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Plagiarism

“Plagiarism” means the unacknowledged and unjustified use of the words, ideas or creations of another, including unjustified unacknowledged quotation and unjustified unattributed borrowing.

Categories of Plagiarism and Associated Penalties

Level One cases are those in which only small quantities of the work is affected, and in which the breaches are minor. They therefore include borderline situations, cosmetic paraphrasing, negligent referencing or a few incorrect or missing citations.

  • In the case of written papers and project reports, Level One Plagiarism, if substantiated, shall result in a deduction of marks. Resubmission after appropriate correction, as an educational opportunity for the student, may be required.
  • In the case of theses, Level One Plagiarism, if substantiated, shall result in return of the submitted work to the student for revision and resubmission. Resubmission in this situation will not be regarded as a failure.

Level Two cases are those which involve extensive plagiarism, with clear indication of academic dishonesty. They include situations where a significant amount of material is borrowed or directly quoted or cosmetically paraphrased with no attribution at all, or attribution insufficient to indicate that the borrowed material is not the work of the student.

  • For written papers and project reports, a student found guilty of Level Two Plagiarism shall, at a minimum, receive a grade of zero. Depending on the severity of the offense, such a student could also receive a grade of zero for the course or could be expelled from the University, with or without the possibility of re-entry.
  • Theses in which Level Two Plagiarism has been substantiated shall be treated as “inadequate” (see Regulations for Graduate Diplomas and Degrees, Section 3, Reg. 26), which permits resubmission of the revised thesis for examination within eighteen months of the date of notification; or, if the offense is particularly severe shall result in expulsion.

For full details consult the University Regulation on Plagiarism (Graduate Diplomas and Degrees) and Policy on Graduate Student Plagiarism document available on the Office of Graduate Studies & Research website at: http://www.mona.uwi.edu/postgrad/

Turnitin

Graduate Students submitting theses, research papers or project reports for examination, must submit an electronic copy of the Turnitin report showing the similarity index.

The University has created an account to allow you to check your papers for plagiarism.

Instructions for creating a new student account:

  1. Please visit Turnitin’s website at www.turnitin.com then click on create account.
  2. Under New Students Start Here click on Create a User Profile.
  3. Below Have you Ever Used Turnitin? Scroll down until you see Create A New Account click on Student (Please note the credentials will not work in any other instance).
  4. Under Create A New Student Account, please insert the credentials (i.e. Class ID and enrolment password), complete the rest of the form and follow the instructions.

In order to obtain the credentials necessary to create your new student account, please visit the Office of Graduate Studies and Research.

For more information on Turnitin, please visit http://www.turnitin.com/en_us/training/getting-started or http://www.turnitin.com/help and submit an e-mail

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