Plagiarism session: refresher on what is expected of UCL (MSc) students Dr. Mathias (Mat) Disney, Phys. Geog MSc Tutor PB 113, x30592, IF IN DOUBT, CHECK! AND THEN CHECK AGAIN. “The practice of plagiarism is a form of academic high treason because it undermines the entire scholarly enterprise.” Irving Hexham plagiarism.html#wahtis

UCL definition: CHECK:

UCL definition: CHECK:

Definitions, types, subtle distinctions…. Hexam’s detailed description: plagiarism.html#wahtis plagiarism.html#wahtis –Straight plagiarism: odd word added/deleted, no acknowledgment of original or quotes used. Minor changes made to give impression it is original –Plagiarism using a citation: original is acknowledged, but still only minor changes made AND quotes, footnotes not used. Be careful with paraphrasing. Even with a footnote, if only minor changes are made this is still unacceptable. If you are only making minor changes, you should either be making NO changes and citing directly/using quotes; or completely rephrasing. –Paraphrasing as plagiarism: paraphrasing can be acceptable IF it doesn’t make up a large part of the text, and/or allows exploration of another person’s ideas, and/or the original argument is significantly re-written –Self plagiarism: submitting the same piece of work or sections of work for two different assessments. –

Definitions, types, subtle distinctions…. From MSc handbook: Direct quotations should be in quotation marks, with a reference to the source (including the page no.) in the text. Indirect/paraphrased quotations and borrowed ideas should be acknowledged by means of a reference in the text. ‘Second-hand’ quotations (i.e. where one work you have read refers to another which you have been unable to locate) should be given in the form (Author X, date, cited in Author Y, date), and only the work of Author Y should be cited in the list of references. No dissertation should be submitted without references in the text and a list of references at the end. All references in the text should be accompanied by a full entry in the list of references. There should be no entries in the list of references that have not been cited in the text. See the detailed guidance on citations and references distributed at the start of the course. The sources of all tables, maps etc. must be acknowledged by the inclusion of a reference prefaced by the word ‘Source:’, to be placed immediately below the table/map etc. IF THERE IS NO ACKNOWLEDGMENT WE MUST ASSUME YOU ARE CLAIMING AUTHORSHIP

Other issues Collaboration and/or group work –Working together can be a good thing e.g. helping to work around problems, discussion, peer-assessment (reading and critiquing each other’s work). –Some practical/field work requires group work & sharing data –BUT work you submit must be your own –MUST make clear what is your work, and where you have had help or collaborated –Interpretations, discussion and conclusions MUST be your own EG for computer code –Helping each other to overcome problems (via discussion/advice etc) is acceptable BUT code must be your own work –It is ok to adapt/modify code from others BUT you must make absolutely clear in comments in the code what you have taken, or modified, and where from –Provide ‘pesudo-code’ outlining what each component does CHECK:

Other issues EG for computer code –If you take a piece of code from somewhere else and all you do is change the variable names and/or other cosmetic changes, you must acknowledge the source of the original code (with a URL if available). –Provide documentation: All methods/functions and classes must be documented for the code to be adequate. Eg purpose, inputs/outputs, datatypes, usage of method/function