Plagiarism

Plagiarism is when a student submits work for assessment, which they claim to be their own but actually contains material that belongs to another person. The University considers plagiarism to be a type of academic misconduct.  You can find further information about Plagiarism and academic misconduct in the Academic integrity policy for taught qualifications.

Referencing your work correctly is important for avoiding plagiarism. If you do not reference your work properly, you could be plagiarising even if you do not intend to. Good referencing practice also shows the breadth and depth of your academic reading which may improve your marks.

Sources of support for referencing

• Harvard Referencing Guide
• Liberation Referencing Tutorial
• Academic Support Teams

Turnitin

You may be asked to submit your work through Turnitin before you hand it in at the Student Assignment Office. If this is expected of you, your tutor should have placed a link on your NILE module page. If there is no link, check with your tutor about this.

Turnitin is a type of plagiarism detection software that compares any work submitted with existing material on its database. From the link on NILE you can upload your work - often your tutors will have set this up so you can only do this once.

Once you have submitted your work, you may have to wait a while before your originality report is returned to you on NILE. For more information about Turnitin or understanding your originality report, have a look at the Help menu in NILE.

University of Northampton Plagiarism Avoidance Course (UNPAC)

UNPAC is a course on NILE which will help you to avoid plagiarism. This course is available to all students at The University of Northampton.

Also available is a guide to Plagiarism which is one of the Open Learning Packs offered by the Centre for Academic Practice.