Academic integrity and plagiarism

It is your responsibility to ensure your own work meets the University’s standards for academic integrity.

You can find support and advice on this from the Library, your tutors, and the Student Advice Centre.

The University also has the responsibility to make sure that nobody gains an unfair advantage in any assessment, to maintain the value of your education. This means that suspected cases of academic misconduct are taken seriously and will be investigated.

Plagiarism and other forms of academic misconduct

While you might be familiar with plagiarism, there are other forms of academic misconduct that might be less familiar to you. The following guide will help you to understand different forms of academic misconduct and will highlight the good academic practices that will help you to avoid these.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the presentation of someone else’s work as if it were your own, regardless of whether you do so intentionally or of how much unacknowledged material you use. “Work” means any intellectual output, and can include text, data, images, sound or performance.

Where you refer to, or use, information, ideas or any other content from somebody else’s work, the original source must be acknowledged through accurate citation and referencing. Use quotation marks to indicate exact quotations from the work of other authors.

Reusing your own work

Academic study is a dynamic process, which means that your ideas and understanding will develop over time as you continue to learn, research and engage in new assignments and projects.

It is not appropriate to resubmit, in exactly the same form, work that you have previously submitted for assessment at Leeds or anywhere else. There may be exceptions to this rule if, for example, an assessment is specifically designed to help you to prepare for a subsequent piece of work. You will be explicitly told when this is the case.

Manipulating work to avoid detection

Any attempt to manipulate text, images or other content in an inappropriate manner (for example, to disguise plagiarism or misrepresent the word count) is a breach of academic integrity.

If you are worried about the word count for an assignment, try these strategies for revising and editing to make your work as focused and concise as possible.

You should also check with your school or module leader regarding any requirements for the presentation of your work, such as font size, formatting and line spacing.

Misuse of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools

Your assessments are a chance for you to demonstrate your own knowledge, understanding and ability. AI tools may be allowed to support some aspects of your work, but they should not replace your own learning and skills. You should not use generative AI to complete work that you are expected to do yourself. Using generative AI for tasks where it is not permitted is treated as academic misconduct. 

If you use generative AI to help with tasks such as checking grammar, organising references or finding information, make sure you review its output carefully. AI tools can sometimes change your words and meaning, introduce errors or create inaccurate references. You are responsible for the accuracy and integrity of any work you submit. You should also state clearly what you used, and how you used it. If you do not correctly acknowledge the use of generative AI, this will be classed as academic misconduct.

Contract cheating

Academic integrity means ensuring that all of your work is a true expression of your individual understanding and ideas. Contract cheating is an attempt to undermine this commitment by submitting work that you have asked someone else to produce for you, or which you know to have been produced by somebody else. This applies to work bought from any source, including online essay writing services or online tutor services, and also applies to work provided by a third party without any payment. Commercial services that encourage and enable students to cheat are illegal in the United Kingdom.

Obtaining work from others by theft, deceit or fraud

Submitting work that has been obtained by tricking others or stealing from them is a serious breach of academic integrity. This applies to materials that form part of a submission, as well as to entire assignments. Taking assessment questions or exam papers and sharing them with third parties, including with online “homework help” or “answer sharing” websites, is also viewed as theft of work, as well as a breach of University copyright. 

Fabrication

As a student, you are part of a community of scholars who exchange and engage with new ideas and information in an open and respectful manner. It is therefore vital that your work is not only your own, but also truthful and genuine, and that it does not contain material that is untrue or made up. This applies particularly (but not only) to laboratory and practical work, and to research data presented in dissertations, theses and other project work. It is also misconduct to falsify drafts, submission receipts or feedback.  

Collusion

Studying together is a normal and positive aspect of university life, which is good for us all, socially as well as academically. However, it is important that you understand what you are being asked to do for each assessment and how you are required to work.

If the assessment is intended to be completed independently, then any deliberate attempt to work with others to reduce the time and effort that you have to invest, or to mislead the marker about your individual understanding, would be academic misconduct.

Providing general advice to your friends about content, structure and tone is not collusion, but you need to ensure your support doesn’t go too far. You must be careful that you keep your work independent from your course mates and avoid sharing drafts or adapting their work into your own. Remember that your work has to be a reflection of your own individual effort and learning, so you should not rely on each other’s work but aim to develop your own understanding and interpretation of the topic instead. See our collabortive working section for further guidance.

Cheating in examinations

Our shared standards of academic integrity also apply to in-person examinations. Rules about the avoidance of plagiarism, collusion, fabrication and other forms of academic misconduct apply just as much to examinations as to any other form of university work. This means:

• you should not obtain the exam questions in advance of the exam
• the material that you submit must be your own work, expressing your individual understanding and ideas in your own words, except where specific material from other authors is credited and exact quotations placed in quotation marks
• you should not discuss either the content of the assessment or your answers with anyone else during the exam
• work must be free from falsification, manipulation or any other efforts to mislead the marker
• you should not access or use any sources of information, including notes, unless you are allowed to by the examiners
• you should not share University exam questions or exam papers with anyone, including any websites, as this is also a breach of University copyright.

Asking others to proofread your work

You can ask friends and family, or use technologies, for support with proofreading but you must not use paid proofreading services. Remember that your friend or family member’s proofreading may not always be accurate or appropriate, so think carefully before deciding whether to accept their suggested changes. There is also a risk that your friends might copy some of your ideas and wording into their own work, which could lead to accusations of collusion.

Read the Assistance with coursework for taught students webpage for detailed guidance on the different types of support from university staff that students are allowed – and encouraged – to ask for. 

Using plagiarism or AI detection websites

Many websites claim to offer free plagiarism or AI checks if you submit your essay to them. This might result in your essays being sold to other students and could mean that your work shows up as being stolen or plagiarised when you submit it through Turnitin. Additionally, these services do not always provide accurate information and could cause you to worry about your work unnecessarily. If you are confident that you have used sources carefully and cited and referenced them accurately, you do not need to worry about your work being “flagged” for plagiarism. Your tutors will use their own judgement, not just the Turnitin similarity score, to decide whether there are any issues in your work. 

Do not upload your work to any “plagiarism detector” or “AI detector” websites. To learn more about how tutors use Turnitin while they are marking your work, you can work through our online Turnitin tutorial, which you’ll find in Minerva alongside the Academic Integrity Tutorial and test. 

Avoiding plagiarism and other forms of academic misconduct

There are no “shortcuts” to avoiding plagiarism, but you can avoid it by applying the advice in our Skills for good academic practice section and by making the most of the support provided to you by the University.

You can develop and check your understanding of plagiarism and the other forms of academic misconduct discussed here with the Academic Integrity Tutorial and test.