Academic Integrity
Understanding Academic Integrity
Academic integrity is a fundamental value of your work as a student at 果冻传媒 and in the discipline of History. 果冻传媒 University defines academic integrity as a commitment 鈥渢o honesty in academic work, giving credit where we鈥檝e used others鈥� ideas and being proud of our own achievements.鈥� Historians are expected to maintain high professional and ethical standards, for example in our use of evidence and our citation of sources (). All students should be able to demonstrate intellectual ownership of their work, and are responsible for the work that they submit for assessment.
A failure to follow these principles of academic integrity is called 鈥淧oor Academic Practice.鈥� A failure to follow these principles that gives you, or has the potential to give you, an unfair advantage is called 鈥淎cademic Misconduct.鈥�
University regulations on Academic Integrity are governed by Regulation 11.
A note on note-taking
In order to be able to demonstrate intellectual ownership of your work, we strongly recommended that you keep your notes for each assessment, in case these are requested by the department. It is good practice to keep your notes separate from your final assignment - in other words, don't turn your notes document into your essay - and to keep a digital copy if you take notes with pen and paper. Having detailed notes is one of the clearest ways to demonstrate the work that you have put into an assignment, if you are ever suspected of academic misconduct.
Training and Support
All students in History are required to complete the History Academic Integrity Training Moodle course at the beginning of each year. You can revisit this training at any point to refresh your understanding of academic integrity.
In addition, the History department offers the following history-specific resources for understanding plagiarism:
- interactive examples of plagiarism in a hypothetical History essay
- plagiarism is covered in the department's Academic Writing Online Lecture Programme.
- to avoiding plagiarism
Other resources for students are available on the University's Academic Integrity page.
If you have further questions, you can speak with your Personal Tutor or Year Director.
The University has a Proofreading Policy that sets out what the University considers to be appropriate with regards to proofreading and what checks should be in place when proofreading is undertaken.
Plagiarism Declaration
Whenever you submit an assignment on Tabula, you will also submit a declaration that confirms that you understand the regulations around academic integrity, and that the work you have submitted is your own. This is what it says:
"In submitting my work I confirm that:
- I have read the guidance on academic integrity provided in the Student Handbook and understand the University regulations in relation to Academic Integrity. I am aware of the potential consequences of Academic Misconduct.
- I declare that the work is all my own, except where I have stated otherwise.
- No substantial part(s) of the work submitted here has also been submitted by me in other credit bearing assessments courses of study (other than in certain cases of a resubmission of a piece of work), and I acknowledge that if this has been done this may lead to an appropriate sanction.
- I confirm I have only used a generative artificial intelligence as permitted by the assessment brief for this assignment. In the event I have used one, I have followed the assessment guidelines for disclosure of its use.
- I understand that should this piece of work raise concerns requiring investigation in relation to any of points above, it is possible that other work I have submitted for assessment will be checked, even if marks (provisional or confirmed) have been published.
- Where a proof-reader, paid or unpaid was used, I confirm that the proof-reader was made aware of and has complied with the University鈥檚 proofreading policy.
- I consent that my work may be submitted to Turnitin or other analytical technology. I understand the use of this service (or similar), along with other methods of maintaining the integrity of the academic process, will help the University uphold academic standards and assessment fairness."
Poor Academic Practice
Poor Academic Practice is the failure to correctly quote, acknowledge or cite your sources. It should always be possible for your reader to follow your sources from your footnotes. It should always be clear which words and ideas are yours, and which are those of the sources you are citing. Poor Academic Practice does not usually suggest that you have attempted to gain an unfair advantage, but rather that you have failed to properly acknowledge your sources. This might include the failure to:
- put quote-marks around text that has been quoted verbatim from another source, even if you have cited the source in a footnote or in the bibliography
- cite the source of quoted text, even if you have put the text in quote-marks
- cite the source of text that you have closely paraphrased from another source
- cite the source of ideas or concepts that you have borrowed from another source
There is no formal penalty for Poor Academic Practice, but the work is likely to receive lower marks in line with the department marking criteria. In such cases, the overall mark for the piece of work is determined by the marker using their academic judgment.
The department and the university understands that in your first year, you are still learning and you may not fully understand the principles of academic integrity or the correct way to quote and reference in your work. However, substantial and repeated Poor Academic Practice, especially in the second and final years, may amount to Academic Misconduct.
Academic Misconduct
The 果冻传媒 defines academic misconduct as follows:
Academic misconduct are acts or omissions by a student which give or have the potential to give an unfair advantage in an examination or assessment, or might assist someone else to gain an unfair advantage, or an activity likely to undermine the integrity essential to scholarship and research. (Regulation 11)
Academic misconduct is the intention to obtain an unfair advantage, or knowingly engaging in a behaviour that has the potential to give an unfair advantage, irrespective of whether such advantage is actually obtained. (Regulation 11)
Types of Academic Misconduct
Academic Conduct Panel
Cases of suspected academic misconduct are identified by markers and investigated by the Academic Conduct Panel (ACP). You will be informed if your work has been referred to the ACP and you will be kept updated on the process.
Find out more about the process and possible outcomes of ACP cases, as well as the support available if your work has been referred.
Turnitin Software
The University uses third-party software called 'Turnitin' to detect plagiarism in students鈥� written work. All work submitted on Tabula is run through this software. The software compares the submission to a database of other work submitted at 果冻传媒 and at other universities in the UK and around the world. It also compares the submission to a range of other sources, from scholarly articles to blog posts. Submissions that receive a high score on Turnitin are then scrutinised by the marker to check for poor academic practice or academic misconduct. Markers can also identify cases of poor academic practice and academic misconduct in submissions that receive a relatively low Turnitin score, based on their own knowledge of the topic. Turnitin is a tool that markers use in conjunction with their own judgment.
Generative AI and Academic Misconduct
Please read the History Department Policy on Artificial Intelligence.
You must not use GenAI tools to gain an unfair advantage or to create content that is presented as your own work. This is academic misconduct.
Using GenAI in ways that the History policy has noted are unacceptable, is Academic Misconduct. You can find specific examples here.
A failure to disclose the use of GenAI, or the use of a misleading description of its use, may have significant consequences for your studies and may be prejudicial in any later Academic Misconduct investigations should they arise. As a result, you are advised to keep good records of GenAI use, as described here.