Academic misconduct: the 6 traps
Reflect
What would you do?
Consider the list of short scenarios below and consider what you think is the right thing to do.
- You are worried about your writing and language skills, so you find a private online service that offers to write part or a whole essay for you. Is it ok to seek or accept this help?
- You wrote an essay for one subject and got good marks. Now you want to use some of the material from this essay for another assessment task, in another subject. You know plagiarism is bad, but is it ok to copy your own work?
- You have finished your essay and realised that the instructions have asked you to include 10 research sources, but you have only included 5. You know plagiarism is bad, and you would never copy a source. But it should be ok to just add some extra references at random places throughout the essay, shouldn't it?
- You have a friend who is running late and is going to miss a class or online module activity, so you offer to sign the class roll or log in for them. Is this ok?
- Your friend is really struggling in a subject that you have already finished and got good grades for. You feel sorry for them so offer to give them all of your old presentation notes, reports and essays, with the teacher comments. They are the only person responsible if they copy this material and submit it as an assessment task in their own name, aren't they?
- You like to study with your friends in a group. You are all working on the same assessment task. Is it ok that you all share the work and submit the same responses for your individual assessment tasks?
If you think you might say 'yes' to any of these questions, then you might be at risk of committing academic misconduct.
Learn
What is academic misconduct?
It is important for you to know that there are two types of misconduct. The first is called general misconduct. This relates to how you behave or misbehave around campus or in online class settings like a discussion forum. If you follow the UOW Student Charter expectations for respectful and polite conduct, you are unlikely to have a problem. You might like to read the Student Conduct Rules for more information.
The other type is called academic misconduct, and it refers to breaches of academic integrity. This always relates to conduct around assessment tasks.
The UOW Academic Integrity Policy lists 6 main types of academic misconduct.
- Accessing, purchasing, exchanging or offering for purchase any item to be submitted as an assessment task;
- Behaving deceitfully or dishonestly in examinations, in the preparation of assessable items or during in-class assessments;
- Using or possessing prohibited equipment or material during an examination;
- Sending, receiving or accessing or endeavouring to send, receive or access any source of stored electronic information during the examination unless specified by the examiner.
- Drawing or writing on materials, other than the exam papers provided, during an examination.
- Assisting another student, intentionally or recklessly, to commit an act of academic misconduct;
- Unauthorised collaboration with other students on assessable work;
- Uploading a copy of a subject outline or other subject or course materials to a website or server without express permission of the University;
- Removing or endeavouring to remove from the examination room any question or answer paper, other paper provided for use by the student during the course of the examination, or other material which is the property of the University, unless authorised by the examination supervisor and examiner.
- Impersonating another student, or a student allowing another individual to impersonate him/her, for the purpose of completing an exam, assessment task or online activity.
- Submitting a piece of work, including an assessable group work item, with the intention of deceiving the assessor regarding individual contributions to the work;
- Intentional and unauthorised falsification or invention of any information, experimental data or citation in an assessable item;
- Misleading ascription of authorship (including claiming authorship of parts of a group assignment prepared by other students);
- Representing data or information incorrectly, improperly or falsely;
- Falsely indicating participation, or recording attendance on behalf of another student, in an activity where attendance is required for assessment purposes;
- Submitting a text/code-matching software originality report that falsely represents the originality of an assignment submitted for assessment.
- Behaving in any way that limits the academic opportunities of other students by improperly impeding their work or their access to educational resources.
- Using another person's ideas, designs, words or any other work without appropriate acknowledgement;
- Re-using one's own work without appropriate acknowledgement.
There are 'grey' areas and it is not always clear what a student should or shouldn't do. Some students like to help their friends, but at what point does that become collusion? Some teachers encourage collaboration and peer learning, and others absolutely forbid students to discuss assessment tasks. If in doubt, check in with your teacher about the expectations for that subject and assessment task.
Plagiarism is one of the most common forms of academic misconduct, and often arises because students are not familiar with acknowledging the work of others.
Because it is treated so seriously, it is really important that you take good notes when your are reading other sources, and that you practice using the referencing system that is required in your subject.
For more information about avoiding plagiarism, check out the excellent guides to avoiding plagiarism available online on the UOW Academic Integrity portal.
Why do students cheat?
Some students cheat because they want to get an advantage over other students, and don't realise how important the learning process is. Other might:
- lack confidence in their own writing abilities
- have difficulty planning or managing their study time
- have family, sport or work commitments
- procrastinate because they are avoiding doing the work
While UOW provides you with information and resources about academic integrity, the ultimate responsibility for producing honest and original work lies with you. It is your responsibility to seek help when you need it.
Remember that the Learning Co-op has a range of learning resources to help you become more confident in your academic writing and communication skills.
What is Turnitin?
Turnitin is an online text-matching program that is designed to recognise plagiarism. Many subjects at UOW require students to submit their work through Turnitin. It will generate an Originality Report which can identify how much work is your own, and appropriately referenced, and how much is copied without referencing.
To submit a Turnitin assignment you will need to log in to your Moodle subject page, select the assignment link and follow the prompts. Your Subject Outline should give you more instructions, or you can consult the guide on the UOW Turnitin (Students) webpages.
What are the penalties for academic misconduct?
At UOW, the penalties for academic misconduct can range from:
- a letter of warning
- reduced marks for an assessment task
- zero marks for an assessment task
- failing the subject
- suspension
- expulsion from the university
Before a penalty is imposed, each report of alleged academic misconduct is investigated by the subject coordinator. The investigation can seem very formal, but it gives the student a chance to explain why they made the mistake they did. In many cases the investigation concludes that the student might not have known the rules for good scholarly practice, a record will be made of Poor Academic Practice, and the student will be required to undergo some form of educational intervention.
But don't panic! StartSmart is here to help. Completing this module will help you recognise academic misconduct and avoid all the traps.
Apply
Do you know the 6 Traps to Academic misconduct?
1. Is this cheating?
Joe is sitting in an exam and knows he isn't allowed to copy other peoples answers as this is obviously cheating. He finishes the exam early without copying from anyone and he thinks he has done pretty well. He has some time to spare, so he takes a photo of some of the difficult exam questions to post of Facebook for his friends...Is this cheating?Yes, it is cheating. According to the UOW Academic Integrity Policy, cheating includes "sending, receiving or accessing or endeavouring to send, receive or access any source of stored electronic information during the examination unless specified by the examiner". This means you can't send text messages, listen or talk on a wireless speaker on your mobile phone while doing an exam.
2. Is this cheating?
Lil is struggling with time management. She has a lot of assessment tasks due in the same week and is overwhelmed. While studying, Lil comes across an ad for an online service that helps students. It looks professional and and the website says that the work will be 100% plagiarism free, and that she will get her money back if she doesn't like the essay they write for her. She orders an essay based on her subject's assessment task instructions...Is this cheating?Yes. According to the UOW Academic Integrity Policy, cheating includes "accessing, purchasing, exchanging or offering for purchase any item to be submitted as an assessment task". This means that you are not only forbidden from buying an assessment task or hiring someone else to write it for you. It also means that you also can't help someone else by offering your own services.
3. Is this collusion?
Lee likes to study with some of his friends who are doing the same subject. They are used to working together and often share articles they have found from the Library if they think it might be useful to the others. Although the report is difficult, Lee is confident that he is doing well, as he understands the subject and has worked hard. One of his friends isn't doing as well, and asks to look at a copy of Lee's notes and draft report. Lee thinks he is obliged to help his study friend, so gives him a usb with copies of all of his research as well as the draft report. His friend changes it a bit, but ends up submitting Lee's report as his own...Is this collusion?Yes. According to the Policy, collusion or facilitating academic dishonesty involves "Assisting another student, intentionally or recklessly, to commit an act of academic misconduct". Don't stop collaborating, but be careful when it comes to sharing your work.
4. Is this fraud?
Gill is running late because she is working at her part-time job. One of her subjects requires that she participate in an online discussion forum in Moodle and answer some weekly quiz questions. It is only worth a small amount of marks every week so nobody takes it very seriously. Gill asks her friend Amir to post a quick response on her behalf, and sends him her username and password...Is this fraud?Yes. According to the policy, fraud includes "impersonating another student, or a student allowing another individual to impersonate him/her, for the purpose of completing an exam, assessment task or online activity". Both Gill and Amir could get into trouble.
5. Is this misrepresentation and fabrication?
Neil is worried. He knows that he has not properly referenced a large section of his report, but didn't take good notes during his research and now has run out of time to go back and find the sources again. He has heard of a technique of tricking the Turnitin program by taking an photo of the page of text and inserting that photo into the word document. As Turnitin is a text-matching software program, it doesn't recognise photos and so won't calculate the plagiarised paragraphs. Neil will be able to submit an Originality Report with a low score...Is this misrepresentation and fabrication?Yes. According to the UOW Academic Integrity Policy, fabrication involves "Submitting a text/code-matching software originality report that falsely represents the originality of an assignment submitted for assessment"
6. Is this obstruction and interference?
Kit has been working on his assessment task for a while and is nearly finished. He knows he is one of the first people in his class to finish the task, which requires reading some books in the Library, and accessing some files in a shared online folder. He would like to be top of his class, so he decides to prevent other students from using the library books and sources. He doesn't return the books he has been using but instead hides them on another shelf in the Library, and then deletes some of the material in the online folder...Is this obstruction & interference?Yes. The UOW Academic Integrity Policy defines obstruction & Interference as "Behaving in any way that limits the academic opportunities of other students by improperly impeding their work or their access to educational resources"
7. Is this plagiarism?
At Anna's old school it was common practice to copy from text books without referencing or citing the source. She heard about academic integrity during her Orientation to UOW, and read the Subject Outline instructions about avoiding plagiarism. However, she didn't take good notes during her essay preparation and thought that it didn't really matter that she wasn't consistent with her use of referencing in her essay. After all, she had written a good answer to the question and the source was something that the teacher had asked everyone to read during class time, so she already knew what it was...Is this plagiarism?Yes. According to the UOW Academic Integrity Policy, plagiarism involves "using another person's ideas, designs, words or any other work without appropriate acknowledgement". This means that all sources - including written and non-text sources such as images, graphics or computer code - need to be carefully referenced using an appropriate referencing system. Referencing demonstrates good scholarship, and respect for the work of others.
8. Is this plagiarism?
Tam is an excellent student. He received a very high mark for an essay in an earlier subject, and is keen to re-use or re-cycle some of the same material in a different essay for another subject. He figures that he can't plagiarise from himself...Is this plagiarism?Yes. According to the UOW Academic Integrity Policy, plagiarism involves "using another person's ideas, designs, words or any other work without appropriate acknowledgement". It is possible to 'self plagiarise'. Tam might be able to use the previous work if he was either given permission by his teacher, or clearly acknowledged which sections are from the original source, his own essay. Even then, he risks losing some marks if he hasn't made an effort to work towards a new assessment task.