What is plagiarism?

What is Plagiarism?

Plagiarism means representing the creative work of another as your own original work without appropriate acknowledgement of the author of the work or the source. The need to acknowledge the work of another arises out of a set of rights provided for in the Copyright Act 1968 known as 'moral rights'. These include the right to attribution and the right to object to derogatory treatment of the work. You can find out more about moral rights from http://www.gsu.uts.edu.au/copyright/overview.html. You can find more copyright information for students at http://www.gsu.uts.edu.au/copyright/informationfor students.html.

There are two types of plagiarism:

The penalties for plagiarism are serious. You might:

  • fail the assessment task
  • fail the subject, or
  • be excluded from the university.

 

The UTS Coursework Assessment Policy and Procedures Manual, as amended by Academic Board 19 October 2005, on page 23 notes that plagiarism includes:

  • Copying out part(s) of any document, audio-visual material, computer-based material or artistic piece without acknowledging the source. This includes copying directly from the original, or from a secondary source (eg photocopy, fax, email), or by other means, including memorising.
  • Using or extracting another person's concepts, results, processes or conclusions and passing them off as one's own.
  • Summarising and paraphrasing another's work without acknowledging the source.
  • Preparing an assignment collaboratively and then submitting work that is substantially the same as another student's assessment in cases where the assessment task is intended to be individual work - not group work. This does not include legitimate forms of cooperation such as students discussing their work with others, exchanging ideas, or seeking help from lecturers.
  • Asking another person to write an assessment item.

You can download the manual from http://www.gsu.uts.edu.au/policies/coursewkassess.html.