PLAGIARISM

Plagiarism is presenting someone else’s work or ideas as your own, with or without their
consent, by incorporating it into your work without full acknowledgement. All published and
unpublished material, whether in manuscript, printed or electronic form, is covered under this
definition. Plagiarism may be intentional or reckless, or unintentional. Under the regulations for
examinations, intentional or reckless plagiarism is a disciplinary offence.

Students will benefit from taking an online course which has been developed to provide a
useful overview of the issues surrounding plagiarism and practical ways to avoid it.

The necessity to acknowledge others’ work or ideas applies not only to text, but also to other
media, such as computer code, illustrations, graphs etc. It applies equally to published text and
data drawn from books and journals, and to unpublished text and data, whether from lectures,
theses or other students’ essays. You must also attribute text, data, or other resources
downloaded from websites.

The best way of avoiding plagiarism is to learn and employ the principles of good academic
practice from the beginning of your university career. Avoiding plagiarism is not simply a matter
of making sure your references are all correct, or changing enough words so the examiner will
not notice your paraphrase; it is about deploying your academic skills to make your work as
good as it can be.

 Forms of plagiarism

 Verbatim (word for word) quotation without clear acknowledgement

Quotations must always be identified as such by the use of either quotation marks or
indentation, and with full referencing of the sources cited. It must always be apparent to the
reader which part is your own independent work and where you have drawn on someone else’s
ideas and language.

Cutting and pasting from the Internet without clear acknowledgement

Information derived from the Internet must be adequately referenced and included in the
bibliography. It is important to evaluate carefully all material found on the Internet, as it is less
likely to have been through the same process of scholarly peer review as published sources.
  Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing the work of others by altering a few words and changing their order, or by closely
following the structure of their argument, is plagiarism if you do not give due acknowledgement
to the author whose work you are using.

A passing reference to the original author in your own text may not be enough; you must
ensure that you do not create the misleading impression that the paraphrased wording or the
sequence of ideas are entirely your own. It is better to write a brief summary of the author’s
overall argument in your own words, indicating that you are doing so, than to paraphrase
particular sections of his or her writing. This will ensure you have a genuine grasp of the
argument and will avoid the difficulty of paraphrasing without plagiarising. You must also
properly attribute all material you derive from lectures.

 Collusion

This can involve unauthorised collaboration between students, failure to attribute assistance
received, or failure to follow precisely regulations on group work projects. It is your
responsibility to ensure that you are entirely clear about the extent of collaboration permitted,
and which parts of the work must be your own.

 Inaccurate citation

It is important to cite correctly, according to the conventions of your discipline. As well as listing
your sources (i.e. in a bibliography), you must indicate, using a footnote or an in-text reference,
where a quoted passage comes from. Additionally, you should not include anything in your
references or bibliography that you have not actually consulted. If you cannot gain access to a
primary source you must make it clear in your citation that your knowledge of the work has
been derived from a secondary text (for example, Bradshaw, D. Title of Book, discussed in
Wilson, E., Title of Book (London, 2004), p. 189).

 Failure to acknowledge assistance

You must clearly acknowledge all assistance which has contributed to the production of your
work, such as advice from fellow students, laboratory technicians, and other external sources.
This need not apply to the assistance provided by your tutor or supervisor, or to ordinary
proofreading, but it is necessary to acknowledge other guidance which leads to substantive
changes of content or approach.

 Use of material written by professional agencies or other persons

You should neither make use of professional agencies in the production of your work nor
submit material which has been written for you even with the consent of the person who has
written it. It is vital to your intellectual training and development that you should undertake the
research process unaided. Under Statute XI on University Discipline, all members of the
University are prohibited from providing material that could be submitted in an examination by
students at this University or elsewhere.

 Auto-plagiarism

You must not submit work for assessment that you have already submitted (partially or in full),
either for your current course or for another qualification of this, or any other, university,
unless this is specifically provided for in the special regulations for your course. Where earlier
work by you is citable, ie. it has already been published, you must reference it clearly. Identical
pieces of work submitted concurrently will also be considered to be auto-plagiarism.

 Why does plagiarism matter?

Plagiarism is a breach of academic integrity. It is a principle of intellectual honesty that all

members of the academic community should acknowledge their debt to the originators of the
ideas, words, and data which form the basis for their own work. Passing off another’s work as
your own is not only poor scholarship, but also means that you have failed to complete the
learning process. Plagiarism is unethical and can have serious consequences for your future
career; it also undermines the standards of your institution and of the degrees it issues.

 Why should you avoid plagiarism?

There are many reasons to avoid plagiarism. You have come to university to learn to know and
speak your own mind, not merely to reproduce the opinions of others - at least not without
attribution. At first it may seem very difficult to develop your own views, and you will probably
find yourself paraphrasing the writings of others as you attempt to understand and assimilate
their arguments. However it is important that you learn to develop your own voice. You are not
necessarily expected to become an original thinker, but you are expected to be an independent
one - by learning to assess critically the work of others, weigh up differing arguments and draw
your own conclusions. Students who plagiarise undermine the ethos of academic scholarship
while avoiding an essential part of the learning process.

You should avoid plagiarism because you aspire to produce work of the highest quality. Once
you have grasped the principles of source use and citation, you should find it relatively
straightforward to steer clear of plagiarism. Moreover, you will reap the additional benefits of
improvements to both the lucidity and quality of your writing. It is important to appreciate that
mastery of the techniques of academic writing is not merely a practical skill, but one that lends
both credibility and authority to your work, and demonstrates your commitment to the
principle of intellectual honesty in scholarship.

 What happens if you are thought to have plagiarised?

The University regards plagiarism in examinations as a serious matter. Cases will be investigated
and penalties may range from deduction of marks to expulsion from the University, depending
on the seriousness of the occurrence. Even if plagiarism is inadvertent, it can result in a penalty.
The forms of plagiarism listed above are all potentially disciplinary offences in the context of
formal assessment requirements.

The regulations regarding conduct in examinations apply equally to the ‘submission and
assessment of a thesis, dissertation, essay, or other coursework not undertaken in formal
examination conditions but which counts towards or constitutes the work for a degree or other
academic award’. Additionally, this includes the transfer and confirmation of status exercises
undertaken by graduate students. Cases of suspected plagiarism in assessed work are
investigated under the disciplinary regulations concerning conduct in examinations. Intentional
plagiarism in this context means that you understood that you were breaching the regulations
and did so intending to gain advantage in the examination. Reckless, in this context, means that
you understood or could be expected to have understood (even if you did not specifically
consider it) that your work might breach the regulations, but you took no action to avoid doing
so. Intentional or reckless plagiarism may incur severe penalties, including failure of your
degree or expulsion from the university.

If plagiarism is suspected in a piece of work submitted for assessment in an examination, the

matter will be referred to the Proctors. They will thoroughly investigate the claim and call the
student concerned for interview. If at this point there is no evidence of a breach of the
regulations, no further disciplinary action will be taken although there may still be an academic
penalty. However, if it is concluded that a breach of the regulations may have occurred, the
Proctors will refer the case to the Student Disciplinary Panel.

If you are suspected of plagiarism your College Secretary/Academic Administrator and subject
tutor will support you through the process and arrange for a member of Congregation to
accompany you to all hearings. They will be able to advise you what to expect during the
investigation and how best to make your case. The OUSU Student Advice Service can also
provide useful information and support.

 Does this mean that I shouldn’t use the work of other authors?

On the contrary, it is vital that you situate your writing within the intellectual debates of your
discipline. Academic essays almost always involve the use and discussion of material written by
others, and, with due acknowledgement and proper referencing, this is clearly distinguishable
from plagiarism. The knowledge in your discipline has developed cumulatively as a result of
years of research, innovation and debate. You need to give credit to the authors of the ideas
and observations you cite. Not only does this accord recognition to their work, it also helps you
to strengthen your argument by making clear the basis on which you make it. Moreover, good
citation practice gives your reader the opportunity to follow up your references, or check the
validity of your interpretation

 Examples of plagiarism

There are some helpful examples of plagiarism-by-paraphrase and you will also find extensive
advice on the referencing and library skills pages.

The following examples demonstrate some of the common pitfalls to avoid. These examples
use the referencing system prescribed by the History Faculty but should be of use to students of
all disciplines.

Source text

From a class perspective this put them [highwaymen] in an ambivalent position. In aspiring to
that proud, if temporary, status of ‘Gentleman of the Road’, they did not question the
inegalitarian hierarchy of their society. Yet their boldness of act and deed, in putting them
outside the law as rebellious fugitives, revivified the ‘animal spirits’ of capitalism and became
an essential part of the oppositional culture of working-class London, a serious obstacle to the
formation of a tractable, obedient labour force. Therefore, it was not enough to hang them –
the values they espoused or represented had to be challenged.

(Linebaugh, P., The London Hanged: Crime and Civil Society in the Eighteenth Century (London,
1991), p. 213. [You should give the reference in full the first time you use it in a footnote;
thereafter it is acceptable to use an abbreviated version, e.g. Linebaugh, The London Hanged, p.
213.]

Plagiarized

Although they did not question the inegalitarian hierarchy of their society, highwaymen
became an essential part of the oppositional culture of working-class London, posing a serious
threat to the formation of a biddable labour force. (This is a patchwork of phrases copied
verbatim from the source, with just a few words changed here and there. There is no reference
to the original author and no indication that these words are not the writer’s own.)

Although they did not question the inegalitarian hierarchy of their society, highwaymen
exercised a powerful attraction for the working classes. Some historians believe that this
hindered the development of a submissive workforce. (This is a mixture of verbatim copying
and acceptable paraphrase. Although only one phrase has been copied from the source, this
would still count as plagiarism. The idea expressed in the first sentence has not been attributed
at all, and the reference to ‘some historians’ in the second is insufficient. The writer should use
clear referencing to acknowledge all ideas taken from other people’s work.)

Although they did not question the inegalitarian hierarchy of their society, highwaymen
‘became an essential part of the oppositional culture of working-class London [and] a serious
obstacle to the formation of a tractable, obedient labour force’.1 (This contains a mixture of
attributed and unattributed quotation, which suggests to the reader that the first line is original
to this writer. All quoted material must be enclosed in quotation marks and adequately
referenced.)

Highwaymen’s bold deeds ‘revivified the “animal spirits” of capitalism’ and made them an
essential part of the oppositional culture of working-class London.1 Peter Linebaugh argues
that they posed a major obstacle to the formation of an obedient labour force. (Although the
most striking phrase has been placed within quotation marks and correctly referenced, and the
original author is referred to in the text, there has been a great deal of unacknowledged
borrowing. This should have been put into the writer’s own words instead.)
By aspiring to the title of ‘Gentleman of the Road’, highwaymen did not challenge the unfair
taxonomy of their society. Yet their daring exploits made them into outlaws and inspired the
antagonistic culture of labouring London, forming a grave impediment to the development of a
submissive workforce. Ultimately, hanging them was insufficient – the ideals they personified
had to be discredited.1 (This may seem acceptable on a superficial level, but by imitating
exactly the structure of the original passage and using synonyms for almost every word, the
writer has paraphrased too closely. The reference to the original author does not make it clear
how extensive the borrowing has been. Instead, the writer should try to express the argument
in his or her own words, rather than relying on a ‘translation’ of the original.)

Non-plagiarized

Peter Linebaugh argues that although highwaymen posed no overt challenge to social
orthodoxy – they aspired to be known as ‘Gentlemen of the Road’ – they were often seen as
anti-hero role models by the unruly working classes. He concludes that they were executed not
only for their criminal acts, but in order to stamp out the threat of insubordinacy.1 (This
paraphrase of the passage is acceptable as the wording and structure demonstrate the reader’s
interpretation of the passage and do not follow the original too closely. The source of the ideas
under discussion has been properly attributed in both textual and footnote references.)

Source:
https://www.ox.ac.uk/students/academic/guidance/skills/plagiarism#:~:text=Plagiarism%20is
%20presenting%20someone%20else%27s,is%20covered%20under%20this%20definition.
Retrieved on November 24, 2020

THE COMMON TYPES OF PLAGIARISM

There are different types of plagiarism and all are serious violations of academic honesty. We
have defined the most common types below and have provided links to examples.

 Direct Plagiarism

Direct plagiarism is the word-for-word transcription of a section of someone else’s work,

without attribution and without quotation marks. The deliberate plagiarism of someone else's
work is unethical, academically dishonest, and grounds for disciplinary actions, including
expulsion. [See examples.]
  Self-Plagiarism

Self-plagiarism occurs when a student submits his or her own previous work, or mixes parts of
previous works, without permission from all professors involved. For example, it would be
unacceptable to incorporate part of a term paper you wrote in high school into a paper
assigned in a college course. Self-plagiarism also applies to submitting the same piece of work
for assignments in different classes without previous permission from both professors.

 Mosaic Plagiarism

Mosaic Plagiarism occurs when a student borrows phrases from a source without using
quotation marks, or finds synonyms for the author’s language while keeping to the same
general structure and meaning of the original. Sometimes called “patch writing,” this kind of
paraphrasing, whether intentional or not, is academically dishonest and punishable – even if
you footnote your source! [See examples.]

 Accidental Plagiarism

Accidental plagiarism occurs when a person neglects to cite their sources, or misquotes their
sources, or unintentionally paraphrases a source by using similar words, groups of words,
and/or sentence structure without attribution. (See example for mosaic plagiarism.) Students
must learn how to cite their sources and to take careful and accurate notes when doing
research. (See the Note-Taking section on the Avoiding Plagiarism page.) Lack of intent does not
absolve the student of responsibility for plagiarism. Cases of accidental plagiarism are taken as
seriously as any other plagiarism and are subject to the same range of consequences as other
types of plagiarism.

Source: https://www.bowdoin.edu/dean-of-students/judicial-board/academic-honesty-and-
plagiarism/common-types-of-plagiarism.html Retrieved on November 24, 2020