Research Methods

 The University defines Academic Misconduct

as:

 “any activity or attempted activity which gives

an unfair advantage to one or more students
over their peers “
 What we are really talking about is
trying to pass an assessment
dishonestly i.e. Cheating

 Ignorance is not an excuse!

 Make sure you understand – ask

questions!
 The University recognises four major forms of
Academic Misconduct:
Plagiarism
Collusion
Fabrication/Falsification
Personation
 The full list can be found in the Academic
Misconduct Regulations Appendix 2 on BB
 Work submitted for assessments must be
your own work
 Your own words
 Your own code/animation etc.

 You are guilty of plagiarism if you

incorporate someone else’s work in an
assessment without proper
acknowledgement.
 You must:
 Cite original sources in the text

 Include the full sources details in the list of

references

 Rewrite ideas/code etc. in your own words

 Or enclose quotations with quotes “”

 Self-plagiarism – submitting work that you
have already submitted for a previous
assignment.

 Intra-corpal plagiarism – copying from other

students on the same course

 Extra-corpal plagiarism – copying from an

external source e.g. a website
 The inclusion in a student’s work of more
than a single phrase from another’s work
without the use of quotation marks and
acknowledgement of the sources.

 The summarising of another’s work by simply

changing a few words or altering the order of
presentation without acknowledgement.
 Reproducing another person’s work or ideas
in a student’s own words without
acknowledgement.

 The unauthorised use of the ideas of another

person without acknowledgement of the
source.
 Copying the work of another student, with or
without the student’s knowledge or
agreement.

 Submitting work which is in whole or part

identical to work already submitted by that
student for another assignment.
 Commissioning of a piece of work prepared
by one or more others but submitted by the
student as if it was their own.

 Purchase of another’s work from any source.

 ‘Essay banks’ or ‘Paper Mills’
◦ Providing copyrighted materials to websites
commissioned to write an assessment for you

◦ Providing recordings of meetings with staff

members without their consent
 My English isn’t good enough
 I didn’t understand what plagiarism was
(unintentional plagiarism)
 I ran out of time
 To get higher marks
 I wasn’t interested in the course – didn’t want
to put effort in
 In my previous education copying others’
words was acceptable
 It affects the value of your qualification
 Students get qualifications without achieving
required standard
 Employers dissatisfied with students from
institution
 Employers stop employing students from
institution – all students penalised
 Depend on severity of offence and the
number of times you have offended
 Formal records kept of Misconduct
 Penalties range from
 Warning
 Fail with opportunity for reassessment for max of
pass mark
 Fail with no reassessment – restudy opportunity
 Withdrawal from programme of study
 Collusion: Collusion is when you:

 Work with someone else on an assignment that is

supposed to be an individual piece of work and
then submit it as your own work.

 Allow someone else to copy all or part of your work

and then submit it as their own.

 Considered very serious offence by the

University
 Making up results e.g. test results

 Altering results to give the desired answer

 Including references that you haven’t read

 Making up references

 Fraudulently submitting a case for mitigating

circumstances
 Impersonating another student with the
intention or achieving higher marks for that
student

 Allowing another person to assume your

identity in order to gain you better marks
 Reference sources
 Text/Diagrams/Images from books, journals,
websites etc.
 Code from books, websites etc.
 Avoid “collusion”
 Do not hand in someone else’s work as your own
 Do not work together on an assignment
 Your work should be your own
 Your own words
 Your own solutions
 Your own opinions
 When is it acceptable to copy someone else’s
words exactly?
 When you are quoting someone else’s words
using the correct referencing style.

 Why would you quote someone exactly?

 To give a definition of a word/term
 To give their opinion (as part of an academic
argument you are making)
 To show their findings/conclusions (as part
of an academic argument you are making)

 Use quotations sparingly. Quotations are not

marked because they are not your own
words.
 How much text is it acceptable to quote?
 Quotations should be no more than a
paragraph
 Placing two, three or more paragraphs within
quotes and referencing it is not acceptable.
 The majority of everything you write should
be in your own words.
 The exception is code, code reuse is normal
practice, but code taken from another source
must be referenced.
◦ Code should be referenced in the comments
◦ When you repeat the ideas/findings of others in
your own words you must cite the original source in
the text.
◦ If your text is composed of ideas from lots of
different sources cite each source next to the
appropriate piece of text.
◦ If text is a summary of a number of sources cite all
the sources together at the end of the text.
◦ Citing sources is good. It shows you have read
relevant literature and are aware of the work of
others.
 You may be asked for evidence to prove your
work is your own
 You need to be able to show work in progress
◦ Keep drafts of your reports
◦ Keep versions of your code/designs etc.
◦ Keep original test data
 Discussed the four major types of
academic misconduct described by the
University regulations
 Identified some examples of plagiarism,
and discussed strategies for avoiding it
 Learned how to use quotations correctly
in academic work