Academic Honesty and Plagiarism

A core value of the university and of academic research is intellectual honesty. Academic honesty is central to the key graduate attribute of scholarship. It is the responsibility of staff and students to fully, rigorously and accurately acknowledge and reference relevant sources or work that is originated, produced or owned by others.

Plagiarism involves the use of ideas, methods or written words of another person or group without acknowledgement of the source, and with the intention of portraying the work as your own. If you summarise another person’s work without acknowledgement, or make minor alterations to a piece of text without quoting the source, you are plagiarising. In the course of academic life plagiarism appears both in the taking of the work of acknowledged scholars as well as the taking of the work of peers, including that of other students. Plagiarism is regarded as a form of theft and fraud and constitutes an academic offence. Information about plagiarism can be found in Unit of Study Outlines.

For more details, see also the University of Sydney Plagiarism Policy and the University's Secretariat web site. For help with using sources appropriately in your academic writing, go to the WriteSite, Module 2: Sources.