What is plagiarism?
"The practice of using someone else's idea or work and pretending that you thought of it or created it." (Collins English Dictionary)”
Plagiarism is the most common academic offence committed by university students. Often students plagiarise work by accident because they don't understand how to reference properly. Unfortunately, you will be penalised for plagiarism, regardless of whether or not you did it deliberately.
The university uses software to help to detect plagiarism and other academic offences. When you are compiling your coursework you must ensure that all statements, opinions and conclusions taken from another writer's work are appropriately cited, whether the work is directly quoted, paraphrased or summarised and whether the information comes from books or online resources including websites.
Most courses at BU require you to use the APA style of referencing, which is an author date method. You may receive information about plagiarism, academic offences and referencing skills as part of your induction or during your course.
Plagiarism also includes self-plagiarism. This means that you are not allowed to submit the same work for more than one assessment, even if it is your own.
Where can I find support for avoiding plagiarism?
See the citing references pages which cover how to acknowledge other people's work properly. The referencing and academic integrity and plagiarism modules in the Academic Skills Hub in Brightspace contain further advice and related activities for students.
Further definitions of what constitutes plagiarism and self-plagiarism can be found within the academic offences procedure for taught awards information and the copyright compliance web page helps you to ensure that you are also working within the copyright regulations.
For information on student workshops please check the Academic Skills Hub on Brightspace.
How to use Turnitin
Turnitin is the plagiarism detection/deterrent software in use at Bournemouth University. See the Turnitin page on Brightspace to see how you can use this tool for your draft assignments prior to official submission.
If you would like further advice on using Turnitin or avoiding plagiarism, please contact your Faculty Library Team.