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High academic standards are fundamental to ensuring continued trust and confidence in UCL’s world-leading research and teaching, as well as the individuals who work and study at UCL. UCL takes Academic Integrity very seriously, and expects students to familiarise themselves with UCL’s referencing and citation requirements. A good starting point is the UCL Library Guide to References, Citations and Avoiding Plagiarism. You should also ensure that you are familiar with the specific referencing requirements of their discipline, as these may vary.
Candidates for written examinations should also familiarise themselves with the requirements set out in the UCL Examination Guide for Candidates, which is published annually on the Examinations and Awards website. It is also very important that you are aware of what items you are permitted to bring into the Examination Halls, so you can ensure you do not unintentionally breach the examination rules.
UCL has a zero tolerance approach to the use of essay mills and contract cheating, as they go against every principle that UCL stands for. These types of service disadvantage honest students and devalue standards in our universities.
The vast majority of students at UCL will maintain their Academic Integrity throughout their studies, but it is important to be aware that UCL may consider breaches to your Academic Integrity as an instance of Academic Misconduct. When Academic Misconduct occurs there can potentially be penalties imposed, and it is important to note that repeated breaches will be taken very seriously and could result in exclusion from UCL (see Academic Manual, Chapter 6, Section 9.3, web-link provided below). For students who are unsure of what may be considered as Academic Misconduct, the procedures in Chapter 6 of the Academic Manual define all such behaviour and how this is taken forwards. UCL also has online tools available to help students identify what behaviours may be considered as Academic Misconduct.
Academic Integrity in the discipline
UCL has a Moodle site on Plagiarism and Academic Writing, in which you should enrol. Check this site regularly to see that you are doing things correctly and to maximise your progress.
For BASC-coded modules, students who have a similarity score of over 15% will be reviewed by the module leader to determine if a plagiarism offence has taken place. If the module leader feels that an offence has taken place, the student may be asked to attend an Academic Integrity panel meeting with the Chair of the BASc Exam Board and two other academic members of staff. Details of possible penalties if the plagiarism allegation is upheld can be viewed in the Academic Manual.
UCL will use plagiarism detection software to scan coursework for evidence of plagiarism against billions of sources worldwide (websites, journals etc. as well as work previously submitted to UCL and other universities). Most departments will require you to submit work electronically via these systems and ask you to declare that submissions are the work of you alone.
Any student suspected of examination misconduct, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, falsification, contract cheating, ghost writing (paying and / or instructing someone to write an assignment for you) or any other form of academic misconduct which is likely to give an unfair advantage to the candidate and / or affect the security of assessment and / or compromise the academic integrity of UCL will be investigated under the Student Academic Conduct procedures. If misconduct is found, students are likely to be failed for that assignment and / or module. Serious or repeated offences may lead to failure of the whole year, suspension or even expulsion. A breach of copyright or intellectual property laws may also lead to legal action.
Self-plagiarism
As well as ensuring all your essays and coursework are your own work, you must also avoid self-plagiarism, i.e. you cannot submit the same piece of work (either with or without stylistic variation) in order to gain credit more than once. The same criteria apply to self-plagiarism as to other forms of plagiarism and so will incur a penalty. This could be a mark of zero or a reduction in the overall mark.
Reuse of material
Any work submitted by you is presumed to be original work that has not previously been submitted for another module. You should therefore, as a rule, avoid writing on topics that you have written on previously. If you consider that there is good reason for you to revisit a topic, or to overlap with previously submitted work, then you must consult, and obtain prior written approval from, the Departmental Tutor Dr Wendy Sims-Schouten. If permission is granted, the onus will nevertheless remain on you to avoid mere duplication. This is to ensure that the same work is not double counted for different modules.