Political Science and International Relations

Plagiarism and Referencing: Guidelines and Penalties

The Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences has a formal policy on plagiarism and other forms of academic misconduct. Students are expected to read this policy, which can be found online at http://www.arts.uwa.edu.au/studentnet/policies/dishonesty. In accordance with the policy, work submitted for assessment must be accompanied by a signed declaration (at the bottom of the cover sheet available from the perspex holder in the corridor outside the Political Science and International Relations general office). The following is intended as a summary of some of the main points in the Faculty’s policy, not as a replacement for it.

Plagiarism: What is it? Plagiarism occurs when someone disguises or misrepresents the authorship of work and claims it as his or her own. It can occur in various forms:

(i) presenting part or whole of another student’s essay as one’s own.

DON’T DO IT

(ii) copying phrases, sentences or passages from a published source (usually an article or a book) without acknowledging this by quotation marks and a reference. Close paraphrasing (i.e. changing a few words, or the order of a few words or phrases) is a form of copying.

INSERT QUOTATION MARKS AND REFERENCES
WHEN USING OTHER PEOPLE’S WORDS

(iii) presenting in your own words an idea, argument or interpretation from another source, without indicating the source by means of a reference.

INSERT REFERENCES WHEN USING OTHER PEOPLE’S IDEAS

What are the penalties? Penalties vary with the seriousness of the offence and are set out in the Faculty’s policy referred to above. In the case of work found to contain major plagiarism (i.e. more than 25% of the assignment is plagiarised), the student will be awarded the grade N-Fail for the unit. If the student has a prior record of academic misconduct, more severe penalties will be applied. Note that all instances of plagiarism and other forms of academic misconduct are entered on a confidential record held centrally at the University, so that graduated penalties can be applied in accordance with the student’s record with regard to the offence. As stated in the Faculty policy, penalties for repeated plagiarism ‘range from the deduction of marks, the award of a grade of zero for the assignment in which the plagiarism has been discovered, or failure of one or more units, to suspension or exclusion from the University’. The defence ‘but I have done this without penalty in other units’ is unacceptable – as with the driver who, when caught speeding, complains that (s)he hasn’t been caught before.

How to avoid it. The best way to avoid plagiarism is to get into the habit of distinguishing your own work from that of other people. We assume that unreferenced work is your own, so make sure that phrases and sentences that are not your own are in quotation marks and given precise references, and that ideas and arguments that are not your own are properly referenced. In cases of concepts or facts which are widely used or known this may not be necessary, for example ‘liberals believe in the importance of individual freedom’ or ‘Australia has six states’. To avoid accidental plagiarism, ensure that the notes you use to prepare your essay clearly identify quotations and have full references.

How to reference? There are two commonly used methods of referencing. One, sometimes called the Harvard system, enables you to signal the authorship of a quotation or an idea in the text, with the full reference appearing at the end of the essay. Following the quotation or idea drawn from another source you should insert in brackets the surname of the author, the date of publication and, in cases of a direct quotation or where an idea is dealt with in some detail in your source, the page number(s). Some examples of how Harvard references appear in the text are:

(a) (Berlin, 1969: 33) for a book
(b) (Rawls, 1984: 37) for a chapter in an edited book
(c) (Barry, 1990: 513) for an article from a journal

The full publication details of the corresponding sources are set out in a list of references, or bibliography, at the end of the essay, as follows:

(a) Berlin, Isaiah (1969) Four Essays on Liberty, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
(b) Rawls, John (1984) ‘The Right and the Good Contrasted’, In Michael Sandel (ed.) Liberalism and its Critics, New York: New York University Press.
(c) Barry, Brian (1990) ‘How Not to Defend Liberal Institutions’, British Journal of Political Science 20: 1, pp 1-14.

Note: In the Harvard system footnotes or endnotes are not used to cite sources but only to add supplementary information to the argument in your essay.

Another system, sometimes known as the Oxford system, uses footnotes or endnotes, not only for supplementary information, but also for references to sources. The first reference to a source is in full, the second and subsequent reference is in an abbreviated form. There is a variety of acceptable means of presentation; for example the following:

(a) Isaiah Berlin, Four Essays on Liberty, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1969.
(b) John Rawls, ‘The Right and the Good Contrasted’, in Michael Sandel (ed.) Liberalism and its Critics, New York, New York University Press, 1984.
(c) Brian Barry, ‘How Not to Defend Liberal Institutions’, British Journal of Political Science vol 20 no. 1, 1990 pp 1-14.

Subsequent references should appear in an abbreviated form. Ibid. refers to the source in the previous footnote, with the page number if it is different from the one previously cited. Op. cit. following an author’s name refers to a work that has already been cited. Add a date to distinguish different works by the same author (e.g. Rawls op. cit., 1984 p.37.) If you use the Oxford system you will also need to provide a full bibliography at the end of the essay.

Scholars are making growing use of the Internet for information. Where you wish to use sources available through this medium you must first assure yourself that the author or organization is reputable and thus worthy of citation. Referencing should be consistent with the style in use for other references and should also refer to the fact that the source is ‘online’, to the document’s URL (Internet address), and to the date on which you accessed the document. It is also imperative to refer to the ‘location within host’, that is to page numbers, lines or number of screens depending on the form of the document. The idea is to make it as easy as possible for your reader to check the citation. Where the information is supplied by an organization rather than an individual author, the convention is that authorship should be ascribed to the smallest identifiable organisational unit.

We don’t mind which referencing system you use, but we expect you to follow a recognized style, use it consistently and get it right. Marks may be subtracted for inadequate or incorrect referencing.

Note: The UWA Library website (through ‘ information for undergraduates’ → InfoPathways) provides more information on referencing, plagiarism and essay writing in general.

IF IN DOUBT, ASK YOUR TUTOR OR LECTURER.