Academic Integrity

To avoid plagiarism you must give credit whenever you:

• Use another person’s opinions, ideas, or theories.
• Use facts, statistics, graphs, drawings etc. that are not common knowledge.
• Use quotations of another person’s spoken or written words.
• Paraphrase another person’s spoken or written words.

So, Reference it if...

• it's a quote;
• it 's a paraphrase;
• it's another person's idea, words, theory or image!

Examples of Plagiarism 

• Failing to cite all the sources you used
• Copying text from a source and pasting it into your essay  
• Getting someone else to write your essay
• Buying a paper and turning it as your own work
• Using an image, video or anything else you find online in your work without providing a correct citation

The only source you can use in an essay without crediting it, is information that is considered common knowledge and as a result not attributable to one source.

Common knowledge is information generally known to a knowledgeable person, such as commonly known facts and dates.

Examples of common knowledge are:

• Known time and date information (There are twelve months in a year)
• Known historical facts (Julius Caesar was a Roman)
• Geographic pieces of information easily verified by a non-specialized map (Dublin is in Ireland)

An informative chart. Retrieved from: easybib.com.
License: CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike

Plagiarism goes beyond paperwork. Everyone holds intellectual property to their idea or work, no matter what form it takes. Permission must be obtained before using someone’s image, video, or music.

These are all considered plagiarism:

• Copying media (images) from other websites to paste them into your own work.
• Making a video using footage from others’ videos or using copyrighted music as part of the recording.
• Performing another person’s copyrighted music (i.e., playing a cover).
• Compiling a piece of music that derives greatly from another composition.

Both intentional and unintentional plagiarism are wrong and against the rules and can result in strict penalties. Ignoring or not knowing the rules of how to not plagiarise and correctly cite sources is not an excuse!

Collusion is a type of cheating, and it happens when students work together to submit an assignment which is intended to be an individual effort. It involves copying someone else’s work or allowing someone else to copy your work.

While collaboration is encouraged, passing off another’s work as your own is not.

When students engage in contract cheating, they get credit for work they didn't do and material they didn't learn. Contract cheating doesn’t need to include a payment for you to be accused of engaging in it as it can be done as a favour with no exchange of money.

The enabling of learner cheating is a threat to the integrity, standards and reputation of Irish education and training. Legislation to address this issue was introduced in November 2019.

Section 43A of the Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) (Amendment) Act makes it an offence to:

• facilitate a learner to cheat in any way;

• advertise cheating services to learners; and

• publish advertisements for cheating services to learners.

The consequences of plagiarism vary based on the gravity of the infringement and can include:

• A lower grade
• Failing an assignment or course
• Suspension or expulsion
• A ruined reputation
• Withdrawal of funding
• Criminal investigation
• Legal action; fines or penalties

Being aware of the penalties for plagiarism both in and beyond University can help you become more responsible and dedicated to the integrity of your work.

ATU Galway-Mayo uses Turnitin as part of the assignment submission process to help students demonstrate academic integrity in their work by demonstrating how to use, create and communicate information in an original, honest, and responsible manner.

Turnitin identifies when texts are similar. Its purpose is to educate students about correct citation and referencing methods.

ATU Library Podcasts

Avoiding plagiarism 

Common knowledge

The following videos are from Cite them Right Online. Login required (ATU students & staff only).

How can I avoid plagiarising? 

Understanding plagiarism

• Fact sheet on plagiarism from Elsevier
• Plagiarism.org
• Purdue OWL - Avoiding Plagiarism
• WriteCheck Resources