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Policy Number: 3.40.12
Contact Officer: Senior Manager Academic Administration
Date Approved by Senate: 27/7/2006
Overview
1. Academic Excellence
The University of Queensland shares with the world's great universities the enduring values of creating and transmitting knowledge, the passionate and disinterested pursuit of truth, the maintenance of the highest academic standards of teaching, research and scholarship and the enhancement of society (cf Strategic Plan 2004-2008).
Specifically, the University is committed to excellence of learning experiences and outcomes for its students. It aims to provide a learning environment that fosters and instills in all students the qualities of independent scholarly learning, critical judgment, academic integrity and ethical sensitivity.
Ethical and honest behaviour and treatment underpin the University's relationship with its students and preserve the value and quality of learning.
All University community members share responsibility for maintaining the academic standing of University of Queensland degrees.
It is the University's task to encourage ethical scholarship and to inform students and staff about the institutional standards of academic behaviour expected of them in learning, teaching and research. Students have a responsibility to maintain the highest standards of academic integrity in their work. Students must not cheat in examinations or other forms of assessment and must ensure that they do not plagiarise. [Source: HUPP 3.40.1 – Student Charter, Section 3.2(e)]
Description
2. Academic Integrity
One of the core attributes that the University aims to develop in its graduates is critical judgement: the ability to apply critical reasoning to issues through independent thought and informed judgement and to evaluate opinions, make decisions and to reflect critically on the justifications for decisions.
Implicit in this goal is that learning rests on and builds on the work and ideas of others. However, it is important that students in their learning acknowledge, through appropriate referencing, earlier work and research from which they have drawn conclusions or interpretations or might advance new ideas. This is fundamental to the concept of academic integrity in the western tradition.
Referencing demonstrates that the student has read widely, is aware of authoritative scholarship in the field and has based his/her ideas on earlier research or evidence. This is central to research-based learning. Failure to reference appropriately will be considered unethical academic behaviour and could result in allegations of misconduct.
2.1 Plagiarism defined
Plagiarism is the act of misrepresenting as one's own original work the ideas, interpretations, words or creative works of another. These include published and unpublished documents, designs, music, sounds, images, photographs, computer codes and ideas gained through working in a group. These ideas, interpretations, words or works may be found in print and/or electronic media.
Academic staff have a responsibility to students to explain clearly academic expectations and what constitutes plagiarism and to cultivate, with their students, a climate of mutual respect for original work.
Plagiarism can be divided into careless plagiarism and intentional plagiarism. The former is discussed in more detail in section 2.3 of this policy. Intentional plagiarism is likely to be treated as misconduct as explained in section 4.
2.2 Examples of plagiarism
The following are examples of plagiarism where appropriate acknowledgement or referencing of the author or source does not occur:
- Direct copying of paragraphs, sentences, a single sentence or significant parts of a sentence;
- Direct copying of paragraphs, sentences, a single sentence or significant parts of a sentence with an end reference but without quotation marks around the copied text;
- Copying ideas, concepts, research results, computer codes, statistical tables, designs, images, sounds or text or any combination of these;
- Paraphrasing, summarising or simply rearranging another person's words, ideas, etc without changing the basic structure and/or meaning of the text;
- Offering an idea or interpretation that is not one's own without identifying whose idea or interpretation it is;
- A ‘cut and paste' of statements from multiple sources;
- Presenting as independent, work done in collaboration with others;
- Copying or adapting another student's original work into a submitted assessment item.
2.3 Poor academic practice
There will be instances when a student unintentionally fails to cite sources or to do so adequately. For example, a student
- may clearly recognise the need for referencing but references carelessly or inadequately for the context of the relevant discipline;
- has undertaken extensive research but, in the process, loses track of the source of some material;
- is ignorant of western academic conventions.
Careless or inadequate referencing or failure to reference will be considered poor academic practice and a demonstration of carelessness in research and presentation of evidence. The student may be required to correct the error or may lose marks.
Academic staff have a responsibility to educate students about appropriate citation practices in the context of their discipline and provide clear examples of what is acceptable.
2.4 Common knowledge
In every discipline, there is a body of knowledge and material that has become part of the public domain and which can be drawn on without specific acknowledgment. Students should receive an early introduction to the concept of ‘common knowledge' and be engaged in a discussion of what is considered common knowledge in the context of their discipline.
Common knowledge also includes facts that are generally known, such as common facts of history, commonsense information, accepted folklore and aphorisms that have been adopted as part of common English language.
As examples, it would not be necessary to reference the following:
- That Neil Armstrong landed on the Moon in July 1969 (common fact of history)
- That Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin (common fact of history)
- The definition of photosynthesis (common knowledge in the discipline)
- That humans need food and water for survival (commonsense observation)
- That Count Dracula lived in Transylvania (accepted folklore)
- Life wasn't meant to be easy (aphorism)
2.5 Collaboration and Collusion
While collaborative learning is now encouraged, it can inadvertently lead to collusion and allegations of misconduct unless students appreciate the distinction between collaboration and collusion, are given very specific instructions about assessment requirements, and are informed about what and how they will be assessed.
Plagiarism in group work can occur when, for example:
- Students discuss how to approach a common assessment item that requires individual submissions and the same or very similar approaches are reflected in the submitted assessments without any acknowledgement of collaboration with colleagues.
- A group is required to collaborate on an assessment item where there are also some individual components but the team and individual efforts are not clearly distinguished.
- A group effort is required but individual contributions are to be assessed in a way that does not distinguish between the group's product and the individual contributions to process, thereby encouraging a competitive environment to maximise individual marks.
To minimise the potential for collusion, staff should –
- make very clear to students what they consider to be the difference between permitted collaboration (or cooperation) and prohibited collusion; and remind students that collusive behaviour may result in allegations of misconduct
- through the Course Profile
- clearly inform students about the extent to which a piece of assessment may be collaborative and/or must be solely the work of the student
- set appropriate conditions for group work and make clear the distinction between group work and individual work
- where a group submission is permitted, remind students that the extent of any collaboration must be acknowledged and inform students how individual contributions will be assessed.
3. Maintaining academic excellence
3.1 Staff responsibilities
Course coordinators should:
• Inform all students of appropriate referencing techniques and provide clear examples of what is acceptable
• Clearly explain academic expectations and what constitutes plagiarism to students in course profile literature.
• Set realistic assessment loads and vary assignments and questions from semester to semester.
• Set appropriate conditions for group work and make clear the distinction between group work and individual work.
• Cultivate, with their students, a climate of mutual respect for original work.
3.2 Student responsibilities
Students should:
• Submit only work that is their own or that properly acknowledges the ideas, interpretations, words or creative works of others.
• Avoid lending original work to others for any reason.
• Be clear about assessment conditions for assessment items.
• Be clear about what is appropriate referencing and the consequences of inappropriate referencing in their discipline.
• Discourage others from plagiarising by observing the practices above.
3.3 Best practice in assessment
Prevention of plagiarism, through adhering to best practice principles of assessment, is preferable to the subsequent detection of plagiarism and possible consequences (including investigating misconduct allegations). Academic staff may reduce incidents of plagiarism by taking a proactive approach to assessment, which may incorporate:
• Orientation of students to the University's assessment methods and standards, including clear examples of preferred citation methods and guidance on how they are to be used;
• Design of a realistic assessment regime, preferably one which is coordinated across the program to prevent undue workload pressure on students at key times of the academic year;
• Clear identification of the number and type of assessment items and the assessment methods to which students must adhere;
• Clearly stated guidelines about whether students may work in a group or must work individually. If group work is to be allowed, the guidelines must emphasise whether students must submit an individual assignment or can submit a group assignment (see 2.5 above);
• Using interesting, specific and unique assessment exercises, in order to prevent assignments on 'generic' topics being submitted;
• Varying assignment topics from semester to semester;
• Restricting the scope of references that students may use;
• Developing assessment items based on specific 'scenarios';
• Requiring students to use their personal experiences as the basis for assessment work; and
• Requiring students to defend or justify their work, for example, through the use of poster sessions / tutorials.
3.4 Plagiarism detection software
The University approves the use of plagiarism detection software (eg TurnItIn, MOSS). Appendix 1 provides guidelines to staff and students on the purpose of and use of such software.
4. When is plagiarism poor academic practice and when does it amount to misconduct?
4.1 The Student Discipline and Misconduct Statute (Statute No. 4)
Staff who suspect plagiarism should follow the procedures outlined in section 5 below.
4.2 Plagiarism as a form of misconduct
Misconduct is defined in Statute No. 4. Under the heading Student Integrity the statute refers expressly to "cheating" and gives the following two examples:
Example 1
Knowingly plagiarising the work of another person, including a fellow student, by adapting or incorporating it in a piece of assessment without due acknowledgment.
Example 2
Knowingly plagiarising the ideas of the author of a text by incorporating them in a piece of assessment without due acknowledgment.
The concept that is central to the allegation of cheating is that the student intended to plagiarise the work or ideas of another person. In such instances formal misconduct proceedings ensue.
4.3 Plagiarism as poor academic practice
It is possible that a student may carelessly use work that is not their own in the course of putting together an assignment and neglect to reference that work appropriately. Cases of careless or inadequate referencing or failure to reference will not be treated as misconduct if the intent to gain an academic advantage is clearly not present.
Staff should deal with the suspected plagiarism in accordance with the procedures outlined in section 5. below. In cases where it is found that there is no intention to cheat, the marker should notionally delete the plagiarised work from the assignment and award a mark on the basis of the original work only (this may result in a drastically reduced mark for the assessment item), and/or may require the student to correct the error.
5. Dealing with suspected plagiarism
In the case of suspected plagiarism the staff member will report the incident, in the first instance, to the Head of School. The Head of School, in consultation with the staff member, will determine if the plagiarism has resulted from poor academic practice or was intentional. This preliminary step might involve an informal interview with the student.
The Head of School and the staff member will -
• consider the extent of the plagiarism (noting that the more extensive the plagiarism, the more likely it was intentional)
• review the course profile and other information provided to students by the course coordinator to determine if adequate information had been given
• investigate whether the student has been previously charged with misconduct (noting that previous charges would likely mean that a student understood plagiarism and its consequences)
• determine whether the student is new to tertiary study (it would be expected that continuing undergraduate students and all postgraduate students would be more likely to understand plagiarism and its consequences).
If the above factors have been considered and it has been determined that the plagiarism has arisen from poor academic practice, an appropriate loss of marks should be recorded. For example, a student might not receive marks or recognition for parts of a work that have been plagiarised.
However, if, on initial investigation based on the allegation of plagiarism, the evidence clearly points to an intention on the student's part to gain an unfair advantage, the case should be treated as misconduct and the Head of School will proceed in accordance with HUPP 3.60.1 – Procedures for dealing with Student Discipline and Misconduct.
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