Academic integrity and plagiarism
Academic integrity means dealing honestly in your research and writing. It includes acknowledging the authors ideas and evidence we use.
Universities are privileged institutions, established and funded to contribute to the search for truth and understanding about the material and social world. As scholars, we build on the work done by others, and we rely on the rigour and honesty of their publications. The pursuit of academic integrity imposes obligations on both staff and students.
For staff, academic integrity involves:
? honesty and rigor in research and the reporting of research findings;
? making it clear which part of a research publication is our work, and which part has used or quoted the work of others;
? the production of courses that encourage a critical and rigorous understanding and that develop student skills;
? fair and unbiased assessment of students by staff;
? feedback on assessments that works to encourage the development of students’
capacities.
For students, academic integrity involves:
? honesty in the writing and presentation of assignments;
? giving credit to the work of others where we have used that work, or benefited from it;
? making it clear which part of an assignment is our work, and which part has used or quoted the work of others.
To practice academic integrity, students and staff need to have a thorough understanding of plagiarism.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is defined as presenting another person’s work as if it were your own. The university’s plagiarism policy can be found at http://www.usq.edu.au/plagiarism.htm . There is also a guide to plagiarism in the course materials. To avoid plagiarism:
? All phrases or sentences that you copy from your sources must be put in quotation marks (or indented)—and then referenced as well. If you fail to do either of these things, it is regarded as plagiarism.
• A surprising number of students think it’s OK to copy text from their sources, provided they provide a reference. This is not OK. You must also put that text in quote marks (or indent it).
? Many students also think it’s OK to copy text from their sources, change a few words to make it slightly different, and give a reference. This is not OK. It amounts to minor plagiarism and will be penalized. Unfortunately, the Communications Skills Handbook gives the impression that this is acceptable in its discussion of paraphrasing (Third edn, p. 23). The Handbook is wrong on this.
? If you get information, arguments, ideas or data from someone else’s writing, you must reference them, even when you’ve written them up in your own words.
? Referencing is when you indicate where some text or an idea was found, eg (Taylor
2002, p. 33). Your assignment must always come with a List of References at the end, and this must always start on a new page. This gives full details of each of your sources. Text inside quote marks is not a reference, it’s a quotation.
Use of Turnitin
In order to make sure that students have not plagiarised, we require that all written assignments be submitted to Turnitin before they are marked. There is a link to Turnitin on StudyDesk. Turnitin looks for any copying in your assignment, so if there is text that you’ve copied, it will almost certainly be identified. We will then look to see if the copied text is in quote marks, or not.
There is a guide to understanding your Turnitin report, in the chapter/webpage, ‘How to submit your written assignments’.
Penalties for plagiarism
A major part of the assessment is done by checking your work in Assignment 1 using Turnitin, and imposing penalties on students who submit assignments which contain unattributed copying (plagiarism).
If we find unattributed copying in your assignment, you will lose marks based on how much of your assignment is copied, and you will receive feedback about this through EASE, with your normal assignment feedback.
If we find unattributed copying in a subsequent assignment, the penalties will be heavier, and you may even be required to rewrite your assignment before you get a mark.
If, as a result of penalties for unattributed copying, your mark falls below the pass mark you will receive a fail grade.
The aim of all this is to make sure that everyone understands the difference between ethical and unethical behaviour. If you do end up copying, our aim is to get you to change the way you take notes, or write your assignments, so that you don’t find yourself copying (and being penalised) in the future.
We are not so lenient towards explicit cheating, or collusion, or other forms of clear dishonesty. You can be charged with academic misconduct, and receive zero marks for the assignment, or face even more serious penalties.
Why do students copy?
A very small minority of students cheat deliberately. Most students who copy other people’s work, without correctly identifying it as such, do so unintentionally. In our experience, there are four main reasons:
? They lack confidence to write in their own words, and try to compose essays from the texts that others have written, changing words and sentences here and there.
The result is usually a very poor quality essay, and the student misses out on developing an essential skill. It is important to break this destructive habit.
? They write their essay directly from books, articles and the internet, without ever taking notes or summarizing the material in their own words. Sometimes they are careless, and sentences and paragraphs from other authors end up in their essays.
? They have been careless with referencing. This often happens when they are rushing to do an assignment at the last minute.
? They find themselves in a crisis, because they don’t know how to do an assignment, and they have run out of time. They might turn to the internet (or a book or two) and simply copy anything that seems relevant. The lessons are obvious:
? Don’t try to avoid the difficult task of learning to write in your own words. Seek expert help if necessary from the Learning Centre.
? Don’t do your assignments at the last minute. If necessary, ask for an extension. We are sympathetic to such requests.
? If you find yourself confused about what to do for an assignment, contact the lecturer (or the Learning Centre) for assistance, no matter how late you are.
Writing in your own words
One of the ways we attempt to develop your capacity for academic integrity is to develop
your reading, researching and writing skills. Students who are confident about these skills are far less likely to resort to cutting and pasting for their assignments, and far less likely to engage in plagiarism, whether intentionally or accidentally.
That’s why we insist that all assignments are written in your own words.
Students who fail to write their assignments in their own words, for instance, by quoting excessively, will lose marks.
How your assignment will be assessed
? Quality of your identification and articulation of relevant dispute resolution processes.
? Quality of your identification and articulation of the advantages and disadvantages of the chosen dispute resolution processes.
? The quality of your critical analysis and reasoning regarding the most appropriate dispute resolution process.
? The extent to which you showed evidence of original research.
? Clarity of your writing.
? The extent to which your assignment was written in your own words.
? Quality of your referencing.
? Academic integrity of your assignment.
It will be approximately 3 weeks before marks will begin to be available.
You should be aware that the marks shown on the Criteria sheet are indicative only and your grade will be calculated only in relation to the wording of the items set out in the criteria sheet attached to the template.
This will mean that you will get an overall mark out of 20 that will then relate to the level that you have achieved, ie
HD = 18 – 20 marks A = 16 – 17 marks B = 13 – 15 marks C = 10 – 12 marks F = 0 – 9 marks
Assessment appeal policy
Appeals against marks received for assignments or other assessment, including the exam, are left until the end of semester. See USQ assessment policy for details.