Plagiarism

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• Policy
• Purpose
• FAQs
• Professional Development
• Links / Resources / References
• Contact

 

Policy

Download the Policy from the Central Policy Register.

 

Please note - this policy is currently under review.

 

 

 

 

Purpose of the policy

The purpose of the Plagiarism Policy is to:

• stress the high value that VU as an institution places on the practice of academic honesty among staff and students
• identify the responsibility of the university to educate staff and students about plagiarism and how to avoid it
• identify procedures to handle alleged cases of plagiarism.

 

 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What is plagiarism?

Plagiarism is the use of another person's intellectual output and presenting it as your own without proper acknowledgment. Plagiarism includes:

• Copying out parts of any text or paraphrasing without acknowledging the source(s). This may be written text, diagrams, formulae, sound files, still photographs, audio-visual material (sound and image files), graphics/animations/multimedia objects, other computer based material, mathematical proofs, art objects and others.
• The use of someone else's concepts, experimental results, experimental conclusions or conclusions drawn from analysing evidence or arguments without acknowledging the originator of the idea(s) or conclusion(s).
• Submitting substantially similar final version of any material as a fellow student, whether the cooperation on a piece of work was part of the assignment instructions or not.
• Falsification of results from experiments, surveys or other research methods and fabrication of data.
• Self-plagiarism or recycling, where substantially the same piece of work is submitted more than once for assessment.

 

2. What are some clues that indicate that plagiarism may have occurred?

 

Some clues that may indicate that plagiarism has occurred include:

• the use of jargon or advanced vocabulary or sentence structure
• the use of quotes which do not have bibliographic entries
• the use of incorrect and inconsistent citation style used in the bibliography
• incoherent internal logic which lacks reference to the original assignment question
• obvious differences in writing styles within the same assignment.

3. What do I do if I suspect a student has plagiarised ?

• Prepare evidence of student's plagiarism and consult with Course Co-ordinator or Program Manager
• Arrange a meeting with the student, Course Co-ordinator or Program Manager and yourself as the teacher.
• Determine whether plagiarism has occurred.

If this meeting establishes that plagiarism has occurred, record the infringement on the student file and decide which of these actions should be taken

• counselling the student
• asking the student to submit further work
• requiring the student to seek academic assistance from appropriate student support services.

 

Use your professional judgment to decide whether the matter needs to be taken to the next level and if so to arrange a formal hearing which has the authority to determine whether more serious penalties are warranted. Guidance about conducting a formal hearing, making it fair, arriving at a decision and deciding on an appropriate penalty can be found in the policy document.

 

4. What are some useful strategies I could use to minimize plagiarism?

• Use the VU plagiarism detection software Turnitin - more information
• Familiarise yourself with resources that may be used for plagiarism as it will be easier to recognise plagiarised work
• Make expectations regarding academically honest practices clear to students from the outset and at multiple points throughout the course. Students need to be very clear what plagiarism is and how to refer to other writers.
• Integrate the development of the skills of building an argument, critical analysis and using referencing conventions into ongoing teaching practice.
• Keep the issue of academic honesty at front of mind and in an ongoing fashion through measures such as:
• always modelling academically honest practices
• including plagiarism statements to be signed by the student on all assessment cover sheets
• regularly providing contextualised examples of good practice as well as inappropriate use of another person's intellectual output.
• Design assessment tasks to minimise opportunities to plagiarise.
• Advise students about the possible consequences of committing acts of plagiarism.
• Advise students to seek assistance from student learning support services as appropriate.

 

 

Professional Development

Check the Staff College Online Booking System for forthcoming workshops and professional develepment activities in this policy area.

 

Links / Resources / References

Powerpoint presentation for staff which outlines some stategies to use in designing assessment tasks to minimise plagiarism.

 

The University has an institutional licence for Turnitin.com, a USA-based electronic plagiarism detection service which is available to staff across the University. There is no charge for using this service. More information on Turnitin here.

 

For a short and readable account of some very interesting issues from the point of view of students from various educational and cultural backgrounds (including VCE), have a look at the memo by Kate Chanock from La Trobe University.

 

For an excellent and readable discussion of the issues for Australian universities, including a definition of plagiarism that includes "contributing less, little or nothing to a group assignment and then claiming an equal share of the marks" - from the University of Melbourne.

 

For tips on teaching students to avoid plagiarism, with particular emphasis on electronic sources - from the University of Maryland, University College.

 

These two sites contain some very useful and accessible hints on plagiarism and how to avoid it. The Indiana University site includes actual examples of how much you have to change a sentence to really write it "in your own words" (ie "paraphrase"); the Hamilton site contains material that could be used to assist students.

 

A brief guide to the responsibilities of VU teaching staff in raising students' awareness about plagiarism and minimising its occurrence

Implementing Plagiarism Policy - Teaching Staff Responsibilities

 

Information for teaching staff about ways of detecting plagiarism including a useful bibliography on this topic as well is information on the current state of cheating, see the Coastal Carolina Univeristy Library website.

 

 

This website from the university of South Australia provides an excellent Guide for students on how to avoid plagiarism. In particular it covers understanding and using others’ voice and establishing you own voice in writing essays. The guide includes various interactive exercises for students to engage in and supplies answers with explanations to assist students coming to terms with these concepts.

 

The University of Newcastle website shows students some of the strategies they can adopt to practice academic integrity. The site is interactive so that students can check their knowledge by responding to questions and receiving feedback.

 

 

How Can I Track Down Plagiarism?

• Check for original author identification clues. Follow up with a web search for a personal homepage and the website(s) of the organization(s) with which the author is affiliated.
• Check for original source identification clues. Follow up with a web search for the original source.
• Identify unusual keywords or unique phrases and search them in one of the large search engines such as HotBot or Infoseek.
• Look at original text of sources listed in the bibliography.

Cheat Sites

This website contains an extensive annotated list of websites which can be used by students to dishonestly source essays and assignments. The websites range from those where the student gets something for nothing right up to where students pay for custom made essays.

 

 

Contact your policy champion

Contact Pam Every (ext 8370) or Nadia Casarotto (ext 8347) for further information.

 

 

 

 

To obtain an overview of currently approved teaching and learning policies, follow the links in the Policy Table.