Defining academic plagiarism

Failure to reference your sources correctly is considered plagiarism.

NUI Galway defines plagiarism in the University's Code of Practice for Dealing with Plagiarism:

"Plagiarism is the act of copying, including or directly quoting from, the work of another without adequate acknowledgement. The submission of plagiarised materials for assessment purposes or for publication or for public presentation is fraudulent and all suspected cases will be investigated and dealt with appropriately by the University following the procedures outlined here and with reference to the Disciplinary Code."

The Faculty Plagiarism Guide (Quinlan & Flynn, 2005) lists some examples of plagiarism:

• copying work of another student or any other individual, with or without that person's consent;
• copying from a website, book, journal or other document;
• use of material from a website, book, journal or other publication, without proper reference to that source;
• use of material created or provided by another person or agency, such as an "essay mill";
• submission of a student's own work for credit in more than one course.

Many cases of plagiarism are inadvertent rather than intentional, often the result of incomplete or incorrect referencing of sources. However, as noted in the Code of Practice, it is the responsibility of the student to reference sources correctly: "Whilst some cases of plagiarism can arise through poor academic practice with no deliberate intent to cheat, this still constitutes a breach of acceptable practice and requires to be appropriately investigated and acted upon."

If a facilitator suspects that plagiarism has occurred, they will refer the matter to the faculty plagiarism advisor, as outlined in the IT Online Plagiarism Procedure.