Academic Integrity and Plagiarism

Academic Integrity and Plagiarism Ms Erika Gavillet Dr Richy Hetherington

Do you agree to take part? • Yes • No

Testing… • If you are male • If you are female

Which of the following professional bodies are you a member of • General Medical Council • The Health Professions Council • The Science Council • Chartered Scientists • British Association of Accredited Researchers

Professional Bodies Registers doctors to practise medicine in the UK. Promote and maintaining the health and safety of the public by ensuring proper standards in the practice of medicine. A regulator protecting the public by registering health professionals ensuring standards of training, professional skills, behaviour and health. membership organisation representing the learned societies and professional institutions A single chartered mark for all scientists, recognising high levels of professionalism and competence in science B.A.A.R. I made that one up, to test your integrity

Project Approval

Who has completed their Project Approval form • Yes • No

Ethics advice • Bioethics workshop (available online) • Research Governance (12th Nov 09) -National Research Ethics Service • Institute of Neuroscience Psychology Ethics Committee • Research Ethics in a Wider context - for 2nd year and above only • Your Handbooks for Research students • http://www.ncl.ac.uk/business-directorate/policies/ethics/

Funding Integrity • Pharmaceuticals manufacturer support • Other interested parties

Experimental Integrity: Can the circled data point be dropped • Yes • no

Authorship and Acknowledgement • YES • NO Should a technician who produced results but had no input to design or interpretation of results be an author?

Duplication, redundancy or self plagiarism • Sending the same article to more than one journal • Using the data twice without a significantly different outcome • Copying your introduction for another piece of work • Using data generated from one degree e.g. MRes or MSc in another PhD

Academic integrity. Plagiarism – what’s okay and what’s not Erika Gavillet Medical Librarian Walton Library

Academic integrity – the dilemma • Show you have done your research… BUT • …write something new and original • Appeal to experts and authorities… BUT • …improve upon or disagree with experts and authorities

Academic integrity – the dilemma • Demonstrate you ability to write by mimicking what you hear and read… BUT • …use your own words and voice • Give credit where credit is due… BUT • …make your own significant contribution.

Academic integrity – the dilemma • Remember…supervisors and other readers will not be able to tell if plagiarism is deliberate or not.

You are under pressure with your lab experiment which then goes wrong. Your colleague ran a similar experiment last week and gives you the figures. You use them in your report. Is this: • Acceptable practice? • Plagiarism? • Collusion?

When writing your research, you take short phrases from a number of sources, add your own words to make a coherent structure and list all your sources in your bibliography. Is this: • Acceptable practice? • Plagiarism? • Collusion?

Tools for detecting plagiarism • JISC software • ‘Watermarked’ e journals and books • Internet detection software • Experience

Types of plagiarism

For the following slides, demonstrating examples of plagiarism, I am indebted to South Bank University’s website: • Acceptable and Unacceptable use of non-original material • http://cise.sbu.ac.uk/plagposter/ [Accessed 5th May 2008]

‘Copy and paste’ • The writer copies the exact words that have already been published into their work without any indication of their origin.

Disguise • Some words are changed from the original source. • Arguably a more serious offence than ‘copy and paste’ as it indicates a deliberate attempt to pass the work off as the writer’s own.

Incorrect referencing • Where it is not made clear within the writer’s work which parts of the writing have been taken from the original source and which belong to them.

Mosiac • Fragments of the original are scattered between parts that the writer has written. • The sequence of ideas and examples show that it has been lifted directly from the original source. • The writer’s comments between add no value or make no difference to the writing.

Multiple sources • Where content is mixed from more than one source. • This does not make the writing any more original or valuable

Paraphrasing • In this example, nearly all the words are those of the writer • However, the sequence, the ideas, the references used to support the arguments etc are identical to the original source.

Correct but inappropriate usage • No attempt to mislead or cheat…correctly acknowledged and formatted… • But so little of the writer’s work that it is pointless!

So…when should you give credit? • When you are referring to someone else’s words or ideas • When using information gained through interviewing someone

So…when should you give credit? (cont..) • When you reproduce or reprint any diagrams, illustrations, charts or photos • When you choose to use the exact words or ‘unique phrase’ from another’s work

Making sure you are safe • Techniques to ensure that you can’t be accused of plagiarism…

When researching, note-taking, and interviewing • Make sure you indicate clearly when the words belong to someone else – use a ‘Q’ in the margin, or quotation marks. • Always keep a full record of your sources (page numbers, titles etc) • Always acknowledge in your final text using in-text citation, footnotes, bibliography, quotation marks or indirect quotations.

When paraphrasing or summarising • Write your paraphrase or summary from memory – don’t look at the original text. Then check with the original for accuracy. • In your work, begin by giving credit: According to Esther Blodgitt… • If you want to use a unique phrase, put it in quotation marks: The Prime Minister’s response to the opposition was a “poisonous diatribe” (Blodgitt).

Quotes • Don’t use too many – it starts to look like there’s not many of your own ideas in your work • Mention the author somewhere in the sentence and use quotation marks.

You have found a fantastic article. You copy out a few sentences word for word, include quotation marks and an in text citation and include full details in your bibliography. Is this? • Acceptable practice? • Plagiarism? • Collusion?

You want to use a graph from a textbook. You contact the author who gives you permission and you reference it in your bibliography. Is this: • Acceptable practice? • Plagiarism? • Collusion?

Where to go for further information • Citing references by David Fisher • Citing your references by David Bosworth • Electronic styles: a handbook for citing electronic information by Xia Li • University Student Handbook • Academic integrity pages on the ResIN website: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/library/resin/writing_up/academic_integrity/plagiarism.php • General academic good practice: • http://www.ncl.ac.uk/right-cite/

If you have been listening… • Thank you! • This is your opportunity to comment or ask questions… • Or later…medliaison@ncl.ac.uk

Academic Integrity and Plagiarism