Referencing and Plagiarism

Plagiarism is an instance of academic misconduct, which we take very seriously here at SPIR. QMUL defines plagiarism as “presenting someone else’s work as one’s own irrespective of intention. Any of the following might constitute a case of plagiarism or academic misconduct:

• Taking someone else’s words and/or ideas and copying them without attributing it to the proper source in order to pass them off as your own work
• Copying work from a journal, book or the internet without referencing it
• Copying another student’s essay but changing a few words
• Collaborating with someone else on the write-up of a report
• Submitting your own essay that you wrote for another module to a different module
• Making a patchwork text from many different sources by copying and pasting and slightly rephrasing
• Doing the research but barely rephrasing the original texts used, but failing to put the copied text in quotation marks
• Listing all the sources in the bibliography but neglecting to properly reference in the text with quotation marks and / or footnote or in-text references
• Making a patchwork text from many different sources by copying and pasting and slightly rephrasing
• Purchasing an essay and submitting it as your own

Note that you can therefore be guilty of plagiarism even if you do these things by mistake.

Essentially, all the words and ideas in your essays must either be:

• Your own;
• A direct quotation from another source, identified using quotation marks (“like this”), followed by a reference identifying the source of the quotation, whether in-text or in a footnote, including page numbers; or
• A paraphrase of a published source, which does not require quotation marks, but must still be referenced. Take care when paraphrasing: chopping and changing a few words and not including a citation is still plagiarism.

All coursework is submitted electronically and automatically screened through anti-plagiarism software, Turnitin. Academic staff also have a variety of other means to detect cheating. Queen Mary takes all assessment offences extremely seriously, with penalties including the award of zero marks for entire modules or entire years of study, suspension or permanent expulsion from the University, and the revocation of your degree if it has already been awarded. Offences will also be recorded in references written for your employers and future places of study. It is therefore crucial that you understand plagiarism and how to avoid it.

Please note that Extenuating Circumstances (ECs) are rarely considered to be a mitigating factor for assessment offences. Students with genuine ECs should always follow the procedure outlined in this handbook. The recognition of ECs does not in any way sanction or excuse engaging in Academic Misconduct. In short, do not consider cheating, no matter how desperate you may feel; the penalties will often be far worse than simply doing your best.

 Assessment Offences Procedures

Allegations of plagiarism and other assessment offences are dealt with under Queen Mary’s Academic Regulations. Please make sure that you familiarise yourself with the regulations and the procedures. This is your responsibility. Details about the QMUL Academic Misconduct regulations and processes at university and School level can be accessed here.

For any questions about this process at SPIR contact the current Academic Misconduct Officer – Dr Elke Schwarz (e.schwarz@qmul.ac.uk).

The general process for Academic Misconduct allegations is as follows:

• In the first instance, allegations are investigated by the module convenor where the alleged offence occurred.
• You are required to cooperate with this investigation by responding to emails and attending an interview within 5 days. The interview gives you an opportunity to learn more about the allegations and respond to them
• Once the interview has been held, the allegation will be processed either at School level or by the Academic Registry, depending on the weighting of the relevant assignment and a decision on the appropriate penalty (if any) will be made.
• Depending on the severity of the misconduct the penalty can range from a reduction in the assessment mark, to being expelled or having the degree withdrawn. Make sure you are aware of these penalties here.
• Provisional marks of assessments under investigation will not be released until the process is concluded.
• The Assessment Offences Officer will communicate the outcome of the process to you, via the Undergraduate Administrator. If you do not understand or disagree with the outcome, you should request to meet the Assessment Offences Officer to have it explained to you, though the decision will not be changed. You will also have 14 days to lodge a formal appeal against the decision to the Academic Registrar. The only legitimate grounds for appeal are the misapplication of procedures and any external circumstances relevant to the decision not known at the time for good reason (see ‘Appeal Regulations’ in Section 2 of QMUL’s Academic Regulations). Appeals will be heard by QMUL’s Appeals Panel, whose decisions are final and can only be appealed to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator.
• When the process is concluded, the result is communicated to your module convenor to apply the penalty. It is also communicated to the convenors of all your other modules, who will closely scrutinise work you have submitted there for possible plagiarism.
• All assessment offences are recorded in a database to which academic staff will refer when writing references for employment and/or admission to postgraduate programmes of study.

How to Avoid Plagiarism

Plagiarism can easily be avoided with some care and consideration. Most cases of plagiarism are accidental, due to poor scholarly practices. Remember: intention is irrelevant and an offence can still be committed unintentionally. Therefore, the best approach is a preventive one, and you can do a lot to prevent accidental plagiarism or misconduct: plan ahead, have a good note-taking system and develop your referencing practice as a key communications skill. 

Plan ahead

Most cases of plagiarism and other academic misconduct happen because students simply run out of time. Make sure that you make a schedule of when assignments are due and make a plan when and how you are going to work toward the deadlines. You might face multiple deadlines at the same time, so have a good plan to hand how you are going to handle it. You might, for example consider your deadlines two months in advance and start compiling and organising notes, think about what you need to read and organise these readings and your notes on the readings. One month in advance, make a rough plan or outline for your essay. Start  writing so that you are finished with your essay before the deadline. You should leave enough time to be able to properly format your essay, all your references and proof read one last time before submitting the essay. Planning is everything, don’t leave the essay to the last minute – it always takes longer than you think.

Note-taking

The second biggest problem for academic misconduct allegations is flawed note taking. When taking notes during your research for assessments, rather than copying and pasting chunks of text, reflect on what you read, write summaries of arguments in your own words, and your thoughts on their merits. This takes longer, but you will have engaged with texts more deeply (enabling you to write more intelligently), and avoided the risk of unattributed pasting of text. Only copy whole chunks of text if you think a direct quotation will be particularly useful or powerful in your essay.

Whether you are writing down your own thoughts, or paraphrasing (using your own words) or quoting directly, always ensure that these different sources are clearly identified, with the sources and page numbers where appropriate. You should aim to produce notes which, if you returned to them many weeks later when your mind has moved onto other things, would still clearly tell you which words/ideas are yours; which are someone else’s; which words are paraphrases and which are quotations; and where each set of ideas/ words came from.

For example, you could open your notes with the full citation of the work you are reading, using the style guide for your assessment . When summarising the author’s ideas, you could write in standard text, closing each section with page numbers in brackets. When quoting, you could ensure you use quotation marks, and/or use a different colour, followed by the page number. And if you want to comment on an argument with your own thoughts, you could put these in square brackets, and/or in a different colour.

Writing the essay

Plan your argument beforehand, and construct your essay from that plan. Try to avoid simply cutting and pasting parts of your notes – and even more so, from cutting and pasting from original sources. This approach risks making your essay a very choppy series of unrelated chunks of information, rather than a sustained argument based on your own response to the question. If your essay merely mirrors the structure of a source – whether academic books, lecture notes, or your own notes or previous work – this is extremely unlikely to be the more effective way of responding to an essay question and this approach heightens the risk of accidentally pasting someone else’s ideas or words and failing to cite them properly, resulting in plagiarism. Ensure that, whenever you rely on the ideas, information or words from an original source, you cite this source. Refer to the style guide (referencing section) of this handbook and carefully follow the style guide there. Providing references is essential to avoid plagiarism. Ensure that your bibliography also contains all of the sources cited in the essay. Again, consult  the style guide for guidance on the correct formatting of a bibliography and follow it carefully.

Learn how to reference – it’s a good skill to have!

A very good source and resource to help you with your referencing practice can be found here at citethemrightonline.com. The site helps you practice your referencing skills and offers a comprehensive guide for referencing a wide range of sources. Use this resource to practice your referencing skills and learn how to reference new media of all kinds. Once you get into the habit of proper referencing, you will find it makes writing an essay much easier. A good referencing practice shows you have read and understood the relevant academic literature, and that you can use a range of sources to support your own argument. This is a crucial element of the criteria against which your work is assessed.

For more advice on proper referencing and the avoidance of plagiarism, see http://www.citethemrightonline.com/. You can also visit https://www.umuc.edu/writingcenter/plagiarism/index.cfm. Students unfamiliar with academic essay writing may wish to enroll on the module “Structuring Arguments and Avoiding Plagiarism”, with the Language Centre. Students found guilty of an assessment offence should definitely enrol to avoid a repeat offence, with the more serious penalties involved.

 Other Assessment Offences

Plagiarism is not the only assessment offence, merely the most common one. The offences most applicable to undergraduate students are as follows. All of them are subject to the same process and serious penalties identified above, i.e. up to and including the failure of entire modules, whole years of study, and suspension or expulsion from QMUL.

Offences in an Invigilated Examination

This includes access to exam papers before the exam; forging exam timetables; removing exam materials from the hall; disturbing exams; failing to cooperate with invigilators; possessing unauthorised materials, whether in hard copy (including writing on your body) or via electronic devices, telephones, third parties, etc; communicating with other candidates; attempting to copy from others.

Collusion in the Preparation or Production of Submitted Work

Where assessments require you to work in groups, e.g. for a group presentation or written assignment, this cooperation is obviously legitimate. In all other cases, it is not. Students are allowed and encouraged to discuss their ideas with each other. But they must prepare their own coursework in isolation. Planning essays together, or copying essays from previous students, for example, are prohibited. Allowing another student access to your work to facilitate their cheating is also an assessment offence.

Use or Attempted Use of Ghost-Writing Services

Although very few QMUL students ever resort to them, an increasing number of websites now offer essays for sale, even offering to write essays to your specifications. They often issue disclaimers that their essays are meant as study aids, not for cheating. But students who either crib from purchased essays or submit them as their own work are nonetheless committing a serious assessment offence. It is far easier for academics to detect than students imagine, and the offence is so clearly deliberate and egregious that the harshest penalties are typically applied. A final-year student who used a ghost writer in 2014/15 was expelled from QMUL and failed her entire degree. Never even consider doing this, no matter how desperate you may be!

Help with Study Skills and Essay Writing

Queen Mary offers various workshops for all students to help with essay writing, study skills and examination preparation.

These workshops are delivered by Queen Mary’s Language Centre. Details of their workshops will be posted in the department foyer, but you should familiarise yourself with their website for full details - http://www.sllf.qmul.ac.uk/languagecentre/

 Based in the Mile End Library, this includes:

• bookable one-to-one tutorials to discuss your approaches to study, a written assignment, a spoken presentation or a knotty area of grammar
• bookable one-to-one tutorials with one of our Royal Literary Fund Fellows to talk about your writing
• advice on Maths, Statistics and Science - on a drop-in basis in the first floor study centre
• brief consultations on writing and study skills, such as researching an assignment, referencing or using your time effectively on a drop-in basis in the ground floor Help Zone
• retreats and protected reading and writing spaces to help you focus, manage your time, develop better practices for reading and writing

To find out more details, go to: www.learningdevelopment.qmul.ac.uk

QMUL is a diverse community of over 25,000 students and staff. With a variety of faiths and beliefs represented on campus, we are committed to tolerance, understanding and co-operation, as well as to ensuring as far as possible that our policies are consistent across all needs. Many religions and beliefs require their members to pray at specific times during the day, or have special festivals or spiritual observance days. We recognise therefore that students at QMUL often strike a balance between their educational and religious commitments.

One of QMUL’s fundamental aims is to provide an education that is judged internationally to be of the highest quality. It would be both impractical and inconsistent with our aims as a university to suspend teaching for reasons of religious observance, but we will accommodate students’ religious commitments where we reasonably can do so. This may include providing learning materials (potentially including QReview recordings) online and permitting students to attend classes at different times where there is availability.

Students are expected to stay engaged and up-to-date with their studies throughout their time at QMUL. Schools and institutes should make their expectations for attendance and submission of coursework clear to students at the beginning of their studies, and students should inform themselves beforehand about the potential implications of missing learning and teaching activities. Students must also inform their school or institute beforehand if they intend to miss any teaching. We will take religious commitments into reasonable account when reviewing students’ attendance, but we expect students to plan their studies so that they can submit coursework on time.

The following procedures apply in the event that a special festival or spiritual observance day would result in absence from a scheduled assessment.

•  In the case of an in-class test, students may request permission in advance from their Head of School or Institute to be absent on that occasion. The Head of School or Institute will consider whether reasonable adjustments can be made, for example by permitting late submission or rearranging the test. It is important to submit requests well in advance, in case reasonable adjustments cannot be made.
• Students may notify QMUL of any special festivals or spiritual observance days that fall during formal examination periods by submitting the relevant form by the deadline specified in the Academic Calendar. We will accommodate such requests where we reasonably can do so. We are not able to make allowances for routine religious observance during formal examination periods.

The School takes very seriously the representation of students’ views.  Hearing from students help us respond to your needs and improve the student experience, we use a variety of ways to achieve this:

Staff and Student Liaison Committee

Module evaluation - this takes place for all modules

Course representatives

Personal feedback to tutors

Student Ambassadors (for open days, etc)

Regular meeting with groups of students about particular issues, dates of these meetings are circulated in advance

Surveys (see below)

https://www.qmul.ac.uk/tell-us/

Surveys

National Student Survey

All final-year undergraduate students at UK institutions take part in the National Student Survey (NSS). The NSS is a nationally recognised annual survey of mostly final-year undergraduates in the UK. The survey gives you an opportunity to give your opinions on what you liked about your time at Queen Mary as well as things that you feel could have been improved.

If you are a finalist, you will usually be contacted by email early in the spring term. Please do complete the NSS, and fill it in honestly.

 The NSS results are made publicly available to help prospective students make informed decisions of where and what to study. Queen Mary and the Students’ Union will also use the data to identify areas of strengths and weaknesses to help effect change and bring about enhancements to improve the student experience for future generations of students. Data from previous surveys are available on Unistats. http://my.qmul.ac.uk/your-voice/feedback/national-student-survey/

UK Engagement Survey (UKES)

The UK Engagement Survey (UKES) is a national survey which gives you the opportunity to tell us about your learning experience at Queen Mary. It is open to all undergraduate students who are not eligible to complete the National Student Survey.

 The UKES is facilitated by Advance HE, the national body that champions teaching excellence. The survey asks you about things like how you engage with the learning on your course, how you work with others, and what kind of activities help you to learn. It is a chance to reflect on how you study and what might help your studies in the future.
http://my.qmul.ac.uk/your-voice/feedback/ukes/

All students are automatically opted in to their resits.  These resits will take place at the next available opportunity usually in the late summer period. Resits are free of charge.

Further details can be found here: http://www.arcs.qmul.ac.uk/students/exams/late-summer-resits/

Where a student fails a module as a consequence of late penalties in an assessment, the original mark prior to the deduction of penalties for late submission will be automatically used for the resit attempt.  Please refer to further information on late submission penalties