Plagiarism

How to avoid plagiarism

In order to avoid plagiarising work, it is important to have a strong understanding of what plagiarism is.  Once you’ve got that, you’ll recognise the importance of ‘good academic practice’ and referencing.

What is plagiarism?

As stated in the University's Plagiarism & Academic Integrity Code, plagiarism can take several forms:

  • a direct quotation but without quotation marks and full referencing;
  • a close paraphrase, including wording within the same sentence and paragraph structures as the source;
  • an unacknowledged summary of a source, including a summary produced by generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI);
  • direct copying, translation or transcription.

It is therefore essential that whenever you take quotes or ideas from another source (even your own past work), that you give a full reference. Incomplete or missing references will both count as plagiarism. 

The key to avoiding plagiarism is therefore to learn when and how to reference properly. 

Referencing

Good academic writing engages with relevant sources and evidence. This engagement is demonstrated in your writing through use of others' work, either quoted, summarized or paraphrased.  This should always be referenced, and you should always include a list of references you have used within your piece of work (or a bibliography of the sources, if your subject area uses bibliographies).

Referencing is crucial because:

  • It gives due credit to the other people's work
  • It shows that you have acquired the skill of entering into academic discussion and
  • It allows your reader to trace your sources

Schools have slightly different rules on the style of referencing and what is expected of you (they should give you this information in your assessment briefs), but the link below contains useful examples of the most common styles used.

UofG Referencing Guide

Who can help you?

Student Learning Devlopment

SLD have lots of classes, resources and advice available on avoiding plagiarism:

  • For Arts, Humanities and Social Science students, our Essay Writing series has a dedicated session on referencing;
  • For Sciences students, our Principles of Scientific Writing series has a dedicated session on referencing;
  • All students can book a one-to-one appointment with an SLD adviser to discuss their research and writing methods, including advice about referencing;

Academic Staff in Your Subject Area

You can also approach staff in your subject area such as:

  • your lecturer
  • your tutor or lab leader
  • your Adviser of Studies (undergraduate students)
  • your supervisor (postgraduate students)

They will be able to give you advice about referencing and good academic practice in the context of the course and subject you are studying.

SRC Advice Centre

The SRC Advice Centre can give you advice if you have been accused of plagiarism, for example:

  • helping you understand the plagiarism allegation;
  • guiding you on writing a personal statement prior to a hearing;
  • accompanying you and/or representing you at any meeting with the School or Senate Assessors for Student Conduct;
  • explaining the Plagiarism Statement;
  • pointing you towards other sources of help.

 

Who should you not ask for help?

  1. Do NOT rely on hearsay or information from friends; misunderstanding the rules will not be considered an acceptable excuse for plagiarism.

  2. The University also strongly discourages the use of proofreading and essay-writing companies by students. These external organisations can trick you into accidentally plagiarising by crossing the boundary from proofreading into rewriting, and leading to you submitting work written by someone else. You are encouraged to report commercial essay-writing service publicity on University premises to the Student Conduct Team: student-conduct@glasgow.ac.uk.

  3. You should also be very careful when asking Generative AI for any help with references - these tools are well known to 'hallucinate' sources meaning that they create plausible looking references which do not actually exist. They can also paraphrase sources without giving appropriate credit, so you need to investigate where any of their information comes from.

Generally, be extra vigilant when asking for assistance from anyone other than a member of University staff.