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Section 23 - Plagiarism

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Plagiarism refers to passing off someone else's work as one's own. It is a serious offence with potentially serious consequences. Some forms that it may take are:

(i)         copying parts of a report directly out of a textbook, published paper, the internet or other source, without acknowledgement of that source

(ii)        copying from another student's work

(iii)       extensive collaboration on a piece of course work

It is worth being scrupulous in citations, in order to avoid any problems of plagiarism. If verbatim notes are taken from another source, this fact should be marked in personal notes, and a verbatim quote is employed in a report, it should be put in quotation marks, and given a citation to show where it came from (eg Bloggs & Jones, 1999, p.99). If the words of a source are paraphrased, the paraphrase should be completely in one's own words, and the citation should indicate the original source.

The UCL guidelines on plagiarism follow.

Extract from UCL Regulations and Guidelines for the Examination Programme, Appendix H, Plagiarism

  1. The College is subject to the University of London's General Regulations for Internal Students and the policy detailed below has been drawn up in accordance with those Regulations.
  2. Plagiarism is defined as the presentation of another person's thoughts or words or artefacts or software as though they were a student's own.
  3. Any quotation from the published or unpublished works of other persons must, therefore, be clearly identified as such by being placed inside quotation marks, and students should identify their sources as accurately and fully as possible.
  4. A series of short quotations from several different sources, if not clearly identified as such, constitutes plagiarism just as much as does a single unacknowledged long quotation from a single source. Equally, if a student summarises another person's ideas, judgements, figures, diagrams or software, a reference to that person in the text must be made and the work referred to must be included in the bibliography.
  5. Recourse to the services of ‘ghost-writing’ agencies (for example in the preparation of essays or reports) or of outside word-processing agencies which offer ‘correction/improvement of English’ is strictly forbidden, and students who make use of the services of such agencies render themselves liable for an academic penalty.
  6. Use of unacknowledged information downloaded from the internet also constitutes plagiarism.
  7. Where part of an examination consists of "take away" papers, essays or other work written in a student's own time, or a coursework assessment, the work submitted must be the candidate's own.
  8. Some departments give specific advice about non-originality, plagiarism and the use of materials by others, and students must make themselves aware of such departmental guidelines and abide by them. For some assessments it is also illicit to reproduce material which a student has used in other work/assessment for the course or programme concerned.  Students should make themselves aware of their department's rules on this ‘self-plagiarism’.  If in doubt, students should consult their Personal Tutor or an appropriate other Tutor.
  9. Failure to observe any of the provisions of this policy or of approved departmental guidelines constitutes an examination offence under the University Regulations. Examination offences will normally be treated as cheating or irregularities under the Regulations in respect of Examination Irregularities. Under these Regulations students found to have committed an offence may be excluded from all further examinations of UCL or the University or of both.