9. University’s Policy on Plagiarism

The University and department employ a series of sophisticated software applications to detect plagiarism in submitted examination work, both in terms of copying and collusion. It regularly monitors online essay banks, essay-writing services, and other potential sources of material. It reserves the right to check samples of submitted essays for plagiarism. Although the University strongly encourages the use of electronic resources by students in their academic work, any attempt to draw on third-party material without proper attribution may well attract severe disciplinary sanctions. Students should be aware that if examiners are obliged to report any suspected cases of plagiarism to the Proctors Office. The Proctors Office will investigate the case and advise the examiners on appropriate action.

The University definition of what constitutes Plagiarism can be found at the following link. Students are expected to familiarise themselves with the policy:
http://www.ox.ac.uk/students/academic/guidance/skills/plagiarism

9.1 What is plagiarism?

Plagiarism is the work or ideas from another source as your own, with or without consent of the original author, by incorporating it into your work without full acknowledgement. Intentional plagiarism may incur severe penalties, including failure of your degree.

9.2 Why does plagiarism matter?

All published and unpublished material, whether in manuscript, printed or electronic form, is covered under the term plagiarism. Collusion is another form of plagiarism involving the unauthorised collaboration of students (or others) in a piece of work. Plagiarism is a breach of academic integrity. It is a principle of intellectual honesty that all members of the academic community should acknowledge their debt to the originators of the ideas, words, and data which form the basis for their own work. Passing off another’s work as one’s own is not only poor scholarship, but also means that a student has failed to complete the learning process. Deliberate plagiarism is unethical and can have serious consequences.

9.3 What to avoid?

The necessity to reference applies not only to text, but also to other media, such as computer code, illustrations, graphs etc. It applies equally to published text drawn from books and journals, and to unpublished text, whether from lecture notes, theses or other students’ essays. Students must also attribute text or other resources downloaded from websites. Various forms of plagiarism include:

  • Verbatim quotation without clear acknowledgement
  • Paraphrasing
  • Cutting and pasting from the Internet
  • Collusion
  • Inaccurate citation
  • Failure to acknowledge
  • Professional agencies
  • Auto-plagiarism

Detailed descriptions for each of the forms of plagiarism can be found in the University’s policy on plagiarism: http://www.ox.ac.uk/students/academic/guidance/skills/plagiarism

There is also information on unauthorised use of AI in exams and assessment:
https://academic.admin.ox.ac.uk/article/unauthorised-use-of-ai-in-exams-and-assessment

9.4 Further Information

Examples of referencing can be found here:
https://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/members/students/postgraduate-courses/msc-mcf/examination-and- assessment-new

If a student is unclear about anything related to the University’s policy on plagiarism they should speak with their supervisor or email mathcompfin@maths.ox.ac.uk.

9.5 Turnitin

Submitted take-home projects/assignments and dissertations will be screened by Turnitin software which will compare them to a wide range of material (both published and unpublished) and to the work of other candidates. The Examiners will be notified of the extent of any textual matches discovered by Turnitin, and will consider, for instance, whether any text that a candidate has copied from elsewhere is properly identified and the source duly acknowledged.