Plagiarism Checklist

Plagiarism Checklist

Is There Evidence Of Plagiarism?

Introduction

It is University of Liverpool policy that work which contributes to a student’s grade should be checked for plagiarism, collusion and fabrication of data (referred to collectively in this document as plagiarism) alongside its scholarly content.

For the online programmes we insist that students submit all work for assessment through an online matching tool such as SafeAssign or TurnItIn which produces a report on how closely or not the work matches with published sources, including previously submitted work from students, in its database. As an Instructor with us, it is your responsibility to check that the work submitted by students for grading is authentic.

Although software such as TurnItIn and SafeAssign are powerful tools, they cannot replace instinct and judgment and we do not rely on the reports generated by these to decide on whether or not a student has breached the policy. The following notes will help you to decide on which course of action to take when you receive the report.

Using the automated report

1. All graded student work should be checked for plagiarism by the Instructor, whether or not the automated report shows a particular level of matching.

2. This is a matter of academic judgment and NOT looking for a particular ‘score’ on the Safe Assign or TurnItIn report: a report of 20% matching could indicate major plagiarism; similarly a report of 80% matching may not indicate plagiarism has taken place.

3. The 30% matching mentioned in this respect is not a threshold beyond which a student can be said to have plagiarised: it is a guideline only that there is sufficient similarity between this piece of work and others in the database to warrant further investigation.

4. The automated report is NOT a plagiarism detector. It is not a complete solution and can only identify if words, phrases and sentences have been previously published

Student has properly cited and referenced..?
Yes / No
Matching score is..? / Low <30% / OK
See note A / Plagiarism
See note C
High >30% / Over citation
See note B / Plagiarism
See note C

A There is no need to take any action

B The student has not plagiarized, but they may have excessively used references in

their work

C It is highly likely that plagiarism has occurred. You will need to evaluate if it is a Minor

or Major case and then follow the correct procedure accordingly

The automated report does not on its own indicate plagiarism. But it does offer a shortcut for the Instructor to the sources which may have been accessed by the student if plagiarism is suspected

Trusting your instincts

Whatever the score on the matching report, in many cases plagiarised work will contain clues that indicate the work is not authentic and you should carry out a visual check based on the following.

Formatting

/ P
· Does the material have strange gaps or breaks between paragraphs or pages?
· Does the margin of the document change or the alignment of the paragraphs vary from justified to ragged right?
· Are there fragments of text that indicate material may have been copied from another source such as a web page – for example, “click here”?
· Is there odd additional information either at the end of the paper or elsewhere for example at the end of a paragraph or page?
· Are there changes in font, size or colour?

Citation

· Are all of the citations old or clustered around a particular date in the past?
· Is there a general lack of citation, whether or not sources are listed in the bibliography?
· Are there distinct, well written sections that lack citations?
· Are the bibliography entries provided in a mix of styles
· Are the links to materials cited from the web broken or to outdated information that has since been changed?

Style

· Is the writing style inconsistent with previous work from this student?
· Is the writing of a standard significantly different to other students in the course?
· Do sections of the work change in tense, grammar or fluency of language in distinct ways? /
· Are there changes in spelling, such as US English intermingled with UK English (ie using a ‘z’ in words such as plagiarise) /
· Are historic events referred to in the present, or even future, tense? /
Content
· Does the material seem disjointed and lack a sense of coherence?
· Does the material mix very general information with sections containing very detailed and specific information of a complex or sophisticated nature?
· Does the material contain long, grammatically correct, complex sentences?

What to do if you suspect plagiarism

1. The University of Liverpool differentiate two levels of plagiarism – minor and major (see University of Liverpool policy in the general Notes below)

2. Minor plagiarism is a very small amount of uncited or incorrectly referenced work. Anything else is considered Major plagiarism

3. Plagiarism should never be decided purely on the software matching report percentages from either TurnItIn or SafeAssign

Minor Plagiarism

If you suspect a student has committed Minor plagiarism, you should write to the student and

· identify the part(s) of their work which you suspect have been plagiarized

· use the template letters to warn them that this is a breach of policy

· ask them to revisit the guide to referencing provided by the online librarian

· remind them that they should make sure they fully understand the university definition of plagiarism and the rules the students must follow. If in doubt, they can seek guidance from their Student Support Manager or the Academic Quality Assurance department in Amsterdam

You should also remind them that they have signed a declaration of academic honesty and this states very clearly that they have undertaken to conform to these rules.

There is no grade penalty for Minor Plagiairism. The grade you award for the assessed work should reflect the academic content of the piece, but may also take into account that the student has not correctly followed scholarly convention. Therefore, it may be appropriate to award a grade penalty, but this is a matter for your academic judgment.

Template letters are available for you to use. Please ensure that all of your decisions are documented and in the corr folder so the University Monitors may see that you have identified a problem and taken action.

Major Plagiarism

Most cases of major plagiarism will either arise because

· the student has failed to correctly cite or reference extensive passages of work submitted for assessment

· you have previously warned the student about minor plagiarism and given them sufficient time to revisit the referencing guidelines

· you notice that the student has submitted work which closely resembles that from another student (either through a visual check or using the software matching tool)

· another student points out that a student’s post has been directly taken from a particular source without citation

If you suspect that a student has committed Major plagiarism you should

· write to the student indicating your concerns and identifying specific part(s) of their work which you suspect have been plagiarized using the template letters

· warn them that this is a breach of policy and that you must report this to the DOS

· write to the DOS detailing your concerns and attaching the software matching report

· you will need to give the student ID, their name, the class ID and the assessment you are concerned about

· tell the DOS if you have previously warned the student about plagiarism including details of the assessment, the date you notified the student of this and the action you took. They will then take this up with the student.

General Notes

1. Plagiarism may be intentional or accidental. It describes what has occurred and NOT the motivation behind the occurrence.

2. Plagiarism is generally thought to be :

· copying someone else's paper.

· taking short or long quotations from a source without identifying them correctly.

· submitting a piece of work which the student has bought from an essay bank or similar .

Some less-obvious examples of plagiarism include, but are not limited to:

· changing a few words around from a book, article or other source and pretending those words are the student’s own ( spinning or incorrect paraphrasing )

· rearranging the order of ideas to make it look as if they are the student’s own original thoughts

· borrowing ideas and not giving proper credit to the source.

· using information from an interview or an online chat or email, etc., without properly citing the source of the information.

· using words that were quoted in one source and acting and citing the original source as though the student had read it themselves.

University of Liverpool policy

The full version of this policy is in the Instructor Handbook.

1. The university policy does not only apply to intentional plagiarism: ‘accidental’ plagiarism is also included

2. The University takes plagiarism seriously and expects Instructional staff to act on all suspected cases.

3. It differentiates two levels of misconduct: minor and major

4. Minor misconduct is just that; a few lines of quotation which have not been correctly cited or referenced. Anything else is major misconduct

5. The levels are not stages in the process. Minor does not indicate the FIRST case of plagiarism. However it does indicate a warning; only Major plagiarism cases attract a penalty for breaching the rules.

Appendix One

Cheating 101: Detecting Plagiarized Papers

1. Writing style, language, vocabulary, tone, grammar, etc. is above or below what the student usually produces. It doesn't sound like the student.

2. Spelling or idioms used are not found in the students' native language, using English spellings or phrasing in an American paper and vice versa.

3. Sections or sentences do not relate to the overall content of the paper. Students may "personalize" a paper by adding a paragraph that ties the paper to the class assignment.

4. Pronouns do not agree with the gender of the writer.

5. Look for strange text at the top or bottom of printed pages.

6. Look for gray letters in the text, often an indication that the page was downloaded from the web, since color letters on a screen show up gray in a printout.

7. Essays are printed out from the student's web browser.

8. Web addresses left at the top or bottom of the page. Many free essays have a tag line at the end of the essay that students often miss.

9. Strange or poor layout. Papers that have been downloaded and re-printed often have page numbers, headings, or spacing that just don't look right.

10. References to graphs, charts, or accompanying material that isn't there.

11. References to professors, classes or class numbers that are not taught at Coastal Carolina University.

12. Quotes in the paper do not have citations.

13. Citations are to materials not owned by Kimbel Library or are all from another country.

14. Citations in the bibliography or works cited can not be verified.

15. Citations in the paper are not included in the works cited.

16. Web sites listed in citations are inactive.

17. All citations are to materials that are older than five years.

18. References are made to historical persons or events in the current sense.

19. Students can not identify citations or provide copies of the cited material.

20. Students can not summarize the main points of the paper or answer questions about specific sections of the paper.

21. When provided with a page from their paper that has words or passages removed, students can not fill in the blanks with the missing words or with reasonable synonyms.

Source
Cheating 101: Homepage
Peggy Bates/Margaret Fain

Date accessed: 5 May 2009

URL: http://www.coastal.edu

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