Guidelines for the use of plagiarism software Initiative of the E-Learning Contact Point (ELC) Working Group of the FHNW (University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Northwestern Switzerland) July 2014 The Undergraduate Committee of the FHNW proposes that if there is a suspected case of plagiarism, the schools of the FHNW should check whether there has been copyright infringement and whether the student concerned is the author of the work. Dealing with plagiarism at the FHNW should primarily be characterised by an open and understanding culture where errors are concerned. It is to be assumed that plagiarism is in most cases not committed deliberately, but is a result of inadvertent misquoting or incorrect paraphrasing. The focus of the measures to be taken should therefore be on prevention, namely by providing introductory teaching sessions on the rules regarding academic writing. The aim of these sessions is to raise students’ awareness of the problem of plagiarism from both an academic and a copyright perspective. In addition to this, plagiarism software should be used as a didactic instrument by the university's lecturers. These guidelines provide answers to the following questions: 1 What is plagiarism? How can it be identified? .................................................................... 2. 2 When should plagiarism software be used? ....................................................................... 4 3 What can plagiarism software do and what are its limits? .................................................. 4 4 How should plagiarism be dealt with? ................................................................................ 5

1 What is plagiarism? How can it be identified? The following definition of plagiarism is based on Schwarzenegger (2006, p.6). Key statement The term plagiarism is used when the work of another author is presented as partly or completely one’s own work, and the source is cited either insufficiently or not at all. Excerpts from another author’s work1 may only be adopted if the citation and the source are identified (URG, Art. 25, para. 2). If this is not the case, copyright is infringed. The line is crossed and plagiarism ensues when another author’s work is used without specifying the source. It is contrary to law to omit one’s own remarks, and replace them with an unrecognized "quote". This is a form of intellectual theft (URG, Art. 25, N 2).

Possible forms of plagiarism2 1) A person submits an already existing piece of work by another author under his or her own name (full plagiarism). 1

Plagiarism is understood as the complete or partial imitation of the work of another author without citing that work’s source and author. 2 In accordance with FHNW (2014) Plagiat.

1

2) A person uses text excerpts from another author's work without showing that these text excerpts are quotations and without specifying their source(s). This includes using text excerpts from the Internet without citing the source (copy-paste plagiarism). 3) A person uses text from another author's work and makes minor adjustments to it (paraphrasing) without identifying the source (partial plagiarism). 4) A person uses text from another author's work, paraphrases it and cites the source, but not in the context of the adopted text excerpt (Example: Hiding the plagiarized source in a footnote at the end of the work). 5) A person translates foreign language texts or parts of foreign language texts and presents them as his or her own text without citing the source (translation plagiarism). 6) A person submits a piece of work under his or her own name which he or she has actually commissioned another person to write ("ghostwriter"). 7) A person submits the same piece of work (or parts of it) for assessment in different classes (self-plagiarism). The specific requirements of each university and its disciplines play a major role in the decision-making process regarding plagiarism detection and (counter-) measures to be taken. Fairness in academic work also includes the way the data and ideas of others are treated, and involves indicating these as sources even if they are not considered to be "works" in the legal sense. Key statement Plagiarism may result from conscious deception, but may not necessarily do so. There are different types of evidence of plagiarism. A selection is as follows: 3 - Breaks in style: The writing style varies within the work. - Clumsy joining of text excerpts: copy-paste from various sources. - Features specific to Swiss Standard German: ß instead of ss. - Spelling / grammatical errors - possibly acquired. - Level of argumentation does not correspond fully to the student’s level. - Change of citation style. Research on writing has shown that academic writing is taught to students at uppersecondary school level, but that they only really acquire competence in the proper sense during their academic studies (Castelló / Donahue 2012;. but also Pohl 2007; Steinhoff 2007). This includes the proper use of sources. In many cases plagiarism arises because the students concerned do not yet have a command of the skill of academic writing. They are therefore usually not aware of any wrongdoing. Possible measures to combat plagiarism: 

3

Raising student awareness: They need to be taught the correct approach to referring to sources; in addition to citing, this includes the management of research results and

See Weber-Wulff, Debora; Wohnsdorf, Gabriele (2006) and Weber-Wulff, Debora (2013).

2

  

careful note-taking. In particular, students must understand when and why references are required (Sturm / Salzmann / Mezger 2012). Declarations of originality may contribute to raising student awareness (see www.schreiben.zentrumlesen.ch/redlichkeitserklaerungen.cfm). Using plagiarism software for the examination of submitted texts which have aroused suspicion, for which electronic versions (e.g. PDFs) must be submitted. Use of plagiarism software in different classes, for example, in peer feedback settings in which students correct each other’s texts, check for plagiarism and make suggestions for improvement. Access to plagiarism software can be provided by individual lecturers for the specific purpose of the class (students should not be given general access).

2 When should plagiarism software be used? Key statement Plagiarism software is a tool used to identify plagiarism in texts. The software can also be used as an object of learning to increase student awareness of the topic. A check on suspected plagiarism using software should only be carried out by subject specialists, that is, by university lecturers. The results of the analysis must be examined in detail in order to decide definitively whether plagiarism is present. As explained above, it is most often the case that text excerpts are adopted from other works without references. Full plagiarism is easy to identify, but rare. Key statement The analysis resulting from the plagiarism software must be evaluated by a subject specialist, as only they have the necessary expertise to do so. The analysis may not be delegated to the school administration. Analysis of the results of the plagiarism software requires subject knowledge and expertise regarding content. It can therefore only be undertaken by supervising university lecturers as only they know the literature, and can judge the degree of severity of the plagiarism (see Section 3). If the plagiarism software is to be used to test work commissioned by external clients, it is advisable to agree on the procedure to be followed. If the work is subject to confidentiality, this should be noted in writing in advance as part of the Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). In this case it is also advisable to define the exact procedure to be followed.

3 What can plagiarism software do and what are its limits? Key statement Not everything that is recognized by the software as suspicious is in fact plagiarism and not all plagiarism can be detected by the software. Plagiarism detection software compares the content of the text to be checked with a text database provided by the manufacturer and includes the option of comparison with other 3

documents which can be entered in the database (e.g. papers written by other students in the same course or at the same university). This is the only way to verify whether students have written a paper together which they should have written alone, or if they have submitted work that they or someone else has already submitted elsewhere. If the programme finds similarities, it indicates them. Generally, all similarities that can be found are indicated, even if these are have been correctly shown by the author to be a citation. For this reason a similarity index of 10%, for example, is not evidence that 10% of the paper was plagiarised. In addition, standard formulations such as the following can appear to be plagiarised: "The present study examines … in the light of..." This is, of course, not plagiarism. In certain cases, plagiarism is not recognized. This is the case where digital sources are not available for the database (e.g. older textbooks, monographs only available in print form, sources in a foreign language, or papers written at other universities). Plagiarism based on these sources can only be identified by the types of evidence mentioned above in section 1.

4 How should plagiarism be dealt with? Key statement The type of sanction is derived from the severity of the plagiarism. Unintentional plagiarism which has arisen as a result of insufficiently advanced ability in academic writing should be treated differently from conscious plagiarising. However, this should be assessed according to the student's stage of study: in an important piece of work at bachelor's level, and in general in a master's programme, plagiarism should not "pass". Plagiarism is dealt with in various ways. The School of Education of the FHNW has specific guidelines for dealing with plagiarism (PMS document 111.1.11.0844). The procedure is based on the academic regulations framework for the FHNW bachelor's and master's degree programmes regarding breaches of duty (§ 14). It varies according to the severity of the plagiarism (minor cases, mild cases, serious cases). The following disciplinary measures are possible: a written warning by the lecturer, disqualification from the examination for a specific time period, exclusion from the course. With regard to minor cases at the beginning of the course, the standard procedure is to reject the paper and give instructions to revise the sections in question.

Literature Castelló, Montserrat; Donahue, Christiane (Eds.) (2012): University writing. Selves and texts in academic societies. Bingley: Emerald (= Studies in Writing 24). FHNW (2014): Plagiat (25 March 2014) URL (with AAI-Login): https://applications.inside.fhnw.ch/app/pms/PMSDokumente/ Direktion,%20Stab/11%20Ausbildung%20%C3%BCbergreifend/DIAB% 20Definition%20Plagiat%20FHNW.pdf#search=plagiat [24 June.2014].

4

4 PH FHNW (2008): Richtlinien zum Umgang mit Plagiaten (March 19, 2008, with adaptations of 27 August 2009).

4

PH FHNW (2008): Richtlinien zum Umgang mit Plagiaten (19 March 2008, with changes of 27 August 2009). URL (with AAI-Login): https://applications.inside.fhnw.ch/app/pms/PMSDokumente/ P%C3%A4dagogische%20Hochschule/07%20Organisation/PHORG% 20Plagiaten.pdf#search=plagiat [24 June 2014]. Pohl, Thorsten (2007): Studien zur Ontogenese wissenschaftlichen Schreibens. Tübingen: Niemeyer (= Reihe Germanistische Linguistik 271). Schwarzenegger, Christian (2006): Plagiatsformen und disziplinarrechtliche Konsequenzen. In: unijournal 4/06, Universität Zürich, 19 June 2006. Steinhoff, Torsten (2007): Wissenschaftliche Textkompetenz. Sprachgebrauch und Schreibentwicklung in wissenschaftlichen Texten von Studenten und Experten. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer (=Reihe Germanistische Linguistik 280). Sturm, Afra; Mezger, Res (2008): Plagiate in schriftlichen Arbeiten. Eine Handreichung. Aarau: Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz, Pädagogische Hochschule, IFE, Zentrum Lesen. URL: http://www.schreiben.zentrumlesen.ch/handreichung_plagiate.cfm [14 January 2014]. Sturm, Afra; Salzmann, Martin und Mezger, Res (2012): Quellenangaben und Zitate in wissenschaftlichen Texten. Eine Handreichung. 2., durchges. Aufl. Aarau/Brugg: Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz, Pädagogische Hochschule, IFE, Zentrum Lesen. URL: http://www.schreiben.zentrumlesen.ch/stud_zitieren.cfm [15 January 2014]. Weber-Wulff, Debora; Wohnsdorf, Gabriele (2006): Strategien der Plagiatsbekämpfung. In: Information: Wissenschaft & Praxis, S. 90-98. Weber-Wulff, Debora (2013): Plagiatserkennungssoftware-Test 2013. Published in eteaching.org, 21 October 2013. URL: http://www.eteaching.org/news/eteaching_blog/blogentry.2013-1021.9967618355/et_showComments?entryid=blogentry.2013-1021.4354833088&lastmodified=2013-10-21%2011:23:55 [23 June 2014].

5