Plagiarism, collusion and other examples of misconduct
Plagiarism
Presenting work or ideas that are not your own for assessment is plagiarism. Failing to properly acknowledge where the work or idea came from is dishonest and unacceptable. This applies to all written documents, interpretations, computer software, designs, music, sounds, images, photographs, and ideas that were created by someone else.
Some of the most common forms of plagiarism involve failing to appropriately acknowledge the source or ownership of particular words or ideas. Even if accidental, this still constitutes plagiarism and therefore academic misconduct. Below are some examples of plagiarism.
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- Verbatim copying
- Direct copying
- Uncited quote.
This is copying directly from paragraphs, sentences, a single sentence or significant parts of a sentence without acknowledging the source. This is plagiarism.
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Where the key points and structure of another person's work have been used as a scaffold (framework) for your own work, without acknowledging the source. This is plagiarism.
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Inadequate paraphrasing
This happens when you try to explain another author's ideas in your own words, but your wording remains too close to the original text. This is poor scholarship and amounts to plagiarism.
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This is when you paraphrase another person's work but do not acknowledge the source. This is plagiarism.
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When you cite a source correctly but misrepresent what that source claimed. You may have not understood the original source and have inadvertently misrepresented the author's ideas. This is poor scholarship. Alternatively, you may have deliberately taken the words or ideas of an author out of context to support your argument. This is falsification and could constitute academic misconduct.
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Collusion
Collusion involves unauthorised collaboration between more than one student to complete work that is then submitted for assessment that has been restricted to individual effort.
Students are encouraged to engage in discussion and debate of subject content, but any work submitted for assessment must be the student’s own.
Researching, discussing, and sharing ideas is fine, but do not write your assessments with other students. This is different from group assessment work where students are instructed to work together, and the work is assessed as a group effort. Collusion in producing individual work for assessment is academic misconduct.
You should not:
- Provide work for another student to submit as part of their own assessment
- Use the work of another student as your own for assessment
- Co-write or share the background information that you will use in your assessable work.
Working collaboratively with other students when you have been instructed by the University to do so for group assessment is fine.
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Angie, Benny, and Dominic are taking a quantitative analysis subject. They each have to write up a quantitative results section from a set of results they have been given. They have all done their research and reading alone and are meeting at the library to write up the results section together. They feel this is okay because the formal structure of writing up quantitative results means their work should look almost the same anyway.
This is collusion and constitutes academic misconduct.
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Jay, Amy, Simon, and Francine are taking a subject in Organisational Behaviour. The individual assignment is quite complex, requiring them to research five different theories and they only have two weeks to get it done. The group of friends agrees to divide up the work to save time. Jay works on two of the smaller theories, and the others work on one theory each. They each prepare a well-researched summary of their theory, and then share the summaries among the others. Then they each write their own assignment alone.
This is collusion and constitutes academic misconduct. Each student should do all of their own research and not use any work done by another student.
Unauthorised file access or sharing
Using file sharing sites or social media as a platform for inappropriately sharing information is academic misconduct. Even if you don't know, or have no contact with, the people providing or accessing this information, the sharing of resources online and via social media platforms is academic misconduct . This includes any sharing of information via a website, app, or other electronic platform that is owned, operated, administered, or hosted by the student, or otherwise within the student's control.
Some examples of this type of academic misconduct are outlined below.
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Jillian is a third year Commerce student sitting her final exam for a Marketing subject. She memorises the short answer questions and posts them on a “homework help” website as a future resource for other students..
Jillian is deliberately helping others gain an unfair advantage. This is academic misconduct by both Jillian and any of her friends who use this material.
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Yifan is in the first year of the MD program. A friend gave him a USB drive that contains a collection of past exam papers from MD1. Yifan isn't sure if these were past practice exams, questions recalled by students after sitting exams, or if they are actual exam papers that were dishonestly obtained. He is aware that many of his friends have also acquired this resource but feels uncomfortable that it is not available to the whole student cohort, giving some students an unfair advantage. Yifan is considering posting these exam papers into a Google Doc so that it can be shared with all the MD1 students.
If he posts them, Yifan is deliberately aiding other students to cheat, including students he may not know. This is academic misconduct. Even though his motivation might seem honourable, because he was hoping to create fairness across the student cohort, in fact Yifan is enabling all the students to subvert the integrity of the assessment task. This is why it amounts to academic misconduct. What Yifan should have done is advise his lecturer of his concerns, so the lecturer can work out an appropriate response that is fair to the whole student cohort and guarantees the integrity of the regime. This might include designing a new assessment task.
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Huong is writing an essay for her philosophy class. A friend showed her a website that has several essays from students who took this class in previous years. While the case study for the essay is slightly different, the underlying theory and concepts are the same. Huong found this resource to be very helpful when writing her essay. In fact, with some sections she only had to alter the names in the case study and use the wording of the online essay. She is now going to upload her own essay to the site as a public resource for any other students who may take that class in future.
Huong has plagiarised from the online essay. This is academic misconduct.
By uploading her own essay, she is aiding other students to gain an unfair advantage. This is academic misconduct for both Huong and any student who uses this material.
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Linda, Paula, Jason, and Eduardo are friends all taking a Criminal Law subject. They have a take-home exam to complete on Wednesday night. The exam is hosted on the University Learning Management System requiring them to log in and authenticate their exam answers. The group of friends has agreed to all log in to an online chat forum so they can discuss the questions together.
This is collusion. It violates the rules; it is an example of academic misconduct.
Cheating in exams
Cheating in an exam, either by copying from other students or by using unauthorised notes or aids or deliberately attempting to subvert the testing procedure in any way in an attempt to gain an advantage is academic misconduct.
Assessment outsourcing (contract cheating)
Assessment outsourcing, commonly known as contract cheating, occurs when you have someone else produce any work (in whole or part of) that you submit as your own for assessment. This is deliberate cheating and considered serious academic misconduct.
Similarly, writing or producing work for another student to submit as their own is also considered contract cheating and constitutes academic misconduct. Never produce work for someone else to submit as their own assessment.
Contract cheating also includes having someone else sit an exam on your behalf or sitting an exam for someone else. Importantly, payment doesn’t have to be involved for it to be considered contract cheating.
The University takes this behaviour seriously, and engaging in contract cheating can lead to significant consequences, such as, expulsion from the University or revocation of your degree. Contract cheating can also harm your future by impacting your employment opportunities, registration with professional associations and other career prospects.
Contract cheating is illegal under Australian law and is considered high-risk, as it can sometimes lead to blackmail. Protect your academic integrity by ensuring that the work you submit is entirely your own.
Always exercise caution when engaging with external tutoring services
There has been a significant rise in the number of contract cheating companies disguising themselves as ‘tutoring services’ or ‘assignment/ exam support.’ These organisations will often target students through platforms like Instagram, WeChat, and Telegram, or by hosting events near or on campus. They often target specific language or cultural groups and may even use University branding to appear legitimate and trustworthy.
Services that offer to provide you with ready-made answers or complete assessments for you are contract cheating companies. Using these services is not only a serious breach of academic integrity but also a missed opportunity to grow and learn.
Always seek support from trusted University resources, such as Academic Skills. These services help you learn, improve, and understand key concepts—they guide you in developing your skills, rather than doing the work for you.
Academic fraud
Academic fraud is engaging in dishonest acts to gain an unfair advantage in your studies. This includes, but is not limited to, submitted forged or altered documents, such as fake transcripts or altered medical certificated. This constitutes as academic fraud and is considered serious academic misconduct.
Misuse of University resources
Misuse of University resources refers to when a student uses academic resources, forums, facilities, or systems—such as computing and network facilities—in ways that breach academic integrity. This can include activities like facilitating contract cheating services that pose as tutoring support, booking spaces for these services to operate on campus, or tampering with University systems (for example, altering grades, uploading malware, or manipulating coursework submissions). Any misuse of these resources is considered a serious breach of academic integrity. It may also breach the Provision and Acceptable Use of IT Policy and the Student Conduct Policy, and can result in significant penalties.
Unauthorised or undisclosed use of technology
Using artificial intelligence software such as ChatGPT or QuillBot to generate material for assessment and representing this as your own ideas, research or analysis is not submitting your own work. Knowingly submitting work for assessment that has been produced by a third party, including artificial intelligence technologies, is deliberate cheating and is academic misconduct.
Any use of artificial intelligence technologies to generate material used to prepare for assessment submission must be appropriately acknowledged in accordance with the Assessments and Results Policy (MPF1326).
Read the University's advice for students regarding:
This video presents an example of students using answers for an assessment that they sourced online.