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.
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
