Detecting the Use of Unfair Means

There are various electronic devices available to aid in the detection of unfair means, which can provide evidence to support concerns that unfair means may have been used. However, the first and foremost part of the process in detecting unfair means is the academic judgement of the lecturer concerned. Carroll and Appleton (2001) in Plagiarism: A Good Practice Guide refer to aspects of students´ work that might raise suspicions of unfair means. These include

• bibliographies that only cite material not available locally or contain only older references in work on a topical issue;
• introductions and conclusions written in much poorer English or in a different style to the body of an essay;
• unusual or highly specific professional jargon from a student just starting out in a discipline;
• coursework which only obliquely addresses the question set or closely resembles the work of other students;
• work which is out of character for that student (although this could only be discovered retrospectively where coursework is anonymously assessed).

See Using Turnitin pages for advice on using Tunritin and other detection software.