ANU Policies and Procedures relating to Academic Honesty and Plagiarism

ANU policies and procedures

Code of Practice for Student Academic Honesty
Copyright
Other relevant documents

ANU College specific documents relating to academic honesty

ANU College of Law >> Misconduct (including plagiarism)
ANU College of Business and Economics
ANU College of Asia and the Pacific
ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences
ANU College of Science >> Information for students in the Faculty of Science
ANU College of Medical and Health Sciences

ANU policies and procedures

Several policies, procedures and guidelines relate to academic honesty. You should be aware of what is contained in these documents and how these may affect your academic results. The list below will take you straight to the complete document. Scroll down for summaries of what each document contains.

1. Code of Practice for Student Academic Honesty - The Code makes explicit the ANU’s expectations for honest academic practice on the part of students, and staff responsibilities in developing and promoting academic honesty. A comprehensive summary of this is below - quick link

2. Copyright - a website which contains "need to know" information relevant to staff and students about copyright - including music piracy, frequently asked questions about copyright, your rights as a copyright owner, online training and compying with copyright and more....

3. Acceptable Use of Communication and Information Systems: The purpose of this policy is to enable staff and students to work confidently in the information infrastructure whilst safeguarding the integrity of: computers, networks, data, and associated licensing arrangements, owned or controlled by The Australian National University. It also: provides guidance to the University community on complying with University policies and relevant legislation; specifies practices that mitigate against unauthorised or inappropriate use; and contains information about the University’s responsibilities and how problems will be managed.

4. Intellectual Property - Ownership, Protection and Commercialisation A) To establish the ownership of intellectual property generated by staff and students of, and visitors to, the Australian National University. (B) To provide procedures for the disclosure, protection and commercialisation of the Intellectual Property.

5. Code of Practice for Teaching and Learning To describe expectations for those involved in teaching and learning at ANU.

Code of Practice for Student Academic Honesty: summary

The complete Code of Practice can be found at: http://info.anu.edu.au/Policies/_DVC/Policies/Code_Practice_Student_Academic_Honesty.asp

Code of Practice for Student Academic Honesty

The presentation of genuine, original work is an indispensable cornerstone of good scholarly practice. This Code explains the ANU's expectations for honest academic practice on the part of students. It sets out the responsibilities of University academic staff in developing and promoting academic honesty, and penalising plagiarism and other forms of dishonesty.

1. The principle of academic honesty

Any work by a student of the Australian National University must be work:

that is original
that is produced for the purposes of a particular assessment task
that gives appropriate acknowledgement of the ideas, scholarship and intellectual property of others insofar as these have been used General understandings and specific techniques of "appropriate acknowledgement" vary across cultures and disciplines. Therefore:
it is the responsibility of everyone at the ANU to uphold and promote fundamental principles of quality and integrity in scholarly work
it is the responsibility of academic staff to promulgate, explicitly and unambiguously, techniques of and expectations about appropriate acknowledgement within their area
it is the responsibility of students to ensure that they understand the acknowledgement practices relevant to every piece of work they submit for assessment.

2. Definitions

For the purpose of the Code:

Academic Honesty

is the principle that students' work is genuine and original, completed only with the assistance allowed according to the rules, policies and guidelines of the University. In particular, the words, ideas, scholarship and intellectual property of others used in the work must be appropriately acknowledged.

Note that "work" above includes not only written material, but in addition any oral, numerical, audio, visual or other material submitted for assessment.

Academic dishonesty includes plagiarism, collusion, the fabrication or deliberate misrepresentation of data, and failure to adhere to the rules regarding examinations in such a way as to gain unfair academic advantage.

More general forms of dishonesty, not directly related to academic or scholarly activity, are not covered by this policy.

Cheating

means the breach of rules regarding formal examinations, or dishonest practice in informal examinations, tests or other assessments. Examples include the use of prohibited material or equipment for unfair advantage, and consultation with other persons during the course of the assessment where this is prohibited.

Collusion

is the involvement of more than one individual in an instance of academic dishonesty. All parties involved in such collusion are in breach of the principles of academic honesty (unless there is good evidence of innocent involvement). "Collusion" needs to be distinguished from "collaboration", defined for the purposes of this document as work jointly undertaken and produced.

Fabrication

is the representation of data, observation or other research activity as genuine, comprehensive and/or original when it is not. This includes inventing the data, using data gathered by other researchers without acknowledgment, or willfully omitting data to obtain desired results.

Originality

For the purposes of this Code, "original" work is work that is genuinely produced by the student specifically for the particular assessment task.

Plagiarism

is copying, paraphrasing or summarising, without appropriate acknowledgement, the words, ideas, scholarship and intellectual property of another person. This remains plagiarism whether or not it is with the knowledge or consent of that other person. Plagiarism has also taken place when direct use of others' words is not indicated, for example by inverted commas or indentation, in addition to appropriate citation of the source.

Each individual student is responsible for ensuring that they are fully informed about methods of acknowledgement appropriate to any piece of assessable work that they submit.

Recycling

is the submission for assessment of work which, wholly or in large part, has been previously presented by the same student for another assessment, either at the Australian National University or elsewhere. In some cases, lecturers will specifically allow this practice. If no specific provision to the contrary is made, submission of work for assessment a second or subsequent time constitutes a breach of this Code.

Student

means any person who is or was enrolled in, or seeking enrolment in, a program in, or a course offered by, the University or who is or was given permission by the University to audit such a course.

3. Penalties for breaches of this Code

All breaches will be addressed.

The nature of any further action will depend upon whether the instance is judged to have arisen through carelessness or deliberate dishonesty (i.e. with intent to deceive). The course convener, in consultation with relevant teaching staff (for example tutors) and the Head of School (or their delegate), will make a judgement on whether the breach is as a result of carelessness or a more deliberate act.

Careless breaches can occur where students have misunderstood, or are unaware of, the principles of academic honesty. Students new to tertiary study may be especially vulnerable to the risk of careless breaches of the Code.

A judgement of plagiarism will still be made where the presentation of another's work without appropriate acknowledgment (and, therefore, as if it were the student's own) appears to have been careless or accidental rather than intentionally deceptive. However, under these circumstances penalties should be designed for primarily pedagogical rather than punitive effect. Therefore the following steps are to be taken:

the student is appropriately counselled
an academic penalty may be applied (for example a grading penalty; the opportunity to resubmit the work for a pass grade only; supplementary assessment)
a record stating that the student has been counselled including a description of the Code breach, countersigned by the appropriate Sub-Dean or equivalent, is placed on a central file maintained by the University for this purpose

These principles can be extended to cases of accidental collusion or recycling.

Deliberate breaches. Deciding whether a breach of this Code is careless or deliberate is rarely black and white and requires informed judgement. Circumstances under which the action of a student in submitting work that breaches this Code may be judged to be deliberate can include (but are not limited to):

where the student has previously been counselled following an earlier breach
where the student is in a later year and therefore relatively experienced in the scholarly practices of their discipline
where a document that defines appropriate acknowledgement has been signed when the work was submitted
where the breach has occurred in a thesis
where there is evidence that the student engaged another person to produce part or all of the work
where there is extensive verbatim reproduction of another's work with no acknowledgement that this is quotation (even where the source is acknowledged), and this is difficult to construe as a careless oversight

Where relevant teaching staff form the view that a deliberate breach has occurred, the following steps are taken:

the Head of School (or delegate) in consultation with the course convener will determine the appropriate course of action, to be followed
a punitive academic (i.e. grading) penalty is applied (normally a grade of N, 0%, for the work)
a record stating that the student has committed a breach of the Code of Academic Honesty, including brief details of the breach, countersigned by the appropriate Sub-Dean or equivalent, is placed on the student's central file
the conduct is referred to the Prescribed Authority for consideration of appropriate action to be taken under the Discipline Rules of the University

These principles are to be applied to all deliberate breaches of this Code.

4. Appeals

Where any academic penalties are applied students have recourse to appeal procedures under the Assessment Review and Appeals Policy. Where disciplinary measures are applied under the Discipline Rules, the student should appeal those measures under those Rules.

5. Responsibilities of students

It is the responsibility of each individual student to ensure that:

they are familiar with the expectations for academic honesty both in general, and in the specific context of particular disciplines or courses
work submitted for assessment is genuine and original
appropriate acknowledgement and citation is given to the work of others
they declare their understanding of and compliance with the principles of academic honesty on appropriate proformas and cover sheets as required by the academic area, or by a statement prefacing or attached to a thesis
they do not knowingly assist other students in academically dishonest practice.

6. Responsibilities of academics

It is the responsibility of individual academic staff teaching, assessing or coordinating a course, to:

provide information that enables all students taking the course to become aware of this Code
provide information that enables all students taking the course to become aware of the expectations for academic honesty within the particular College, discipline and course, and of the potential consequences of breaches of this Code
take account of the disparate educational backgrounds of students, including some who will be quite unfamiliar with the normal expectations for academic honesty. For example, students should be directed to appropriate sources of support and guidance to amplify the academic's explanations about academic honesty
make regular attempts to detect academic dishonesty in the work submitted by students
apply penalties in accordance with this Code where breaches occur

In addition, senior staff (such as College Deans) and the DVC (Education) are responsible for the general implementation, oversight, and promulgation of this Code of Practice.