What is plagiarism?
According to The Academic Integrity Policy: Guidelines for Identifying and Avoiding Plagiarism "Plagiarism can be defined as reproducing someone else’s words, ideas or findings and presenting them as one’s own without proper acknowledgment" (2010, p. 1). This means that if you copy someone else's work you need to give information about where this information came from. You also need to do this using the appropriate referencing conventions. You can find more details about how to do this on the Referencing pages in the next section "How to avoid plagiarism".
According to section 1 of The Academic Integrity Policy: Guidelines for Identifying and Avoiding Plagiarism (2010, p. 1) there are many forms of plagiarism.
These include:
• direct copying of sentences, paragraphs or other extracts from someone else’s published work (including on the Internet and in software) without acknowledging the source;
• paraphrasing someone else’s words without acknowledging the source;
• using facts and information derived from a source without acknowledgement;
• using ideas directly derived from an identifiable author without acknowledging the source;
• producing assignments which should be the student’s own independent work in collaboration with and/or using the work of other people (e.g. a student or tutor).
We have used the words from the The Academic Integrity Policy: Guidelines for Identifying and Avoiding Plagiarism and reproduced them here. So that we don’t plagiarise, we have included information about where these ideas and words came from. In other words, we have acknowledged the source of the information we have used.
What is La Trobe University’s Academic Integrity Policy?
The Academic Integrity Policy was put together by staff at the University to outline the procedures that the University will follow in regard to behaviour that is considered unethical, inappropriate, wrong or cheating.
The Academic Integrity Policy: Guidelines for Identifying and Avoiding Plagiarism talks a lot about plagiarism and the different forms it might take (see Section 1). There are a number of connecting policies.
The Academic Integrity Procedures detail student responsibilities and staff responsibilities
Your responsibilities
The Academic Integrity Policy (p.1) states that:
It is the responsibility of the students:
• to acquire a clear understanding of how to avoid unethical practices, and
• to employ this knowledge in their work submitted for assessment.
University values – academic integrity
La Trobe University takes an academic integrity approach. This means it values honesty in all work produced by students and staff. It also means that you need to learn how to follow the conventions of academic referencing, and the university will give you opportunities to learn these conventions.
'La Trobe University regards academic honesty as the foundation of teaching, learning, and research. It requires its academic staff and students to observe the highest ethical standards in all aspects of academic work' (La Trobe University, Academic Integrity Policy, 2010, p.1).