok to use the results more than once, as long as you are open about it. However, occasionally this might not be acceptable as some assessments may require new research. If in doubt, check.

FAQ

Is it academic misconduct if its accidental?Yes it is

Inadvertent misconduct is still misconduct - so you need tomake sure that you understand what can constituteacademic misconduct and then work out how to stop yourself doing it.

FAQ

Q - Is it okay if I re-write someone else's work in my own words?A - Generally yes, but you need to check

This would normally be acceptable, but be sure to understand what theconventions are. Generally, if you are drawing on somebody else's theory, argument, or other work, you must make sure you reference it properly.

You can draw on another party's ideas (and you may need to, to support a point you are making), but you must acknowledge this. Evenif you reference, it is not very good academic practice just to take someone's words and re-word them.

Try to develop your ability to amalgamate, analyse and develop a number of ideas in order to create a more original piece of work.

FAQ

Q - I've read an idea in a book, written it in my own words, and

used it in my assignment to support my own argument. Is that

okay?

A - Only if you cite and reference properly

You can put the idea in there to support your own argument

about an idea, but you MUST make sure you mention it originally

came from that author by citing and referencing the source. If

you replicate any part of the idea, for example put in an identical

sentence to the author, you MUST use quotation marks and

include the page number, otherwise you could be accused of

plagiarism.

References

City University London (2015) Tips for preventing plagiarism. Available at: http://www.city.ac.uk/about/education/lead/resources/studywell/preventing-academic-misconduct/tips-for-preventing-plagiarism (Accessed: 17 June 2015)

Pears, R. and Shields, G. (2013) Cite them right: the essential referencing guide. 9th ed. Basingstoke: Palgrave

Macmillan.