Just Ask: Academic Integrity Week

by Phil Vincent · November 28, 2013

Last week the LTD team were involved in the latest ‘Just Ask‘ week, a series of events run throughout the year designed to help students settle in to University life, on the theme of ‘Academic Integrity‘.

Part of our contribution involved using our iPads to carry out a quiz on Plagiarism, to find out what students already know:

We had 169 responses in total, and here is a summary of how the 8 questions were answered:

1. Is it plagiarism if you copy and paste a paragraph of text from a web site without enclosing it in quotation marks and referencing the source?

The correct answer was of course ‘Yes’: This is probably the most well-known form of plagiarism. When you copy the exact words from another source you must enclose them in the quotation marks and provide a reference.

2. Is it plagiarism if you use the ideas of another author without providing a reference, even if you write them in your own words?

Again, the answer was ‘Yes’: This is definitely plagiarism. Even if you do not directly copy the author’s words you must provide a reference when you talk about their ideas.

3. Is it plagiarism if you claim work produced by another student as your own?

Another ‘Yes’ answer: Buying, stealing or copying an essay to produce your work is plagiarism. Collaborating with another student (unless requested by your tutor) is also plagiarism.

4. Is It Plagiarism if you copy a diagram or data table from a web site, providing a reference for the source underneath?

The correct answer was ‘No’: You can include a table, diagram or image from another source as long as you provide a reference.

5. Is It Plagiarism if you submit all or part of one essay for two separate assignments?

This question was one of the ones many students weren’t as sure about, the correct answer was ‘Yes’: Although this may surprise you, self-plagiarism is a form of plagiarism and is not permitted.

6. Is It Plagiarism if you copy words from a book into your own work, but place quotation marks around them and provide a citation?

The answer was ‘No’: It is not plagiarism to copy words from another source as long as you place them in quotation marks and provide a reference.

7. Is it Plagiarism if you include a fact or saying in your assignment which is generally known without providing a reference?

Another question which divided our quiz takers, the correct answer was ‘No’: If a fact is generally well known or ‘common knowledge’ then you don’t need to reference it. Bear in mind that what you consider to be common knowledge may not be well known to others. If in doubt provide a reference.

8. Is it Plagiarism if you incorporate text from another source, changing one or two words and provide a citation?

Another tricky question, the answer is of course ‘Yes’: If you do not intend to quote directly from the source, you must write about it in your own words. Using too many words from the original source is plagiarism, even if you provide a reference.

Finally, we picked one response at random to win a £25 Amazon voucher, here is Rebecca, a 3rd Year Primary Education student, claiming her prize: