Departmental policy on plagiarism

Plagiarism is taking the words or ideas of another and passing them off as one's own. It is a very serious offence, which may attract severe penalties (including being banned from taking further examinations at UCL).

Plagiarism can take many forms: copying the work of a fellow student, copying an internet source, copying from a book or article, or indeed copying from oneself (the same work cannot be credited twice). The advice that follows should be read in conjunction with UCL Academic Committee's Policy on plagiarism.

What constitutes plagiarism (and what does not)

In order to stay clear of (self-)plagiarism, you should minimally observe the following guidelines.

Copying

If you copy an extract from a source, you must put quotation marks around it and acknowledge the source. If it is a short quotation, it can be part of the running text, as in the following example.

In the text:

As Chomsky points out "[i]t is hardly likely that some species has this capacity but has never thought to use it until instructed by humans" (Chomsky 1988: 38).

In the references:

Chomsky, N. 1988. Language and Problems of Knowledge. Cambridge: MIT Press.

If it is a longer quotation, it is better to separate it off from the text and indent on both sides.

In the text:

As Chomsky (1988: 38) points out, not without humour:
". . . it is now widely recognized that these efforts have failed, a fact that will hardly surprise anyone who gives some thought to the matter. The language faculty confers enormous advantages on a species that possesses it. It is hardly likely that some species has this capacity but has never thought to use it until instructed by humans. That is about as likely as the discovery that on some remote island there is a species of bird that is perfectly capable of flight but has never thought to fly until instructed by humans in this skill."

(Same reference format)

If you give the source for an extract, but still copy from it almost word for word without using inverted commas, thus implying that the writing is your own summary, then you are committing plagiarism.

Following a source

If you follow a source closely (for instance, by substantially rewording the source, while following the thread of the exposition), then you must acknowledge the source.

In the text:

Chomsky (1988: 38) points out that it is unlikely that some species has a capacity for language acquisition but has never worked out how to use it until instructed by humans.

(Same reference format)

This rule applies even if you are only rewording a single sentence from a source, as in the example given here.

Depending on a source for an idea

Admittedly, this is by far the trickiest area. Passing off someone else's ideas as your own constitutes plagiarism. However, once an idea has become very widely accepted in some field, it may cease to be associated with a specific individual. Instead, it becomes shared intellectual property (people effectively treat it as a fact). In such circumstances, it may not be necessary or even appropriate to attribute the idea to an individual. Indeed, it might be more appropriate to reference a dissenting voice, if there is one. Other ideas and concepts, for example the nativist hypothesis, are so well-established in scientific discourse that it is not necessary to attribute them to an individual. In the example below, you could include some general references about argument structure, but no one would consider it plagiarism if you did not.

In the text:

Verbs and other lexical items have argument-taking properties that determine the syntactic context in which they may appear.

In many cases, however, the idea you are relying on does not have the status of common intellectual property and must be attributed to its originator(s):

In the text:

The importance of cognitive principles in pragmatics has been recognized only relatively recently (Sperber and Wilson 1986).

In the references:

Sperber, D. and D. Wilson. 1986. Relevance: Communication and cognition. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.

If you are unsure whether to include a reference for an idea, you should err on the cautious side and include it. You will never be penalized for including a superfluous reference.

Depending on a source for an argument

What was just said about ideas extends to arguments. You must never present someone else's argument for or against a particular viewpoint as your own. And here, too, when in doubt, err on the side of caution.

Self-Plagiarism

This may seem an odd concept but what it amounts to is that you cannot get credit twice for one piece of work. This applies both within and across the courses you take. It will sometimes be explicitly stated, on exam scripts or course handouts, usually along the lines of "You must avoid duplication of material". However, it holds across the board, whether stated in any given case or not.

Why plagiarism is often detected

Despite popular belief to the contrary, plagiarism is relatively easy to spot and every year a substantial number of students in UCL get caught at it. The main reason for this is that the people who mark your work are very highly trained readers who spot subtle changes in style and other tell-tale signs that typically accompany plagiarism.

Many students believe that you can get away with plagiarism if you use internet documents as your unacknowledged sources. However, it is much easier for us to find such sources than it is for the student. This is because we know precisely what text we are looking for (we have the student's written work), while the student, when searching for the source, did not. Thus, once our suspicion has been aroused, a search engine will generally uncover the source in no time at all.

Over the past three years the BA Board in Linguistics has taken action in over 15 cases of suspected plagiarism. The penalties that have been applied in these cases include:


How plagiarism is penalized

If a lecturer suspects that you may have plagiarized, he will notify the departmental tutor, who will in turn inform the chair of the exam board. This will put in motion the following procedure:


For all other instances of plagiarism and/or collusion where the Chair of the Board of Examiners deems on the evidence presented to him/her that prima facie evidence of a breach of the examination regulations has been provided, he/she shall take action in accordance with the following procedure:

 

Bear in mind that we are not 'out to get you'. Nobody is perfect and it is to be expected that there are occasional lapses in good practice in this domain. The people who mark your work are aware of this and will not initiate the above procedure unless they have good reason to do so.

Further information

In the department: It is impossible to cover every aspect of this difficult subject in these notes and you are advised to seek further guidance from your personal tutor if you are unsure whether aspects of your work violate the letter or the spirit of our policy.

In UCL: