Summary guidelines for Part II and Part III students in the Department of Biochemistry
“Plagiarism is defined as submitting as one's own work, irrespective of intent to deceive, that which derives in part or in its entirety from the work of others without due acknowledgement. It is both poor scholarship and a breach of academic integrity.”
http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/univ/plagiarism/students/statement.html
http://www.bio.cam.ac.uk/sbs/facbiol/plagiarism.html states that:
“In the context of an examination, this amounts to:
Passing off the work of others as your own to gain unfair advantage.
Such use of unfair means will not be tolerated by the University; if detected, the penalty may be severe and may lead to disciplinary proceedings being taken against you.”
Students are responsible for ensuring they have read and understood both the University’s Statement on Plagiarism and the Faculty of Biology guidance
General University of Cambridge guidelines can be found at:
http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/univ/plagiarism/students/statement.html with further details at http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/univ/plagiarism/students/
Faculty guidelines are available at http://www.bio.cam.ac.uk/sbs/facbiol/plagiarism.html and are reproduced at the end of this document.
It is an essential part of your scientific training that, in your supervision work and any other writings, you ensure you follow best practice regarding avoiding plagiarism.
It is an important aspect of academic integrity to cite all sources on which you base your work (even if it is not copied directly from them), be they published in hard copy or web based.
Please note that the use of essays purchased from any source or copied from other students is unacceptable regardless of whether the source is acknowledged.
Coursework
Guidelines for citation are provided with the instructions for writing your Part II Prepared Essay and your Part II or III project dissertation or Part II BBS dissertation.
General guidelines can be found at http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/univ/plagiarism/students/referencing/
The Board of Examinations also issue links to information on good academic practice and plagiarism
http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/univ/plagiarism/
The Senior Examiners will discuss plagiarism as part of the examiners talks and it will also be addressed in the scientific writing course and Part II essay workshop. Those in Part III who have taken Part II Biochemistry will have attended the scientific writing course in Part II, but are welcome to attend to refresh their knowledge. See also http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/univ/plagiarism/students/resources.html
Written unseen examinations
Full citation is not expected in written unseen examinations such as those taken at the end of Part II and III. The Senior Examiners will discuss this at the respective Part II and III meetings in Michaelmas Term.
Use of Turnitin in Part II and Part III Biochemistry
The Teaching Committee of the Department of Biochemistry have agreed that in the coming academic year (2016-17) the following procedure agreed by the Biological Sciences Committee of the NST will be applied to submitted work in Part II and III.
“If, during marking by an examiner, plagiarism is suspected in a piece of submitted work, the work will be marked as normal and then turned over to the Senior Examiner. The electronic version will then be passed on to the Scrutiny Officer within the Department whose role will be to analyse the reports resulting from the Turnitin analysis. This Officer will not be involved in the academic assessment of the work in question.If analysis by Turnitin supports initial suspicions of plagiarism, the Chair of Examiners will be informed, who will proceed as per the advice given by http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/univ/plagiarism/examiners/detection.html”
The Teaching Committee also agreed that a Senior Examiner may for the extended essay of Part II “submit all students work for analysis by Turnitin-this will be done automatically on each student’s piece of work once it is submitted. If this option is chosen the work will be passed to the Scrutiny Officer for analysis. If analysis by Turnitin reveals suspicions of plagiarism, the Chair of Examiners will be informed, who will proceed as per the advice given at:
http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/univ/plagiarism/examiners/detection.html”
Updated guidance is now available and this will be followed
http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/univ/plagiarism/examiners/investigative.pdf
You will also be required to submit an electronic copy on the course Moodle site of each item of course work, as well as the hard copies that are requires. At the time of submission you will be asked to sign a declaration, “which confirms that the electronic version is indeed the file that is printed out in the hard copy.” Full details of how to submit the electronic copy will be distributed along with coursework guidelines.
Use of Turnitin UK complies with UK Copyright and Data Protection Laws. Submission to Turnitin does not affect your ownership of the work; the copyright and intellectual property of all work remains with the original owner (normally the student, with the exception of some sponsored research projects). No personal or sensitive data will be transmitted. Work screened by Turnitin UK will be retained in the Turnitin database for comparison with future submissions; if matches are identified, the full text is not accessible to other institutions, only the matching text. You may request that your work is removed from the Turnitin UK database at the conclusion of the examination process, but this must be done separately for each piece of submitted work. Retaining your work on the database will help to ensure that your work remains protected from future attempts to plagiarise it, will help maintain the integrity of the University’s qualifications, and will maximise the effectiveness of the software.
Full details about Turnitin UK and your rights and responsibilities can be found on the University’s website, www.cam.ac.uk/plagiarism.
Consent forms are not required from 1st October 2016 http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/univ/plagiarism/examiners/detection.html
Queries about plagiarism or the Faculty’s use of Turnitin UK should be addressed in the first instance to your Director of Studies or College Tutor.