Frequently asked questions about plagiarism

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Frequently asked questions page 1 of 2

Do I need to acknowledge sources with no author? How do I acknowledge sources that I have not read? I found this on a website, do I still have to provide a reference? I’m using a fact that everyone knows - do I need to provide a referen

ce? English is not my first language, can other students translate for me? What happens if I have an idea that someone else has had independ

ently? How do I reference a website which has no author or date?

Click on the questions below to see the answer

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Frequently asked questions page 2 of 2

I understand that I need to give people credit for ideas they created, but this is a fact about the world. How can someone own that?

I’ve run out of time for my assignment! I'm not sure how to reference the source that I've used. Do I have to

provide a reference? What is Turnitin?

– What is an acceptable percentage in a Turnitin originality report?– Percentages in Turnitin: Examples

What next?When you are finished, please go back to Blackboard (the window will still be open) and click “Mark Reviewed”.

The next lesson is called “Is this plagiarism?”

Click on the questions below to see the answer

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Do I need to acknowledge sources with no author?

Even if you cannot find an author you must acknowledge that the work is not yours

You do this by crediting the author as “Anonymous” or “Unknown”

This includes images, websites, statistics and computer code.

For more information go to http://www.brad.ac.uk/library/plagiarism#anonymous

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How do I acknowledge sources that I have not read? Try not to do this! You will get more marks for reading

everything you reference, especially in science subjects

If you really cannot read a source (for instance, if it is in a language you cannot read), you need to acknowledge both the source you have read and the original source of the information

For more information go to http://www.brad.ac.uk/library/plagiarism#secondary_referencing

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I found this on a website: do I still have to provide a reference? You must always give credit to people who create

– Websites– Newspaper articles– Models– Television programmes– Journal articles

Or any other place you find out information.

For more information go to http://www.brad.ac.uk/library/plagiarism#sources

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I’m using a fact that everyone knows - do I need to provide a reference? You do not have to provide a reference for facts that are

“common knowledge”

“Common knowledge” is basic things that anybody might know and there is no need to say where you learnt it.

If you are unsure whether something is “common knowledge”, try and find a source to back up your information.

For more information go to http://www.brad.ac.uk/library/plagiarism#common_knowledge

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I speak English as a foreign language - can other students translate for me? Seek help from official University sources rather than

from your friends Your Bradford degree will be taken by employers as proof

that you are fluent in English. We must ensure you are!

You can get help from the language centre http://www.bradford.ac.uk/sled/what-we-do/university-language-centre/

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What happens if I have an idea that someone else has had independently? Will I be accused of plagiarism even though I did not know about the other person’s idea? It is very unlikely that you will come up with exactly the same idea as somebody else.

Your lecturers can tell the difference between a student talking about their own idea and a student talking about something they have read

For more information go to http://www.brad.ac.uk/library/plagiarism#mistaken_plagiarism

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How do I reference a website which has no author or date? If you cannot find an individual author, it is perfectly

acceptable to cite the organisation producing the website as the author

Check for copyright dates and the date that a site was last updated if you cannot find a date of composition

If you cannot find a date or an author, should you really be referencing the source?

For more information go to http://www.brad.ac.uk/library/plagiarism#websites

Click here to return to the index page

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I understand that I need to give people credit for ideas they created, butthis is a fact about the world. How can someone own that?You still need to reference facts for two reasons: To establish the authority of the fact, data or statistics you

are quoting.

You still need to acknowledge the work of others

For more information go to http://www.brad.ac.uk/library/plagiarism#facts

Click here to return to the index page

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I’ve run out of time for my assignment! Try to manage your time carefully

– Note when all your assessments are due– Work out how much time YOU take to do assignments: you may

take more or less time than your friends!

Remember that it is better to get a bad mark for a poor piece of work than no mark for cheating!

For more information go to http://www.brad.ac.uk/library/plagiarism#time_management

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I'm not sure how to reference the source that I've used. Do I have to provide a reference? You do need to provide a reference to anything from

which you have taken information It is much better to reference a source badly than not

to reference. Construct a reference for your source giving enough

information to enable your lecturer to trace the source.

For more information go to the referencing guide for your course at http://www.brad.ac.uk/library/elecinfo/cite.php

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What is Turnitin?

Turnitin is a tool that helps your lecturers by showing parts of your assignments that use very similar words to other documents in their database.

It generates a report based on the percentage of similarity with the sources it examines. This is called the originality report.

You may be able to see the originality report, depending on how the assignment has been set up.

For more information go to http://www.brad.ac.uk/lss/documentation/turnitinuk-student-guide/Student-Guide-to-using-TurnitinUK-at-Bradford.pdf

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What is an acceptable percentage in a Turnitin originality report?

There is no set number that you have to aim for.

Different kinds of assignment work differently

A low percentage does not necessarily indicate that there

is no plagiarism

– There are examples of this on the next page.

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Percentages in Turnitin: Example

The whole of the first paragraph of this essay was cut and pasted from Wikipedia without acknowledgement. As it was only the first paragraph, the similarity index was only 22%, but this is still plagiarism

This essay used many frequently-used phrases and so had a similarity of 32%. This is not plagiarism.

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What next?

Please go back to Blackboard (the window will still be open) and click “Mark Reviewed.

The next lesson is called “Is this plagiarism?”