School of Pharmacy & Biomolecular Sciences
Student Safety & Study Skills
Handbook 11/12

Avoiding Plagiarism

Plagiarism in Coursework Assignments

Who is a plagiarist?

"One who steals the thoughts of others and gives them out as his/her own"

Plagiarism is using somebody else's work and either deliberately or inadvertently pretending it is your own. You plagiarise when, intentionally or not, you use another person's or organisation’s ideas and findings without crediting or acknowledging them. This can apply to work published in academic literature, in unpublished reports and pamphlets, on the Internet, and also to the work of other students.

 

Examples of plagiarism may include:

• a student copying another student's written assignment (including work submitted in the past);
• students working together on a piece of coursework and submitting substantially similar work when they are required to submit an individual piece of assessment (collusion);
• a student submitting a written assignment that had been extensively copied from a textbook or report or article or taken from the Internet/WWW;
• a student submitting a written assignment making significant use of unattributed quotations from textbooks or reports or articles or the Internet/WWW.
• You are, of course, free to use published ideas, results etc. and even quote other people, but your sources must be appropriately cited and referenced. You are also free to work with other students on pieces of coursework but you must take care that the work you submit is your own and not substantially based upon that of another student.

Avoiding Plagiarism - A Simple Guide

A good essay is one where a student has read around the subject, taken into consideration other people's work on the topic, cited this correctly, and comes up with their own take/ideas on it.

If you want to use the exact words you find in a book then:

• Type a quotation mark before and after the section being used
• If quoting more than one sentance, make it a separate, indented paragraph
• Record the words exactly as they are in the source
• Cite the source and page number of the quote

If you are using a source for a substantial part of your work:

• Read through your final work and compare with the original
• If it’s substantially similar you are in danger of plagiarising
• Rewrite any paragraphs that have phrases from the original in the same order. Still cite the source of the material. If you can’t put it into your own words then turn the text into a quote and cite as described above.
• Click here for more information on referencing.

All coursework may be scanned using a service called 'Turnitin' which detects similarities to internet sources and other students work. If your work contains unattributed quotations or is not referenced properly then academic misconduct procedures will apply.

How will plagiarism be dealt with?

Plagiarism is a form of cheating and as such comes within the university disciplinary procedure. All students should read the university’s general rules on plagiarism and collusion in course work and be familiar with the process.

Penalties

The seriousness of the issue is evident in the procedures, which may include an interview with the Chair of the Examination Board and External Examiner, and can result in:

• at the very least a note put on student record which could be passed on to professional bodies in the future.
• failure of module
• failure of degree outright

N.B. A repeated offence carries more serious penalities than a first offence..

For more information on plagiarism see the ‘Academic Study Network (ASK)’ on Studentcentral, your Student Handbook and the University of Brighton ‘Plagiarism Awareness Pack’.