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Plagiarism
Contents
What is plagiarism? .................................................................. 1
Unintentional Plagiarism........................................................... 2
Penalties for plagiarism ............................................................ 2
How is plagiarism detected? .................................................... 3
How do I avoid plagiarism? ...................................................... 3
Why is referencing style so important?..................................... 3
When you do not need to use references................................. 3
Referencing dos and don’ts ...................................................... 4
Referencing tools ..................................................................... 4
Further help .............................................................................. 5
What is plagiarism?
Plagiarism is the act of presenting the work or ideas of another as your own.
It is a form of dishonesty, cheating and theft. Plagiarism can be both intentional
and unintentional.
Examples of plagiarism include:
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Presenting another student’s work as your own.
Paraphrasing someone else’s ideas or words without referencing the
source.
Quoting phrases, sentences, complete paragraphs or more, from a source
without using quotation marks and/or without referencing the source.
Cutting and pasting from a website, electronic journal article or other source
without using quotation marks and/or without referencing the source.
Purchasing an essay or dissertation from an internet service and submitting
it as your own work.
Recycling assignments that you’ve already submitted. This is selfplagiarism. Remember the purpose of assignments is to help you to learn.
If you resubmit the same content you’ve already submitted in a different
assignment, you risk undermining your own learning as well as not properly
answering the assignment brief.
It is helpful to view every new assignment as an opportunity for you to develop your
skills, knowledge and understanding.
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Forms of plagiarism
Intentional Plagiarism
This is the deliberate failure to reference anything. Lack of time is not an
excuse.
Unintentional Plagiarism
Plagiarism can be unintentional. For example, if you have not kept accurate
notes, you may paraphrase or copy someone else’s work into your assignment
thinking that it’s your own. Students may also unintentionally plagiarise if they
don’t understand how to reference the work of others in their assignments.
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There is NO excuse for unintentional plagiarism.
You are responsible for knowing what constitutes plagiarism and how to
avoid it. Remember, you can ask for help from your Information Skills
Adviser should you need it (see ‘Further help’ below).
Collaboration
The University expects that all work submitted for assessment and leading to an
award is the sole work of the individual submitting the work. The exception is
when you are asked to do a group assignment in which case collaboration is
expected. It is also acceptable to ask a peer to proofread your work for spelling
or grammatical errors. However, do not allow anyone to rewrite your work if you
are being assessed on an individual basis.
Collusion
This occurs if you work with others on an assignment where you are going to be
assessed on an individual basis. For example, if you allow your work to be
copied by another student or they allow you to copy their work.
Penalties for plagiarism
The penalties for plagiarism are set out in the following document:
Student’s code of Practice 4 (SPC4): Academic Misconduct
This can be accessed on The regulations and policy page of MyLSBU at
https://my.lsbu.ac.uk/page/regulations
For first offences you may be asked to re-submit the work. However, if you are
reported for plagiarism on a regular basis you risk being asked to leave the
course and the University.
The implications of cheating can also go beyond LSBU if you are studying for
professional exams or recognition. Your Head of Department may be obliged to
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report any suspected misdemeanour on any application you make on
completion of your course.
How is plagiarism detected?
It is usually easy for lecturers to identify plagiarism within students’ work. The
University also actively investigates plagiarism in students’ assessed work
through electronic detection software called Turnitin. This software compares
students’ work against text on the Internet, in journal articles and within
previously submitted work (from LSBU and other institutions) and highlights any
matches it finds.
How do I avoid plagiarism?
To avoid plagiarism you must always clearly acknowledge in your assignments
when you are quoting or paraphrasing the work of another. This method of
acknowledging other people’s work is called referencing.
Most departments at LSBU ask you to follow the LSBU Harvard Referencing
style. Other types of referencing include OSCOLA (used by Law), APA (used by
Psychology) and Numeric style (used by some engineering departments). If
you’re not sure which style you need to follow, check your module guides or ask
your lecturers.
The following guides are available on the My LSBU library pages.
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How to do your Referencing Using the Harvard System
How to do your Referencing: the OSCOLA System (Law Resources)
How to do your Referencing: Numeric Style
How to do your Referencing: APA system
Why is referencing style so important?
At university you need to present your work in an acceptable academic style. By
following the recognised guidelines and respecting and building upon the
existing work of other people you are not only avoiding plagiarism but also
providing evidence of your research, protecting the originality of your work and
enabling your reader to identify your sources.
When you do not need to use references
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If you are writing up your own genuine experiences, observations,
experimental data, fieldwork, etc.
You are mentioning something which is “common knowledge”, such as well
known facts or historical dates. However, if in doubt cite!
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Referencing dos and don’ts
Do
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Give yourself time to research and write your assignments. Start early!
Paraphrase the original work or summarise it in your own words.
(Remember that you will still need to reference the original).
Put any phrase or sentence which you have copied word for word into
quotation marks (“”) and include the page number in the in-text citation or
footnote.
Keep accurate notes and records of where you’ve found information. It is
very difficult and time-consuming to try and find out where you’ve copied or
paraphrased other people’s work afterwards.
Ask for help in the library or attend a drop-in workshop on referencing (these
are held frequently in the library). You can also email your Information Skills
Adviser if you have any queries about plagiarism or referencing (contact
details below).
Visit the ‘Referencing your work’ page on My LSBU for help sheets, quizzes
and tutorials on referencing. There are also referencing tutorials on the LLR:
Library and IT Support site on Moodle
Don’t
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Ever consider using any of the essay writing or document purchasing
services available on the internet.
Let other students copy your work or copy other students’ work in which you
will be assessed individually (this is collusion).
Substantially resubmit the same content for a different assignment (this is
self-plagiarism)
Put off writing assignments. Remember they’re designed to help you
develop your skills and knowledge.
Referencing tools
NOTE: It is strongly recommended that you proofread any citations or
references generated by the tools below to check for accuracy, consistency and
style and to ensure they comply with the referencing style you’re following.
RefMe (www.refme.com)
This is a free web and mobile tool to generate citations, reference lists and
bibliographies. It includes LSBU Harvard, LSBU Numeric, APA and OSCOLA
styles.
Ready-made references on library e-resources and websites
Many of the library’s subscription databases such as Academic Search
Complete and Myilibrary provide ready-made references to their records.
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However, they don’t provide LSBU Harvard or LSBU Numeric style so you will
have to edit them.
Worldcat (www.worldcat.org) allows you to search the catalogues of libraries
around the world and provides references in a variety of styles for every record.
Again, you may need to reformat them into the referencing style you’re
following.
Reference managers
You may wish to use referencing management tools for longer research
projects. If you’d like training on these, please contact your Information Skills
Adviser.
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RefWorks
The university has a subscription to RefWorks so it’s free for all LSBU staff
and students. To access RefWorks, search for ‘RefWorks’ on the library
catalogue. You’ll need to register and create your own login.
 Mendeley www.mendeley.com
Free referencing manager. Allows you to store up to 2GB of content.
Further help
Do ask for help if you need it. There’s lots of support available so if you’re
confused, worried or anxious at all about plagiarism or referencing here are
some ways of getting help:
Library Information Skills Advisers
You can send an email to your Information Skills Adviser if you have any
queries regarding referencing or plagiarism or if you’d like to arrange a 1-to-1
training session:
Applied Science
Arts and Creative Industries
Built Environment and Architecture
Business
Engineering
Health and Social Care
Law and Social Sciences
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
Research help desk
The research help desk on level 3 Bridge of the Perry Library is staffed by
Information Skills Advisers and Senior Information Advisers on weekdays
between 11am – 4.30pm. Students can drop-by for help with referencing and
research skills
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Library Skills days and Workshops
The library regularly hosts drop-in workshops on referencing and reference
management software. These are advertised on My LSBU, Moodle and in the
library.
Skills for Learning
The Skills for Learning team based in the Student Life Centre provide a
programme of study skills sessions including academic writing. Email:
[email protected]
Updated April 2015
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