TAR

UC Plagiarism Policy

TAR UC (Tunku Abdul Rahman University College) regards all forms of academic
dishonesty as serious offences that threaten the integrity of the University College’s
assessment system and academic awards. Any student found liable of academic
dishonesty will be subjected to disciplinary actions by the University College.


1.0 DEFINITION OF PLAGIARISM

Plagiarism is a form of cheating and an act of academic dishonesty. Plagiarism means
presenting and/or submitting the work of another person as one’s own. The sources
may be derived from print, digital, online, or any combination thereof. Example: a
classmate’s assignment or project, books, charts, collection of audio samples, CDs,
CD‐ROMs, DVDs, graphs, graphics, illustrations, journal articles, lines of a poem,
lyrics, magazines, newspapers, radio, software, textbooks and the Internet. Students
are required to give proper recognition to the sources used in their work using the
appropriate referencing style.

In addition to the above, the re‐presentation or re‐submission of one’s own
previously submitted and marked work shall be deemed as plagiarism.

Allowing other students to use the whole or part of your work as their submitted
work, you are liable for aiding plagiarism (collusion), which is also an academic
dishonesty.


2.0 THE IMPORTANCE OF CITING REFERENCES

Referencing is needed to:

 Demonstrate the body/scope of knowledge upon which your work is based
upon
 Acknowledge intellectual debts to other writers
 Enable all those who read your work to locate the sources

Using appropriate references will show the breadth and quality of one’s work and
avoid plagiarism. The recommended referencing style to be used in the College is
Harvard Referencing system. However, some programmes require the American
Psychological Association (APA) referencing system. For further details on
plagiarism and referencing systems, please refer to the TAR UC guide on Avoiding
Plagiarism and Referencing Systems.


3.0 PLAGIARISM CHECKING PROCEDURE

It shall be the responsibility of the student to ensure his/her work shall undergo a
Plagiarism Checking Procedure. Students are encouraged to use the anti‐plagiarism
software available through the University College e‐learning (CeL). Refer to
Appendix 1 for details.

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4.0 COURSEWORK DECLARATION

All students’ works submitted for assessment must be attached with the Coursework
Declaration in the form and contents as follows:‐

Semester:________________ Course Code & Title: ________________________________

Declaration

I/We confirm that I/we have read and shall comply with all the terms
and condition of Tunku Abdul Rahman University College’s plagiarism
policy.

I/We declare that this assignment is free from all forms of plagiarism
and for all intents and purposes is my/our own properly derived work.

I/We further confirm that the same work, where appropriate, has been
verified by anti‐plagiarism software ________________________ (please insert).


Signature(s):__________________________________________________________________
Name(s):______________________________________________________________________
Date: ___________________

5.0 DISCIPLINARY ACTION AGAINST STUDENTS FOR ACADEMIC
DISHONESTY

5.1 All plagiarism matters shall be dealt with by the respective Faculty. However,
in the event that the Faculty is of the view that the alleged plagiarism is
serious in nature, the Faculty shall continue refer the matter to the University
College’s Examination Disciplinary Committee.

For the purposes of this policy, serious plagiarism shall include but not
limited to:‐

a. plagiarism which is detected during graduation exercise such as
assignments, coursework and final year projects;
b. repeated offences;
c. any other plagiarism cases as the case may be.


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5.2 If plagiarism is determined, the following penalties may apply:

a. order that the maximum marks awarded to the student for all the
courses passed in that examination may be downgraded to a minimum
pass grade;
b. order that the student has failed in the examination of any course or
programme or part of a course or programme or the whole of the
examination concerned;
c. remove the name of the student from any pass list;
d. suspend the student from any University College examination for such
period as the Disciplinary Authority may decide;
e. order that the student has failed the whole of the examination
concerned and that the student be required to leave the
programme(s) and refuse re‐admission to any programme of study in
the University College.


6.0 MISCELLENEOUS PROVISIONS

The University College reserves the right to make changes to this policy as it
deems fit.

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APPENDIX 1

Anti Plagiarism Software – SafeAssign

SafeAssign is an on‐line database that can detect copying in student’s submission and
it is available in the University College E‐Learning (CeL). For more details about this
anti plagiarism detection, visit the website ( http://www.safeassign.com.) This
software is capable of detecting:

 copied materials from another source
 properly recognised and referenced quotes from another source

Please note that this anti‐plagiarism software SafeAssign, will only be able to detect
plagiarism for assignments such as written word report, case studies, class reports,
or any other word based coursework.


1.0 SafeAssignment Reports

Students must provide a SafeAssignment Report indicating the authenticity of the
assignment/report that has been submitted. SafeAssign generates a report with the
results of the Matching Process. It is up to a lecturer to determine if plagiarism has
actually occurred, by determining if the copied passages were properly referenced
in the body of the assignment and in the reference list at the end.


2.0 Submission of SafeAssignment Reports in Students’ Assignment

Every student is required to print out a copy of the SafeAssignment Report and
submit it together (bound) in the assignment to the lecturer.


3.0 SafeAssign via CeL

3.1 For Students ‐ How to submit a coursework to SafeAssign

A SafeAssign will be available to students when lecturers create such an assignment
for them to submit their coursework within their courses in CeL. The location of the
SafeAssignment is determined by the lecturers who create it.

The following are the steps to submit a coursework to a SafeAssignment.

1. Login to CeL.
2. Go to the course where the SafeAssignment is located. (Students are to receive
instruction from their lecturers on where the SafeAssignment is deployed
within their courses.)
3. From the location where the SafeAssignment is found within the course, click
View/Complete.
4. The Upload SafeAssignment page will appear.
5. Complete the page using the table below as a guide and click submit.

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Upload SafeAssigments Fields

Field Description
Name Displays the title of the SafeAssignment.
Instructions Displays the instructions for the SafeAssignment.
Comments Enter any comments for the lecture in this field.
File to Attach Click Browse to locate a file to upload as a
SafeAssignment.
Global Select this option to upload your paper to the
Reference Global Reference Database. It will be used to
Database check papers from other faculties for plagiarism.
The paper will only be used to check for
plagiarism.

Kindly note that if the students submit coursework containing images
exceeding 2MB to the SafeAssignment, the submission process may fail.

3.2 For Students ‐ How to view SafeAssignment reports

Students’ SafeAssign reports and their submitted coursework are viewable by
clicking on the View/Complete link of the SafeAssignment. This option is only
available if it is allowed by the lecturer. The duration needed for the SafeAssign
report to be generated after the submission depends solely on the quality of service
provided by the external party on their servers.

The following are the steps to view a SafeAssign report.

1. Click View/Complete of the SafeAssignment.
2. Click OK to view results.
3. The details of the submission, as shown in the table below, will appear.

Details of Submitted SafeAssignment

Field Description
Text Click this option to view the submitted
coursework and any comments by the student.
File Click this option to download the submitted
coursework.
Matching The percentage listed is the percentage of the
coursework that matches other sources. Read the
full report to determine if the matching is properly
attributed.
SA report Click this option to view the full SafeAssign report.

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4. SafeAssign reports are divided into three sections:

Field Description
Report This section lists details about the coursework,
Information such as the author, percent Matching, and when it
was submitted. This section also includes options
for downloading the report, emailing the report,
or viewing a printable version.
Suspected This section lists the sources that have text that
Sources matches the text of the submitted coursework.
Manuscript This section shows the submitted coursework. All
Text matching blocks of text are identified. Clicking a
matching block of text will display information
about the original source and the probability that
the block or sentence was copied from the source.


3.3 For lecturers – How to create a SafeAssignment

SafeAssignment appears in courses as new content type and can be added to any
course Content Areas via the Control Panel. SafeAssignment is different from
Assignments. Like a regular Assignment, a SafeAssignment can be integrated with the
Gradebook.

The following are steps to deploy a SafeAssignment for students to submit their
coursework.

1. Login to CeL.
2. Go to the designated course where the SafeAssignment is to be deployed.
3. Click Control Panel.
4. Select any area within the Content Areas at the Control Panel.
5. Select the SafeAssignment content type from the Select drop‐down list (at the
right hand corner of the Toolbar) and click Go.
6. The Add SafeAssignment page will appear.
7. Complete the page using the table below as a guide and click Submit.

Add SafeAssignment Fields

Field Description
Title Enter a title for the Safe Assignment.
Points Possible Enter the points possible for the SafeAssignment. This
value will be shared with the Gradebook Item created for
the SafeAssignment.
Text Enter instructions for completing the SafeAssignment.
Available Select whether or not the SafeAssignment should be visible
to students.

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Availability Set the date range for students to use the SafeAssignment
Dates for the submission of coursework.
Drafts Allow students to validate their paper without submitting
it to the institutional database. Useful as an instructive tool
to help students learn how to reference the sources in the
coursework properly and to avoid plagiarism.
Students Determines whether or not students can see the SA report
Viewable generated when their coursework are submitted.
Urgent Indicates coursework as a high priority in the processing
Checking queue.
Optional Announcement
Create Select Yes to create an Announcement about the
SafeAssignment.
Subject Enter a subject for the Announcement.
Message Enter a message for the Announcement.


3.4 For lecturers – Managing student coursework submission for SafeAssignment

Student coursework submissions and the Safe Assign reports associated with these
submissions are viewed from the SafeAssign link at the Control Panel (found under
the Course Tools heading). The SafeAssign area lists all the SafeAssignments
deployed in the course. Click on a SafeAssignment to view and assess student
submissions.

The following are the steps to view student coursework submissions for a
SafeAssignment.

1. Click on Safe Assign under Course Tools.
2. Locate the specific SafeAssignment in the list and click View.
3. A list of student submissions will appear.
4. Columns with the following fields, as shown in the table below, will appear.

Column Fields at View Safe Assignment Page

Field Description
Text Click this option to view the submitted coursework and
any comments by the student.
File Click this option to download the submitted coursework.
Matching The percentage listed is the percentage of the coursework
that matches other sources. Read the full report to
determine if the matching is properly attributed.
SA Report Click this option to view the full SafeAssign report.

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Clear Attempt Select this option to remove the submission from the
database.

5. SafeAssign reports are divided into three sections:

Field Description
Report This section lists details about the coursework, such as the
Information author, percent Matching, and when it was submitted. This
section also includes options for downloading the report,
emailing the report, or viewing a printable version.
Suspected This section lists the sources that have text that matches
Sources the text of the submitted coursework.

Note: Lecturers may select sources, exclude them from the
review, and process the paper again. This is useful if a
source is a previous work from the same student for the
same assignment, or if the suspected instances of
plagiarism are decided to be non‐issue upon the discretion
of the lecturers when verifying against the listed sources
manually. Processing the coursework submission again
will generate a new rule for the percent matching by
omitting the excluded sources.
Manuscript This section shows the submitted coursework. All
Text matching blocks of text are identified. Clicking a matching
block of text will display information about the original
source and the probability that the block or sentence was
copied from the source.

For instructions on how to use Direct Submit area, kindly login to Staff Intranet and
obtain information at CeL Support web page to attend an e‐learning workshop on
this subject.

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APPENDIX 2

INTERPRETING THE OVERALL SAFEASSIGN SCORE

1.0 Important Notes:
A. Please keep in mind that SafeAssign identifies all matching blocks of text and
it is the responsibility of the students and the lecturers to investigate whether
matching text is properly referenced or not (i.e not plagiarized). This
behaviour of the service is intentional

i. to prevent detection mistakes due to differences in citing styles, and

ii. to prevent students from using “fake” quotations (e.g. quoting a non‐
existing book where the material was taken from a Web site or
encyclopaedia).

B. SafeAssign ignores quotation marks and highlights all material in quotation
marks as well – this is an intentional behavior aimed to help instructors
verify validity of citations.

C. SafeAssign does NOT make any verdicts about plagiarism – it only identifies
matching between blocks of text. Always keep in mind that not all marked
sentences are plagiarized, and that sometimes there can be legitimate
reasons for high matching scores.

2.0 Interpreting Scores

2.1 Sentence Matching Scores
Sentence matching scores are the percentage probability that two sentences have
the same meaning. This number can also be interpreted as the reciprocal to the
probability that the two sentences are similar by chance. For example, a score of
90% means that there is 90% probability that these two sentences have the same
meaning, and about 10% probability that they are similar by chance (not because of
plagiarism).

2.2 Document Overall Matching Score
The Overall Matching Score is an indicator of what percentage of the processed
document is matching external sources. The overall matching score is basically an
average of all sentence scores, weighted by
a. the length of the sentence;
b. the "commonness" of the sentence (calculated based on the average
typical frequency of usage of the words from the sentence). This score
does not have a simple statistical definition, but it is very highly
correlated with;
c. the probability that there is some text matching other documents in

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the paper;
d. the amount of matching text in the document.

In general, this score should be treated as a warning indicator and is strongly

recommended to review all reports with high Overall Matching Scores. For analysis
of matching scores, the following interpretation scale should be used:

1. Scores below 15% ‐ usually papers with such scores contain some quotes and
few "typical" phrases that match other documents. In most cases, they do not
require any further analysis, and there is no evidence of plagiarism in reports.

2. Scores between 15% and 40% ‐ papers with such scores can either contain
plagiarism or have a significant amount of quoted material. We usually
recommend reviewing the reports with such scores before making any
judgments about the papers.

3. Scores over 40% ‐ papers with such scores may contain copied text. Even if this
text is cited, such amount of cited material may be considered excessive.
Therefore such scores give a clear warning to lecturers to check on the paper
submitted. However, there are few cases when such scores can be given to
authentic papers.


Source:

Blackboard Inc. (2010). How does SafeAssign work. Retrieved July 7 2010, from
http://wiki.safeassign.com/display/SAFE/Interpret+Reports

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APPENDIX 3

DEALING WITH PLAGIARISM

(Note for Lecturers)

Steps to deal with plagiarism cases

STEP 1: Meet with the student and have a witness present
a. Lecturers with documented evidence that the student has plagiarized – print‐
outs of the web sites, or photocopies of the other sources, for example – need
to request student to see them in the Faculty/Branch office and confront
them with the evidence.

b. It is recommended that lecturer meet with the student in the presence of
someone with authority (Programme Leader, Associate Dean, Head of Centre,
Deputy Branch Campus Head, Branch Campus Head, Deputy Dean, or Dean).
The crucial points are: HAVE A WITNESS PRESENT, and DO NOT have
other students around.

c. The witness should read over the University College Policy on Plagiarism, so
he/she can affirm that the lecturer have followed policy, and can verify that
the student understood everything he/she was told.

d. In the meeting, the lecturer will present the evidence to the student, explain
the charge(s), and tell him/her the procedures involved. The student must be
given time to think over the charge(s) and decide whether or not to contest
them. DO NOT FORCE the student to sign anything right away.

e. You MUST inform the student that he/she can appeal to the Student
Disciplinary Committee. If the student wants time to think over his/her
options, SET A DATE when you will meet again.


STEP 2: Gather the evidence that supports the case
The lecturer should be prepared to report the incident to the Programme
Leader/Associate Dean/Deputy Branch Campus Head/Branch Campus Head/Deputy
Dean/Dean. In preparation for the meeting, the lecturer should have at hand:
a. evidence (including the plagiarised work the student has submitted), and
b. the student’s signed copy of the Coursework Declaration Form.


STEP 3: Complete the necessary paperwork
Provide a written summary of the evidence and conclusions, and a written
statement of the action taken.


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STEP 4: Decide the course of action

a. When deciding what penalty to assess, lecturers will probably want to take
into account how flagrant the violation is, whether there are extenuating
circumstances, and whether the student has a prior history of problems with
plagiarism in your class. Some lecturers will exercise leniency if the student
admits to the plagiarism. This is NOT recommended,

b. It is tempting to offer to refrain from reporting the incident to the Associate
Dean/Deputy Branch Campus Head/Branch Campus Head/ Deputy Dean/
Dean if the student accepts the penalty you propose. However, such an
arrangement does not follow University College policy and could cause
problems for you down the road. Officially, if there is no formal charge of
dishonesty, you have no grounds for assessing any penalty.

c. Once you are convinced of the student’s guilt and committed to assessing a
penalty, MAKE IT OFFICIAL. Remember an admitted incidence of plagiarism
will stay in the student’s confidential file, but will not necessarily affect the
student’s academic career in any other way, unless the Programme
Leader/Associate Dean/Deputy Branch Campus Head/Branch Campus
Head/Deputy Dean/Dean feels more drastic steps are warranted. This could
happen, for example, if a student continues to commit plagiarism. In any case,
you are in no way obligated to bargain with the student and you should make
it clear that ANY act of plagiarism is grounds for a report to the
Branch/Faculty. It is perfectly acceptable to assign a failing grade even if the
student admits the plagiarism.



Source:

University of Texas. (2010). Dealing with plagiarism: When you have evidence.
Retrieved August 5 2010, from http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/
integrity/evidence.html

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