Plagiarism Education
With the emergence of the Internet, students at Universities sometimes find it hard to know how to make sure that research for their assignments is properly referenced, or to avoid an accusation that they have copied without appropriate attribution of sources (plagiarism).
Teaching staff also have to be scrupulous to ensure that all work that contributes to a University of Sheffield degree has been produced fairly by students, and does not include unattributed material, or is a result of collusion. This is a world-wide problem. Fortunately, new software can help to detect plagiarism and collusion.
To address the problem of plagiarism, ScHARR has adopted an innovative approach. Rather than simply develop punitive sanctions for cases of plagiarism and collusion, we think students need an educational lead, to assist them to understand the problem of plagiarism, and how to avoid it. We provide this to all new students at the beginning of the academic year, including a short exercise in using Turnitin, so that they can use the text-matching detection software themselves.
As yet ScHARR does not require students to use Turnitin for dissertations and theses, but the School is running a pilot for these types of work, and may issue new guidance to students about this in the coming academic year.
For three years, we have provided students with access to Turnitin (Submit) software for checking and if necessary revising drafts. From the beginning of the academic year 2008-9, we will insist that all ScHARR students must use Turnitin classrooms where these are provided and include evidence of an originality report when handing in their work. A small number of assignments, such as statistical calculations, are not suitable for Turnitin and will be exempted from these requirements.
To support students, there are tutorial packs on referencing and the use of Turnitin, There is one version for attendance students, and a slightly different one for distance learning students- these can be downloaded as the "Plagiarism Tutorials" from the "downloads" box on the right of this page. There is also an old version of the pack for BMedSci students if they need it for reference and a list of FAQs and answers.
Please note - there is a compulsory exercise which all new students must complete in the first few weeks of their studies. Details are contained within the Tutorials.
If you have any questions about plagiarism or ScHARR's approach, please talk to your Course Director.