PLAGIARISM
Plagiarism is the theft or use of someone else's work without proper acknowledgement,
presenting the material as if it were one's own. Plagiarism is a serious academic offence and the
consequences are severe. It is therefore important to understand the following:
1. Coursework, dissertations and essays submitted for assessment must be the student's own
work.
2. Unacknowledged direct copying from the work of another person, or the close paraphrasing
of somebody else's work, is plagiarism and is a serious offence, equivalent to cheating in
examinations. This applies to copying both from other students' work or the work of staff as
well as from published sources such as books, reports or journal articles. Plagiarised material
may originate from any source. It is as serious to use material from the World Wide Web, or
from a computer based encyclopaedia or literature archive, as it is to use material from a
printed source if it is not properly acknowledged.
3. Use of quotations or data from the work of others is entirely acceptable, and is often
valuable, provided that the source of the quotation or data is given. Failure to provide a source
or put quotation marks around material that is taken from elsewhere gives the appearance that
the comments are ostensibly one's own. When quoting word-for-word from the work of
another person, quotation marks or indenting (setting the quotation in from the margin) must be
used and the source of the quoted material must be acknowledged.
4. Paraphrasing, when the original statement is still identifiable and has no acknowledgement,
is plagiarism. Taking any piece of text, from whatever source, and substituting words or
phrases with other words or phrases, is plagiarism. Any paraphrase of another person's work
must have an acknowledgement to the source. It is not acceptable to put together
unacknowledged passages from the same or from different sources, linking them together with
a few words or sentences of your own and changing a few words from the original text: this is
regarded as over-dependence on other sources, which is a form of plagiarism.
5. Direct quotations from an earlier piece of your own work , if unattributed, suggests that the
work is original, when in fact it is not. The direct copying of one's own writings qualifies as
plagiarism if the fact that the work has been or will be presented elsewhere (for example, an
essay submitted as part of the formal assessment for a previous taught course unit) is not
acknowledged.
6. Sources of quotations used should be listed in full in a bibliography/references at the end of
the piece of work and in a style required by the student's department.
7. Plagiarism is a serious offence and will always result in imposition of a penalty. In deciding
upon the penalty the University will take into account factors such as the year of study, the
extent and proportion of the work that has been plagiarised and the apparent intent of the
student. The penalties that can be imposed range from a minimum of a zero mark for the work
(with or without allowing resubmission) through the down-grading of degree class, the award
of a lesser qualification (e.g. a pass degree rather than honours, a certificate rather than
diploma, or a diploma rather than a Master’s degree) to disciplinary measures such as
suspension or expulsion.
ACKNOWLEDGING SOURCES
Avoid plagiarism by remembering these basic points:
•
Your dissertation must be your own work, not that of your supervisor, another student
or author of any book, journal article, report or website.
•
Direct quotation or copying of text must be indicated by quotation-marks, giving the
exact reference (including the page number):
As Sen (1981, p.1) has written: "Starvation is the characteristic of some people not
having enough food to eat. It is not the characteristic of there not being enough food
to eat".
Food security has been defined as "access by all people at all times to enough food
for an active, healthy life (Reutlinger, 1987, p.205).
•
You must acknowledge when you are summarising, reporting or paraphrasing the
views or work of a particular author or authors:
According to Sen ...
Bowbrick criticises Sen's arguments on the grounds that ...
Hartman (1976), in her seminal study on urban regeneration, found no evidence to
support the role of charitable donations. However, Okuda (1985: 324) concludes that
donations can have some positive impact if the donors are involved throughout the
project's history. The present fieldwork indicated support for the latter viewpoint
from the Bamako project (Toure, 1991).
The discussion of malnutrition and hunger in this section draws heavily on the work
of Dreze and Sen (1991, Ch.3).
•
Do NOT cite or list references that you have not read yourself. The only exception to
this rule is where you refer to an author who has been quoted by another:
As Sen (1983, p.26, as quoted by Nolan, 1993, p.104) says ...
Within your text, repetition can be reduced by using:
•
ibid.
(in the same place)
•
op. cit.
(in the work cited)
•
et al.
(and others - for more than two authors).
HOW TO REFERENCE
In your REFERENCES section, use the following conventions:
Book:
Author surname; Initials (Date of publication). Book Title; Place of publication; Publisher.
Hogan, J.F., (1977), Urban Profiling in Developing Countries. New York: Harper.
Journal article:
Author surname, Initials (Date of publication). "Title of article"; Title of Journal; Volume
(Part/Issue no.); Page numbers.
Wittmer, P. (1992). "Project control under the microscope", Journal of International
Development, 4(5), 124-32.
Newspaper article:
Author's Surname, INITIALS., (or Newspaper Title), Year of publication. Title of article.
Title of newspaper, Day Month Year, Page number/s
Aldrick, P., (2011). Christmas cheer for high street amid recession warning. The Daily
Telegraph , 21 December 2011, 3
Two authors:
First author surname; Initials; and Second author surname; Initials; Rest as per normal.
Link, C.J. and MacLean, P. (1991). Rapid Rural Appraisal, Polity Press, London,.
More than two authors:
First author surname; Initials; Second/Third etc. author surname; Initials; and Final author:
Initials; Rest as per normal.
Sheridan, M.C., Brown, K. and Smith, J. (1990) "Decision-making for the busy manager",
Management Today, p127.
Government document:
Name of government; Authoring body; Title of Document; Date of publication.
Responsible ministry or department; Place and country of publication.
Government of India. Committee on Rural Regeneration. Rural Infrastructure Projects, 19
Oct 1968.
Conference paper:
Author details (Year) "Title of Paper"; Title of conference; Place, country and date of
conference.
Nichols, J.R. (1987). "Patterns of NGO Development". Paper presented at the Development
Studies Association annual conference, University of Birmingham, UK, Sept 1987.
Chapter in book/proceedings:
Author name (Date of publication). Chapter title; In Editors names (eds); Book Title; Place
of publication; Publisher, Page numbers.
Walsham G. (1992) "Centralisation of Data Processing". In S. Bhatnagar & M. Odedra
(ed.), Social Implications of IT, New Delhi:McGraw-Hill, p. 134-51.
Interview:
Interviewee's name; Personal interview; Place and date of interview
Teller, James. Personal interview. Ibadan, Nigeria, 12 July 1989.
Ministry of Rural Development, New Delhi, India.
Website:
Author/Organisation, Title of Web Page, URL address, Date Accessed