A guide to doing research on Percussion music: Avoiding Plagiarism

Plagiarism

The most common form of academic dishonesty is Plagiarism. Broadly, plagiarism takes place

• when you present someone else's work or ideas as your own
• when you incorporate someone else's work into your own without full acknowledgement
• with or without the consent
• whether it is intentional or otherwise

(Source : https://www.ox.ac.uk/students/academic/guidance/skills/plagiarism)

Examples of Plagiarism

• Copying a chunk of text into your assignment and changing only a few words
• Re-using the same work for different assignments or courses (self-plagiarism!*)
• Presenting someone's argument as your own original work
• Re-using the same work from different semesters (self-plagiarism!*)
• *self-plagiarism happens when you re-use your own work (data / text / ideas) from another module without acknowledging that previous work. This is wrong because every assignment is expected to be a fresh effort. Always discuss with your supervisor first if you intend to re-use your own previous work. 

Consequences of Plagiarism

• Consequences of plagiarism vary from minor to moderate to serious, depending on how high stakes the assignment is, and whether you are a undergraduate or graduate student.
• Minor consequences might include a warning letter, moderate to serious include failure of a module or suspension and beyond.

Source

• Refer to the Plagiarism Policy (updated August 2021) for full details.

Plagiarism vs. Copyright

The difference between plagiarism and copyright is that plagiarism is a matter of ethics whereas copyright is a matter of law. 

Ensure that you aren't accidentally infringing someone's copyright when you re-use images, text, or other materials.

We've listed lots of examples in the video below.

Avoiding Plagiarism and cite whenever you

• Directly quote from a source
• Paraphrase or summarise ideas or arguments from a source
• Reference your own work - you can be penalised for plagiarising yourself
• Use statistics/data/images/other works created by others

Incorporating a text excerpt into your assignment

• Quoting a short abstract word-for-word when there is no better way to phrase the idea. Make sure to cite!
• Summarising the main point(s) the author is trying to make. Make sure to cite!
• Paraphrasing or re-writing the author's points in your own words. You should always aim to paraphrase. Make sure to cite!