Plagiarism and Good

Academic Practice

Plagiarism, collusion and fabrication

School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering

Plagiarism, collusion and fabrication are forms of cheating

See University’s General Regulations for more details:http://www.qub.ac.uk/directorates/media/Media,208258,en.pdf

Penalties may be imposed when cases of plagiarism, collusion or

fabrication are discovered in work submitted for assessment.

Depending on the case, one or several of the following actions may be

taken:

- Informal warning

- Written warning

- Award of a zero mark:

- the student(s) is allowed to re-do the work and full mark

is allowed to stand

- the student(s) is allowed to re-do the work for a

maximum of the pass mark

- the student(s) is not allowed to re-do the work

Collusion

Collusion

It is an academic offence for two or more students to work together on

an assignment that is meant to be done individually and hand the work

in as if they had each worked independently.

It is expected that the work being assessed, unless specifically

designated as a group assessment, shall be the sole work of that

student.

University’s General Regulations:

Working in pairs or groups is

useful

encourages discussion

helps understanding

You are encouraged to do so in practicals or

when preparing for seminars / tutorials

HOWEVER:

When handing in work that has to be assessed individually,

it must be your own work (written individually and using your own words)

Fabrication

Fabrication

It is an academic offence for a student to claim to have carried out

experiments, interviews or any form of research which he/she has

not in fact carried out, or to invent or falsify data, evidence or

experimental results.

It is also an academic offence for a student knowingly to make use

of falsified data as described above.

University’s General Regulations:

Falsification / Fabrication

The integrity of research depends on the integrity of the data and the

data record.

Falsification is the practice of omitting or altering research materials,

equipment, data, or processes in such a way that the results of the

research are no longer accurately reflected in the research record.

Fabrication is the practice of inventing data or results and recording

and/or reporting them in the research record.

They are serious offences in scientific research.

They make it difficult for scientists to move forward

Can lead students and colleagues to waste precious time, effort,

and resources investigating dead ends.

Think of ways in which you could modify the experimental protocol or the

methods in order to improve the data / results (e.g., how to improve a poor

yield or the purity of a product)

Think of what you have done: Did you follow the experimental method

correctly? Did you use instruments correctly? Could any of the starting

materials, standards, etc. be contaminated? etc.

Discuss the results with a demonstrator / supervisor

Repeat the experiment if necessary

Fabrication of data in research is dishonest and unethical….and it

could ruin your career….

Instead…

Try to find a logical explanation (show an

understanding of the scientific method)

‘S Korea cloning research was fake (Friday, 23 December 2005)

Research by South Korea's top human cloning scientist - hailed as a breakthrough

earlier this year - was fabricated, colleagues have concluded.

A Seoul National University panel said the research by world-renowned Hwang Woo-suk

was "intentionally fabricated", and he would be disciplined. Dr Hwang said he would

resign, but he did not admit his research was faked. "I sincerely apologise to the people

for creating shock and disappointment," he said after the panel's announcement. "As a

symbol of apology, I step down as professor of Seoul National University." ‘

Fabrication in the news

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4554422.stm

A great scientific claim!

Enantioselective Reactions in a Static

Magnetic Field

Guido Zadel, Catia Eisenbraun, Gerd-

Joachim Wolff, and Eberhard Breitmaier*

Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 1994, 33, No. 4

What happened next

…many failed attempts at

reproducing the results.

The publication met with an

enthusiastic response, but even at an

early stage misgivings were voiced.

G. Zadel had, after reinvestigation

of his working procedure by other

co-workers of the group,

confessed to having manipulated

the reaction solutions prior to the

experiments and that all results

reported in the publication must

therefore be regarded as invalid.

Plagiarism

University’s General Regulations:

Plagiarism is defined as the presentation of the work of

others as the writer’s own without appropriate

acknowledgement.

It is an academic offence for a student to permit another

student to copy his/her work submitted for assessment,

and both parties will be dealt with in accordance with

these procedures.

Plagiarism

It is an academic offence for students to plagiarise.

Plagiarism

In effect, includes:

•Handing in another person’s

work and pretending that it is your

own work

•Copying chunks out of articles,

chapters or books and pretending

that it is your own work

•Taking phrases or sentences

from the work of another and

pretending that it is your own

work

http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofPoliticsInternationalStudiesandPhilosophy/Education/Plagiarism/

•Copying out chunks of another's work without using

quotation marks to show that this is the work of another

•Borrowing ideas from a source without giving a

reference (footnote, etc.) for what is borrowed

•Copying from the Internet

http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofPoliticsInternationalStudiesandPhilosophy/Education/Plagiarism/

Paraphrasing

‘The purpose of paraphrasing is not to make it seem like you are

drawing less directly from other sources or to reduce the number of

quotations in your paper.

……. Good paraphrasing makes the ideas of the original source fit

smoothly into your paper, emphasizing the most relevant points and

leaving out unrelated information.’

From: http://www.plagiarism.org/learning_center/what_is_plagiarism.html

Learn to paraphrase

Plagiarism

Plagiarism may be deliberate (with the intention to deceive) or accidental (due

to poor referencing; lack of awareness). In either case, it’s unacceptable.

Cases of plagiarism range from poor or bad academic practice to fraud [it is an

illegal action when it breaches copyright or intellectual property rights (IPR)]

You wouldn’t want your own work to be plagiarised

Plagiarism is also dishonest and

unethical….and it could ruin your career….

‘Goodwin withdraws from Pulitzer judgingMarch 5, 2002 Posted: 9:05 AM EST (1405 GMT)

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Facing accusations that she is guilty of plagiarism, historian

Doris Kearns Goodwin has decided not to participate as a judge for this year's Pulitzer

Prizes.

Goodwin recently acknowledged lifting from other authors several passages in her 1987 best-

seller, "The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys." She said the passages appeared in her book by

accident, the result of confusing her own notes with those drawn from other sources.’

Plagiarism in the news

http://archives.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/books/03/05/goodwin.pulitzer/index.html

Plagiarism in the news

‘Downing St admits blunder on Iraq dossier

Plagiarism row casts shadow over No 10's

case against Saddam

Michael White, Ewen MacAskill and Richard Norton-Taylor

Saturday February 8, 2003

The Guardian

Downing Street yesterday apologised for its

failure to acknowledge that much of its latest

dossier on Iraq was lifted from academic

sources, as the affair threatened to further

undermine confidence in the government's

case for disarming Saddam Hussein.’

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,891577,00.html

Useful information can be found here:

Preventing Plagiarism: Student Resources

http://www.plagiarism.org/learning_center/what_is_plagiarism.html

Paraphrase: Write it in Your Own Words

Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_paraphr.html

http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofPoliticsInternationalStudi

esandPhilosophy/Education/Plagiarism/

Examples of plagiarism

Learning Development Service (Student Guidance Centre, QUB)

http://www.qub.ac.uk/directorates/sgc/

The Study Skills Handbook, Stella Cottrell, Palgrave Macmillan Ed.

University Regulations

http://www.qub.ac.uk/directorates/media/Media,208258,en.pdf

How to cite

Always include author(s), source, year, volume, and page(s). For example:

Author(s), Journal name or abbreviation, year, volume, page.

For text books, include also editorial and edition

Keep the same format throughout and make sure there are no

mistakes/misspellings (be consistent)

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&

_udi=B6VMF-4P40KP1-

1&_user=126523&_coverDate=12%2F31%2F2007&_ali

d=1475620860&_rdoc=4&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_ori

gin=search&_zone=rslt_list_item&_cdi=6149&_sort=r&_

st=0&_docanchor=&_ct=690221&_acct=C000010358&_

version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=126523&md5=4bae6

5d53ba205ba360b9026550b0617&searchtype=a

Every year students cite papers in their

essays by pasting long web addresses.

This is not an acceptable format!

Royal Society of Chemistry Format:

American Chemical Society Format:

RSC Guidelines (examples):

Journals:

A. C. Vickery, M. M. Olmstead, E. Y. Fung, and A. L. Balch, Angew. Chem.

Int. Ed. Eng., 1997, 36, 1179.

Patents

Br. Pat., 357 450, 1986. US Pat., 1 171 230, 1990.

Material presented at meetings

H. C. Freeman, Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Coordination

Chemistry, Toulouse, 1980.

Theses

A.D. Mount, Ph.D. Thesis, University of London, 1977.

Books (e.g., monographs):

J. Barker, in Catalyst Deactivation, ed. B. Delmon and C. Froment, Elsevier,

Amsterdam, 2nd edn., 1987, vol. 1, ch. 4, pp. 253-255.

Using web and internet resources

Internet is an excellent source of information and it’s a good starting point to

research about a subject

BUT

Anyone can write a web page and there is no guarantee that the information is

correct – In fact, mistakes and misleading information are fairly common

Books and journals are independently refereed and checked thoroughly before

publication. Revised editions are published every so often…

….and even then, they still contain mistakes

Most web pages are NOT refereed or checked regularly (or at all); some are

more reputable than others.

Web pages change or are removed - Someone trying to access the source you

acknowledge may not be able to find it

Use the internet as an initial source of information or to access journal

home pages, but

• Whenever possible, always read and refer to the original source (not web-

based)

• Scientific journals don’t accept web pages as references; you should therefore

try to avoid them too (refer to the original source instead)

• If you have to use a web source, you should cite it. Some web pages contain

guidelines on how to use their material or give copyright information: read it and

respect it.

• There is no general consensus on how to cite web pages, but you should

include full URL address and, if known, the author(s). Often, the date of access

is also given.

Make sure you use a reliable source when using the internet

QUB has online access to most of the

leading chemistry journals

Some examples of the leading journal

publishers.....

Using databases to find publications....

Follow this guidelines to avoid plagiarism,

collusion and fabrication

The sources cited contain further examples

and information

If in doubt, ask your lecturer,

supervisor or module coordinator