FASS 82-03
Faculty of Arts & Social sciences
Plagiarism Warning
All students share the responsibility for upholding the academic standards and reputation of the Faculty. Academic achievement is evaluated on the basis of work that students produce independently. Academic honesty is a prerequisite condition in the pursuit and acquisition of knowledge. Academic dishonesty is any misrepresentation with the intent to deceive or failure to acknowledge the source or falsification of information or inaccuracy of statements or cheating at examinations/tests or inappropriate use of resources. There are many forms of academic dishonesty and plagiarism is one of them. Plagiarism is presenting some other person’s work as one’s own. The FASS is committed to fighting plagiarism and adopts the position as set out below:
1. No student shall represent the work of another person as his/her own in any academic assignment, thesis or project even if the material so represented constitutes only a part of the work submitted.
2. No student shall copy ideas found on the Web without giving proper credit to the original sources.
3. No student shall download or copy, in part or in their entirety, articles or research papers found on the Internet and submit the paper as his/her own work.
4. No student shall contribute any work to another student if he/she knows or should know that the latter may submit the work in part or whole as his/her own.
5. Receipt of payment in whatever form for work contributed shall raise a presumption that the student had such knowledge.
6. Any student found to have committed or aided and abetted the offence of plagiarism may be subject to the following penalties depending on the severity of his involvement in the offence.
a) The student shall receive no marks or a reduction of marks for the relevant academic assignment, thesis or project;
b) The student shall fail the subject, course or programme of study, with or without any marks given for that subject, course or programme of study; and
c) The student shall be treated as having committed a disciplinary offence under section 1 of Statute 12 (Discipline) of the National University of Singapore.
7. Students should seek clarification from their respective tutors, lecturers or supervisors if they are unsure that they are plagiarising the work of another person.
Borrowing Extensively from One's Own Previous Work or Assignment
Borrowing extensively from one’s own previous work or assignment is also a form of plagiarism.
1. In their written assignments, students should not reproduce extensive portions (about 10% or more) from written assignments completed for another module(s).
2. A student who reproduces extensive portions from a previous assignment in another assignment is guilty of academic dishonesty because he/she is claiming additional credit for work which has already been done.
3. Students who wish to work in a topic which is closely related to a written assignment completed for another module should first highlight this to the lecturer concerned and produce a photocopy of the previously completed assignment for the lecturer in order to ensure that the new assignment is not a re-use of the previous work.
Other Useful Information Concerning How to Avoid Plagiarism
A student may not knowingly intend to plagiarise, but that should not be used as an excuse for committing it. Students are encouraged to consult the following link on how to avoid plagiarism:
http://www.cdtl.nus.edu.sg/cdtlhome/special.htm#Plagiarism
Protection of Intellectual Property Rights
1. The protection of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) is of great importance to Singapore’s economic growth and prosperity. As an increasingly knowledge-based economy, intellectual property rights protection is vital to Singapore’s continued economic development. For this, we need to recognize the value of and respect the intellectual property rights of others.
2. In the area of copyright, the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) would like to convey the message that making copies of copyright materials without consent of the right-holder amounts to an infringement.
3. We therefore hope that students will take a serious view of any intellectual property infringement when making photocopies from books, periodicals and other resources; and when downloading material from the Internet.