Cheating and plagiarism

This information is addressed to students at Karlstad University to inform them about cheating, its definition, consequences, and how to avoid it.

Cheating is a form of fraudulent deception and ultimately cheaters deceive themselves. The purpose of studying is to develop the competence required for success in a job. Qualifications based on academic dishonesty may have serious repercussions.

A filed report is an official record and in most cases considered public once the case has been processed by the disciplinary board. This means, for example, that an employer can request information on a case and ask questions about whether a student has been suspended from his/her studies.

What is cheating?

Cheating is the attempt to mislead or deceive the examiner in an examination or any coursework assessment, written or oral. Cheating can take the form of bringing a crib note to the examination, collaborating on an individual hand-in assignment, retrieving information from the net without giving a reference, or bringing unauthorised aids to the examination.

Plagiarism

The act of using the work of another person, such as texts, diagrams, tables or software, and representing them as one’s own is called plagiarism. In academic work it is allowed to use the work of others provided that there is a source reference. The author of the original work must be given credit through citation or reference. If this is ignored, you risk being suspended from the university, and at worst having to pay damages to the originator. It is totally unacceptable to buy essays from others and pass them off as your own.

Self-plagiarism

It is not automatically acceptable to reuse your own texts. If you want to reuse portions of a text that you have written and published or submitted for assessment to the university (e.g take-home exam, essay or degree project), you must clearly state that it is a reuse. When you reproduce your phrasings, you are in fact quoting yourself and must indicate this with quotation marks and a reference. If you give an account of or refer to a text you have written earlier, this must also be indicated with a reference. A rule of thumb is always to handle your own texts as you would other texts.

Crib note and unauthorised aids

It is cheating to use unauthorised aids (e.g. crib note, other notes, mobile phone, pocket computer, books). If there are authorised aids, which is sometimes the case, information about the aids is given in advance and clearly specified on the examination cover sheet.

Unauthorised collaboration

In principle, examination is individual. No communication among students is permitted during the examination. In the case of written take-home assignments students are not allowed to collaborate on answers. The questions may be discussed with fellow-students, but the answers must be individually produced, unless it is explicitly stated that collaboration is allowed. If you submit a text that is more or less identical to that of a fellow-student’s, this may be considered cheating. If the examination format is groupwork, the members of the group are jointly responsible for the handin assignment or degree project. It is therefore in your interest to make sure that all group members are familiar with the rules applying.

What happens if you cheat?

If a teacher, or invigilator, suspects a student of cheating, a report has to be made to the Vice Chancellor for further investigation. According to the Higher Education Ordinance, the university is authorised to take disciplinary measures against students who cheat. Instructions on how to file a report are available in the guidelines to disciplinary matters, Dnr C2010/234. The examination must not be assessed or graded until the university disciplinary board has come to a decision.

How to avoid cheating?

The best way to avoid cheating is to be familiar with the rules applying to different examination formats. Don’t hesitate to ask your teacher. The rules may vary for different assignments and between fields of study. It is your duty to keep informed about the rules applying to each examination.

Follow the teacher´s instructions

Make a point of following the instructions given by the teachers when the assignment is given. If you were absent on this occasion, or feel uncertain about how to solve or perform the task, contact your teacher or supervisor.

The text of others

Learn the rules on how to use other people’s work. There must be a clear indication and distinction made between your ideas and formulations and what you draw from others. This rule applies to book material as well as the Internet.

Plagiarism checker

Karlstad University has the ambition to continuously assure the quality of the education provided. This includes safeguarding the students’ exclusive rights to their works and preventing plagiarism. Students should feel confident that their work is credited, or referenced, when used by others. In the same way, you should quote or refer to the sources used in your work. Karlstad University has an agreement with Urkund for the prevention of plagiarism. Urkund is a web-based system for checking written assignments, essays and degree projects and is also used by other universities. This means that student documents are matched not only against the Internet and published material, but also against Urkund sources. Students mail their files to a special e-mail address provided by their teachers. The documents are checked against a database of previous publications. The teachers receive detailed matching information on the sources used and can then decide whether the sources have been correctly referenced or not.

Disciplinary board

Like all universities, Karlstad University has a Disciplinary Board, which decides on matters concerning students who are suspected of trying to deceive the examiner in various ways. The Board is made up of teacher and student representatives, a member learned in the law, and the Vice Chancellor as Chair. If the Board finds that the suspicion of cheating is justified, the student can be warned or suspended from the university for a number of weeks. A few weeks of suspension can seriously affect the individual student’s studies in the form of delayed completion of studies and cancelled study grants.

When quoting

• Copy the text exactly.
• Enclose the quotation in double quaotation marks.
• Give the source details of the quotation as practised in the respective discipline.
• List the source in the bibliography or reference list. WHEN REFERENCING
• Rephrase the text in your own words.
• Give the source details as practised in the respective discipline.
• List the source in the bibliography or reference list.

When referencing

• Rephrase the text in your own words.
• Give the source details as practised in the respective discipline.
• List the source in the bibliography or reference list.