What is Plagiarism?

• What is Plagiarism?
• What is Collusion?
• Examples of Plagiarism
• Plagiarism and Collusion in Group Work
• Why is Plagiarism so Serious?

What is Plagiarism?

Plagiarism is the act of representing as one's own original work the creative works of another, without appropriate acknowledgment of the author or source. (Creative works may include published and unpublished written documents, interpretations, computer software, designs, music, sounds, images, photographs, and ideas or ideological frameworks gained through working with another person or in a group. These works may be in print and/or electronic media.)

What is Collusion?

Collusion is the presentation by a student of an assignment as his or her own which is in fact the result in whole or in part of unauthorised collaboration with another person or persons. Collusion involves the cooperation of two or more students in plagiarism or other forms of academic misconduct. Both the student presenting the assignment and the student(s) willingly supplying unauthorised material (colluders) are considered participants in the act of academic misconduct.

Examples of Plagiarism

The following are examples of plagiarism where appropriate acknowledgement or referencing of the author or source does not occur:

• Copying directly (or allowing to be copied) paragraphs, sentences, a single sentence or significant parts of a sentence. An end reference without quotation marks around the copied text may also constitute plagiarism;
• Copying ideas, concepts, research results, statistical tables, computer programs, designs, images, sounds or text or any combination of these;
• Paraphrasing of another's work closely, with minor changes but with the essential meaning, form and/or progression of ideas maintained;
• Relying on a specific idea or interpretation that is not one's own without identifying whose idea or interpretation it is;
• Cutting or pasting statements from multiple sources or piecing together work of others and representing them as original work;
• Presenting as independent, work done in collaboration with other people (eg, another student, a tutor);
• Submitting, as one's own, all or part of another student's original work;
• Preparing an original and correctly referenced assignment and submitting part or all of the assignment twice for separate subjects or marks;
• Cheating in an exam, either by copying from other students or by using unauthorised notes or aids.

Plagiarism and Collusion in Group Work

Plagiarism and collusion in group work are forms of academic misconduct and can occur when one or more students:

• copies (or allows to be copied) from other members of a group while working in the group;
• copies the original work, in whole or in part, of an individual who is not a member of the group, with or without the knowledge of other members of the group, and contributes the plagiarised work to a group assignment;
• contributes less, little, or nothing to a group assignment and then claims an equal share of the work or marks; or
• discusses with other members of the group how to approach a common assessment item that requires individual submissions and relies on the same or very similar approach in the submitted assessment, without any acknowledgement of collaboration with colleagues and without the permission of the assessor.

Why is Plagiarism so Serious?

As outlined above, plagiarism is taking and presenting the thoughts, writings, etc, of other people as your own. In not crediting the source, a person is guilty of intellectual fraud. It is unacceptable at all times; it is completely unacceptable at the University of Melbourne.

If a student is found to have deliberately plagiarised the work of another - including copying the work of other students - the penalties are severe.

Sometimes a student might accidentally plagiarise. This is usually the result of a lack of academic writing skills, inexperience, sloppy note taking, or a combination of these. It is important that you learn and follow the practice established for citation of written works for your subject.

See the "Advice to Students" page for further information.