Plagiarism Sarah Gregory Management Development Division Wednesday 2 nd March 2011

2 Plagiarism “Involves the unacknowledged use of someone else’s work, usually in coursework, and passing it off as if it were one’s own.” (Dealing with Plagiarism by Students - Institutional Framework, October 2009, p2) Sarah Gregory, March 2011

3 Plagiarism Plagiarism is a serious offence in Universities. It is a deliberate act of theft and deception – a form of CHEATING. It can result in you not being awarded the degree. Sarah Gregory, March 2011

4 Plagiarism Plagiarism includes: a)Collusion - representing a piece of group work as if it were one’s own; b)Commissioning - use of work which is not the students and representing it as if it were, for example i) the purchase of an assignment from a commercial service (including internet sites) or ii) submission of an assignment written by another person; b)Duplication – (of one’s own work) of the same or almost identical work for more than one subject; Sarah Gregory, March 2011

5 Plagiarism d)Copying or paraphrasing - from a source text, without appropriate acknowledgement (eg manuscript, printed or electronic form); e)Submission of another students work - with or without that student’s knowledge or consent; f)Directly quoting from model solutions/answers – from previous years; g)Cheating - in class tests, communicating with other students, copying from students, text books or notes; consulting electronic devices, written material, mobile phones h)Fabrication of results Sarah Gregory, March 2011

6 Plagiarism An example: Singer (1993, p7) “regards an ethical issue as relevant if it is one that any thinking person must face.” He continues that “anyone who has thought through a difficult ethical decision knows that being told what our society thinks we ought to do does not settle the quandary.” Has become: An ethical issue is relevant if it is one that any thinking person must face. Anyone who has thought through a difficult ethical decision knows that being told what our society thinks we ought to do does not settle the quandary. THIS IS PLAGIARISM!! Sarah Gregory, March 2011

7 Plagiarism Why is plagiarism a problem? Involves unacceptable practices (literary theft and academic deception); Involves poor or careless academic practice; Prevents those who plagiarise from knowing how well they have performed and denies improvement in knowledge and understanding; If undetected, effectively penalises and demoralises those students who do not plagiarise. Each student will be required to sign an Academic Integrity Declaration form. Sarah Gregory, March 2011

8 Plagiarism Reasons why students plagiarise: ‘I got desperate at the last moment.’ ‘I couldn’t keep up with the work.’ ‘I wanted to see if I can get away with it/I think I can get away with it.’ ‘I don’t need to learn this, I just need to pass it.’ `But paraphrasing would be disrespectful.’ ‘I can’t do this. I’ll have to copy.’ ‘But you said “work together”. ‘I have to succeed, everyone expects me to succeed and so do I.’ ‘I don’t understand what I’m expected to do to avoid plagiarism.’ (Jude Carroll, Oxford Brookes University) Sarah Gregory, March 2011

9 Plagiarism So, to avoid plagiarism you must give credit when you use: Another person’s idea, opinion or theory Any facts, statistics, graphs, drawings that are not common knowledge Quotations of another person’s actual spoken or written words Or paraphrase another person’s spoken or written words (Do not forget to use quotation marks: “ … ”) Sarah Gregory, March 2011

10 Plagiarism Roles and Responsibilities. 1.Academic Officer – responsible for investigations into allegations of plagiarism and for deciding appropriate action, reporting this to Student Registry. 2.Student Registry – responsible for keeping records of all alleged and detected cases of academic malpractice. 3.Standing Academic Committee (SAC) – University Committee that hears cases referred by the Academic Officer; operates on behalf of Senate. Sarah Gregory, March 2011

11 Plagiarism Procedures and Penalties: Identification by the marker of suspected plagiarism: either viewed as MINOR (poor practice) and the work is marked, setting aside the relevant text or MAJOR (possible malpractice) and the case is referred to the Academic Officer. Sarah Gregory, March 2011

12 Plagiarism FIRST MINOR OFFENCE Includes poor referencing, un-attributed quotations, inappropriate paraphrasing, incorrect or incomplete citations, or up to several sentences of direct copying without acknowledgement of the source. Academic markers judgement that this is poor academic practice rather than a deliberate intent to deceive. The academic marker shall not mark the affected sections and will indicate to the students which sections have not been marked. A minor offence will be recorded on LUSI and reported to the Academic Officer for information. Minor offences are not defined as plagiarism but as poor practice. Sarah Gregory, March 2011

13 Plagiarism SECOND AND THIRD MINOR OFFENCES Second minor offence: meet with Academic Officer or another appropriate member of staff to discuss weaknesses in their study skills. Third minor offence: considered equivalent to a major offence. Either the case will be immediately referred to the Academic Officer OR if the student already has a major offence on record, they will be referred to the Standing Academic Committee (this would be considered a second major offence). Sarah Gregory, March 2011

14 Plagiarism MAJOR OFFENCE Defined as copying multiple paragraphs in full without acknowledgement of the source, taking essays from the Internet without revealing the source, copying all or much of the work of a fellow student with or without their consent, submitting the same piece of work for assessment in multiple modules and cheating in a class test. All major offences are referred to the Academic Officer, who conducts an investigation. Sarah Gregory, March 2011

15 Plagiarism FIRST MAJOR OFFENCE Academic Officer will decide: a)that there has been no offence (then the academic marker will be instructed to mark the work normally); b)that an offence has been committed. - If it is MINOR (poor academic practice), the work will be marked, setting aside the relevant sections; - If it is MAJOR (deliberate plagiarism) and is a FIRST major offence, either i) instruct the student to repeat and resubmit the work, which will be eligible to receive the minimum pass mark. If a student does not repeat or resubmit the work, a mark of zero will be recorded OR ii) report the case to Standing Academic Committee. SECOND MAJOR OFFENCE – reported to SAC Sarah Gregory, March 2011

16 Plagiarism STANDING ACADEMIC COMMITTEE The Committee will conduct a hearing with the student and if it is decided that a major offence has been committed, impose one of the following penalties: a)Permit the student to repeat the work, subject to receiving the minimum pass mark; b)Award zero for the work in question; c)Award zero for the whole coursework element for that module (or dissertation); d)Award zero for the unit or module; e)Exclude the student permanently from the university; f)Not award the degree, where the offence is detected after the final assessment has been completed. Sarah Gregory, March 2011

17 Plagiarism “Each department will have discretion to decide whether plagiarism should be mentioned if a request is received for an academic reference for a Lancaster graduate, or whether to report plagiarism to professional bodies.” (Dealing with Plagiarism by Students – Institutional Framework, 2009, p12) Sarah Gregory, March 2011