Avoiding Plagiarism

Plagiarism is a very serious issue. Students who are found to have plagiarised work will be forced to retake whole modules and, in some cases, semesters. In extreme cases, they may be removed from the programme altogether. It is important to read the following information so that you are familiar with the definitions of plagiarism and how to avoid it.

All academic awards and grades are given in recognition of a student’s personal achievement. All work submitted by students for assessment is accepted on the understanding that it is the student’s own effort.

Plagiarism is defined as the submission or presentation of work, in any form, which is not one’s own, without acknowledgement of the sources. Plagiarism includes inappropriate collaboration with others. Special cases of plagiarism can arise from a student using their own previous work (termed auto-plagiarism or self-plagiarism).  Self-plagiarism includes using work that has already been submitted for assessment at any previous university or for any other academic award.

The incorporation of material without formal and proper acknowledgement (even with no deliberate intent to cheat) can constitute plagiarism. Work may be considered to be plagiarised if it consists of:

• a direct quotation without proper references and without a clear indication of which part of the text is a quotation and which part is the author’s own words;
• a close paraphrase (e.g., replacing words with synonyms);
• an unacknowledged summary of a source;
• direct copying or transcription;
• overuse of quotations (even if they are properly referenced, pages of long quotations are also problematic).

With regard to essays, reports, and theses, the rule is: if information or ideas are obtained from any source, that source must be acknowledged according to the appropriate convention in that discipline; and any direct quotation must be placed in quotation marks and the source cited immediately. Any failure to acknowledge adequately or to cite properly other sources in submitted work is plagiarism. Under examination conditions, material learnt by rote or close paraphrase will be expected to follow the usual rules of reference citation otherwise it will be considered as plagiarism.

Please note: software systems such as Turnitin and Ouriginal will be used during your studies. These programmes check work for plagiarism by examining an extensive corpus of online texts and previously submitted materials. Students will have to comply with the individual requirements of each university to use such software. Further information will be provided by the relevant institution. 

The golden rule to avoid plagiarism is to be diligent when taking notes and to include references. Take care to always keep a record of the provenance of the information you read, clearly mark in your notes passages that are direct quotations, and write down the page number of the source where this information appeared. If you use a direct quotation in your thesis, include quotation marks and a full citation (See Guide to Referencing and Bibliographies). If you are paraphrasing an idea, include a citation immediately after presenting the idea. Finally, do not reproduce your own work that has been used in previous assignments without substantial modification.