Plagiarism

What is Plagiarism?

Plagiarism can be defined as the following:

• Failure to acknowledge the work of others.
• Paraphrasing without reference.
• Students separately submitting the same piece of work.
• A student submitting the same piece of work for assessment in different courses.

Plagiarism, collusion and other forms of cheating are treated as serious matters and expressly forbidden under the University’s Rules for Assessment. Penalties may include revising and resubmitting assessment work, receiving a result of zero for the assessment work, failing the course or expulsion.

All work submitted by students must contain an acknowledgement of originality with the appropriate referencing and citations as a declaration of authorship. Credit to others must be given where it is due and the contributions of others must be acknowledged. The School has standard cover sheets for assignments that contain appropriate declarations. There are two versions: one individual and one group and both versions are made available as downloads on this website.

If you are unsure as to how to set out your assignments, first check the course outline or check with your Lecturer. You will also find the Communications Skills Guide useful, available for download here.

Procedure for dealing with plagiarism

If plagiarism is suspected then in the first instance, the student will be required to meet with the Course Lecturer, or the Head of School.

If an instance of plagiarism is confirmed then, in some cases, marks may be deducted from the student’s work for inappropriate referencing, whereas in other cases, the student’s work may be resubmitted and remarked with the possibility of achieving a maximum score of 50%, or the student may receive a zero grade.

Penalties for Plagiarism include

• Revising and resubmitting the piece of work
• Receiving a zero result
• Failing the course
• Expulsion from the program
• Financial penalty

If it is a first offence, then a record of the incident will be kept by the School. If is not a first offence, the incident is recorded at the University level.

See also:
For more information, please refer to the University’s Rules for Assessment at www.adelaide.edu.au/policies/?241 and the Statement and Guidelines on Plagiarism, Collusion and Related Forms of Cheating at www.adelaide.edu.au/policies/?230