Prevention

Assisting Students in Avoiding Plagiarism

In early stage modules, prior to issuing the first assessment to students, and as part of clarifying the assessment task and criteria, provide students with guidance on the correct approaches to citation in your discipline including conventions for paraphrasing.

• Practice what you preach: provide a list of references at the end of each lecture using the citation style that the students are required to use;
• As each school uses different citation styles and versions of styles, provide students with links to the relevant library citation style guides;
• Encourage students to organise their references using electronic referencing software. UCD Library provides training in Endnote which allows students to store and manage their references, as well as create a bibliography electronically within MS Word using a number of referencing styles. The Library provides a detailed EndNote Guide. This includes the EndNote course timetable.

Self-plagiarism 

Self-plagiarism occurs when an author, usually an academic, reuses or recycles portions of their own previously published work without any reference or attribution to the original publication. This includes re-presenting material at conferences, or publishing very similar or identical work without acknowledging the original work. Many academic journals have codes of ethics which specifically refer to self-plagiarism, while others use a more standard reference to plagiarism. Self-plagiarism is detrimental to the research community; it wastes financial resources through journal subscriptions, inter-library loans, and results in a cluttering of the pool of research.

Avoiding Contract Cheating 

‘Essay mills’ and similar organisations have assisted in the increase in contract cheating in students’ assessments. In a recent study in Australia (Bretag, et al., 2018), students’ perceptions of cheating likelihood were highest amongst students who: 

• speak a language other than English at home;
• reported there to be lots of opportunities to cheat;
• expressed dissatisfaction with the teaching and learning environment; 
• were studying commerce or engineering, which reported the highest levels of any discipline; 
• Furthermore, assessment tasks that encouraged cheating had short turnaround times and those that are heavily weighted and lack authenticity

Strategies to Adopt in Designing your Assessments which can help to prevent plagiarism and contract cheating: 

• Regularly change the topics for written assignments on the module, using specific time frames or geographic frameworks;
• Customise the assessment by asking the student to relate the topic/data to their experience or a specific context, using more authentic assessments.;
• Use a staggered approach to the preparation and submission of written papers which could include outlines or annotated bibliographies which are submitted in advance of the final assignment;
• Use alternative formats for assessments, including posters, briefing documents, presentations;
• Frame assessments so that students are required to present a justification for their argument, including a critique of their choice of supporting evidence;
• Highlight some key library resources that you expect students to use when locating information for an assignment;
• Encourage originality, self-reflection, and individualised responses. For example, ask for applied knowledge, such as applying theories/principles X to event Y Assess process as well as outcomes, asking students:
  • How did you go about answering the question?
  • Why did you use chosen resources?