Policy on Plagiarism

University statement on Academic Integrity and Plagiarism

Academic integrity means that university staff and students, in their teaching and learning are expected to treat others honestly, fairly and with respect at all times. It is not acceptable to mistreat academic, intellectual or creative work that has been done by other people by representing it as your own original work.

Academic integrity is important because it is the core value on which the University's learning, teaching and research activities are based. Victoria University's reputation for academic integrity adds value to your qualification.

The University defines plagiarism as presenting someone else's work as if it were your own, whether you mean to or not. "Someone else's work" means anything that is not your own idea. Even if it is presented in your own style, you must acknowledge your sources fully and appropriately. This includes:

Material from books, journals or any other printed source
The work of other students or staff
Information from the internet
Software programs and other electronic material
Designs and ideas
The organisation or structuring of any such material

Find out more about plagiarism, how to avoid it and penalties, on the University's website: https://www.victoria.ac.nz/students/support/student-interest-and-conflict-resolution/academic-integrity

Plagiarism in Engineering and Computer Science Courses

Plagiarism will not be tolerated at any stage during any Engineering or Computer Science course. Plagiarism is a serious violation of academic ethical standards, is unfair to other students and the university community. Moreover, plagiarism defeats the main purpose of course work, which is to assist students in learning the course material.

Plagiarism is submitting someone else's work as your own. This includes

material from a published source such as a library book, a journal article, etc.
material from an on-line software library, web pages, etc.
the work of another student, friend, relative, etc.

Programs submitted for assessment in Engineering and Computer Science courses may be checked for academic integrity using the Moss system to help identify material that is also present in submissions from other students. Moss does more than a simple comparison of the text to identify common sections of code.

The following policy will apply for all Engineering and Computer Science courses:

Any person found guilty of plagiarism will be penalised. They should expect to receive zero marks for the work to which it relates, and may receive greater penalties in accordance with the University's Examination Statute and the Statute on Student Conduct.
Any person found guilty of knowingly allowing their work to be copied should also expect to receive zero marks, and may receive greater penalities in accordance with the Examination Statute and the Statute on Student Conduct.
Plagiarism offenses resulting in the loss of marks or greater penalties will be recorded for future reference.

If at any time it is alleged that you may have submitted another's work as your own you will:

Be advised of the details and the possible penalty at the time your mark is advised or as soon as practical thereafter.
Have the opportunity to discuss the situation with your course organiser and/or the Head of School and respond to the allegation.

If the allegation cannot be resolved informally either party may proceed under the formal complaints process of the Statute on Student Conduct.

The University's Examination Statute and Statute on Student Conduct detail the full process involved. The Examination Statute can be found in the current VUW Calendar.

Notes

The following notes are intended to help students and staff understand what is and is not acceptable under this policy and what happens when plagiarism is suspected.

You should always properly cite any work of others that you are including in work that you submit. Some guidelines on how to do this will be found at the end of this document.
When you use someone else's work in an assignment you should be certain that you are making appropriate use of that work. While citing the work may avoid any question of plagiarism, failure to do the work yourself may mean that the submitted work fails to meet some or all of the requirements of a particular assignment. If in doubt ask your lecturer.
Working together does not constitute a satisfactory reason for submitting exactly the same or very similar work. Unless your lecturer has specified that submitting the same work is permitted, both parties will be penalised.
Any Engineering or Computer Science course that explicitly requires group work will advise students with respect to each piece of work exactly what degree of cooperation is expected and the degree of collaboration allowed on submitted material.
Do not lend your work to others. If someone submits work that is the same as or very similar to yours you should expect to be asked to explain and, if the explanation is not satisfactory, to be penalised.
If you are ever in doubt as to whether some action you have taken may be considered as plagiarism, you should consult your lecturer and/or clearly state on the submitted work the extent of the contribution from others.

Citing the Work of Others

Under various circumstances, which should be set out in each assignment, it is appropriate or allowed to make use of others' work. For example:

It is standard practice to describe related work in research reports.
You may be allowed to use someone else's code for a linked list or tree in a 300-level project dealing with operating systems or databases. When you do this you must always give the author of the other work credit. This distinguishes the constructive use of others work from plagiarism.

Quotations in Essays and Reports

If you use quotations from books, articles, web pages, etc in an essay or report, cite the source by:

Marking it as a quotation (for example, use "quotation marks" for a short quotation, or extra indentation for a whole paragraph), and
Referencing the source you obtained it from (either in the text, as a footnote, or as an endnote). For a publication, give the title, author, date, etc., and perhaps with a page number. For a web-page, cite the URL and author or organisation. Finally, for a quote from an expert, another student, etc., give their name and "Personal communication".

Note that including quotations in an essay or report is fine (when cited properly), but they should be used in a way that strengthens your discussion or argument. Generally, marks will be awarded for demonstrating your understanding of the subject matter, so that an essay that consists almost entirely of quotations with a few connecting words or sentences will typically receive very few marks.

Code

If you are completing a programming project, you may be allowed to use code segments from a software library on the web, from model solutions in previous courses you have taken, or even from other students. If you do this, you must clearly indicate all of the code that has come from another source, and state the source.

Unless your course requirements state otherwise, you are not required to cite algorithms, data structures or source code from lecture notes or the prescribed text (although it is still good practice to cite the source).

If you are in doubt about the use of code that you have not written yourself you should check with your lecturer before submitting the program.

Help with English language

Students for whom English is a second language may have friends or other people who are willing to help them with the grammar and wording of their essays, reports or documentation. This is acceptable provided that the help was confined to the grammar and wording and that the help is acknowledged in the essay/report, giving the name of the individual who helped.

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