Plagiarism (copying) and Fabrication of Results
We regard these as major examples of academic misconduct on a par with cheating in examinations. They are all examples of students obtaining an unfair advantage with a view to achieving a higher grade or mark than their abilities and efforts would otherwise secure. The University rules define the procedures to be followed when such misconduct comes to light (see the Plagiarism framework published by the University; the full document gives additional details and also lists the sanctions which the University would impose in proven cases). In severe cases the offender may be expelled from the University.
The University offers general advice for students on plagiarism. This is a useful first point of call that identifies what is general taken to be plagiarism.
In order to clarify the position for students on physics-based courses, it may be helpful to set out the kind of collaborative efforts we wish to encourage while defining the boundaries beyond which you should not stray.
Collaboration
When learning new material or grappling with difficult seminar or laboratory problems it is common practice for students to talk things over with each other, compare approaches or to ask for help in overcoming blocks. There is nothing wrong with that and it is common experience that the process of explaining a problem or a possible solution to someone helps the person doing the explaining as much as it helps the listener. When people collaborate in this way, both participants learn from it and we enthusiastically approve, provided the individuals then go away and prepare their answer/solution on their own. Where we object is when one person works out the answers and another one slavishly copies these. These are most obvious when the originator makes a silly or glaring mistake and this finds its way into another student's answer.
Sharing data in the laboratory can be an 'academic offence' of the same kind. Data can only be shared if you are working officially with another student or group of students. If we find evidence of unauthorised sharing we shall either give no marks at all, or mark the work once and divide it amongst all the 'collaborators' without attempting to discover who copied from whom.
Plagiarism
Another form of copying is when in writing an essay-type piece of course work someone just transfers chunks of text from a book, a review or the internet. This is immediately apparent to the informed reader because of the change in style from that of a student in a hurry to that of an expert writing considered prose at leisure with the aid of a skilled editor. We are not impressed by seeing such undigested passages in an essay and will not give high (or any!) marks for them. By all means find the review or book, read it, make sure you understand it and describe your understanding of the matter in your own words. Direct copying from another students essay is not allowed and the use of 'essay banks' is strongly discouraged. If you make a short quotation from a book then make this clear and give the reference. All sources of material, including the internet should be properly referenced.
A guide on referencing is available in the Departmental Report-Writing Guidelines.