Plagiarism

[labellesusage]

Asking for a friend. We met up on Thursday to work together on our assignments. We had just had results from last assignment.
She is still waiting for a mark as she's apparently plagiarised. Herself.
She used something from a different assignment but didn't cite it etc.
The uni pulled her in , she took a copy of the assignment she had used but their saying it's from a different country.
We are 1 assignment away from finishing the course.
She's worried sick
Anyone know what's the worse/best scenario?
Thanks in advance

In my place, first offence would likely lead to a 0 for the piece of work, which would not always have an impact on final grade - depends on mark scheme. It has to be very severe a case to have degree annulled.

It's too dependant on university rules for anyone to be able to generalise. But she ought to be able to get a fair idea reading the university's guidance on plagiarism.

I don't follow what you're saying, though (may just be me not getting it). She plagiarised herself, but they're saying it's from a different country - you mean, they're claiming she actually plagiarised something else, not herself? She may have done, and forgotten, mayn't she? If she's not very careful about citation, maybe she interpolated something borrowed into the first essay?

It's a very real thing. It is double submission, one piece of work for two gradings. You can only get credit for any piece of work once.

She'll possibly receive a zero or greatly reduced grade. Fingers crossed for her, but it was a daft error!

Wait! I passed by the 'other country' comment.

They think BOTH pieces of work are plagiarised?

She may be in real trouble!

It’s taken just as seriously as any other type of plagiarism because it means the candidate is submitting the same piece of work for two different qualifications.

@SarahAndQuack .
Sorry if I didn't make sense. It's hard to explain.
She used something from a previous assignment she had written but didn't reference herself.
According to the uni academic integrity it says you can if using an acceptable referencing system.

What they are saying is computer says no. She must of copied it from other papers. The ones they had examples of where from different countries. She tried to show them the original assignment she copied from but they didn't want to know.

The uni have emailed her and she has to agree that she has plagiarised
Yes or no tick box. But she doesn't want to agree with what their saying as she knows it's her own work.

No one has told her what's going to happen.
Sorry if I sound cryptic in anyway.

The original assignment was her own work and was referenced etc had a good mark.
It's made me feel sick how easy it could be to fall down the same hole

Has she uploaded her original assignment to the Internet? Often though they are not interested in who copied from whom, students are all told never to copy themselves or others. Have a look at your assessment guidance which should lay out the implications. At level 1 it would probably be a telling off but more serious later in the degree.

Either way she is trying to get the same qualification as you but putting in less work. I would try hard to make sure that your meeting up does not compromise the independence of your own submissions even if you do all the work and she copies you, you could both be in trouble.

So I was right the first time? She has submitted a substantial piece of work twice?

That is always clearly explained in various guidance notes. She has no excuse. It is cheating.

She will have to be guided by her tutor! But she will be penalized!

So I was right the first time? She has submitted a substantial piece of work twice?

That is always clearly explained in various guidance notes. She has no excuse. It is cheating.

She will have to be guided by her tutor! But she will be penalised!

She tried to show them the original assignment she copied from but they didn't want to know.

That seems incredibly unfair if she's trying to explain what happened.

Was the work she used from the original assignment referenced from someone else or was it her own work/thoughts etc? I'm sure I was told in uni you can't plagiarise yourself but maybe I misunderstood.

There are too many variables to be able to give any meaningful advice.
Hope it works out ok for her.

OP: it's must have and they're, as opposed to 'must of' and 'their'.

She will probably get a zero for that piece of work and a called resit at a pass.

But she should know she can’t do that. You have to cite yourself - otherwise you’re double counting the same piece of work, and using it for two assessments.

toiletpaper you have mixed up 2 things.

You can't plagiarise yourself, many authors use the same data etc in any number of papers, chapters etc.

But that is different to submitting the same work to gain 2 grades. If you do that you have to be really clear that you aren't submitting it for marking but for reference only - often done as an Appendix.

It is always covered in submission guidance.

@KaptainKaveman

OP: it's must have and they're, as opposed to 'must of' and 'their'.

Lol, you do realize this is a thread on Mumsnet and nothing of any importance? My English is absolute shite but I know when I need to be careful. What makes you think the OP wouldn’t know to be careful when she needs to be? 🤔 I think it’s pompous to correct other posters English on Mumsnet.

so I imagine in her original work she had references from another source - which she referenced within her past essay. So - by using her previous essay & not referencing where the original source was via her past essay - what she should have done is do a double reference to her comment & attached a copy of her original essay with its references to the back of her essay as part of her bibliography
(I did this on my dissertation & landed up with - over 50 pages in my Bibliography - my first essay laid the ground work for my dissertation in a way)

Has she asked what is going to happen?

The uni have emailed her and she has to agree that she has plagiarised
Yes or no tick box. But she doesn't want to agree with what their saying as she knows it's her own work.

But she has plagiarised.

You can't plagiarise yourself, many authors use the same data etc in any number of papers, chapters etc.

You absolutely can plagiarise yourself. Every student plagiarism tutorial I've ever seen includes a section on self plagiarism.

It is fine to re-use material, but it has to be properly cited.

Why are you asking not her?

Yes Sarah in education. But in the real world it's using your experience. There is a difference, which is what I was trying to explain.

Self plagiarism is the unacknowledged multiple use of the same data, same text in submission. But it is specific to education... See all the chefs who re use the same recipe; scientists who re use the same dataset etc.

Um, no, in the real world it's still possible to self plagiarise.

I quite regularly use my own previous data in new publications, and I have to be fairly careful how I do it and how I acknowledge it. My dad's a research scientist; ditto. My partner's a research scientist in a different field; ditto.

I'm fairly sure other people who publish will tell you the same.

I admit, I don't know how it works with chefs and recipes, but I can't imagine any publisher would allow you to replicate a recipe for a different publisher without permission (which is the parallel situation to replicating work uncited in a different assignment).

@SarahAndQuack

Um, no, in the real world it's still possible to self plagiarise.

I quite regularly use my own previous data in new publications, and I have to be fairly careful how I do it and how I acknowledge it. My dad's a research scientist; ditto. My partner's a research scientist in a different field; ditto.

I'm fairly sure other people who publish will tell you the same.

I admit, I don't know how it works with chefs and recipes, but I can't imagine any publisher would allow you to replicate a recipe for a different publisher without permission (which is the parallel situation to replicating work uncited in a different assignment).

This.

I suspect we are saying some of the same things but in different ways as I disagree with nothing you said ... But don't seem to be able to explain what I mean, which is next to usess of me!

I have at least 2 books by.well know chefs that identical to each other, which is why I mentioned that!

Whatever Way we are saying it, She needs to cite herself and there’s no way a university wouldn’t have made her aware of this before final year.

Plus, no harm to undergrads, but little of their work is worth citing in and of itself, and if it was relevant then she should’ve just written the piece, cited the original authors as well as herself, and included her previous essay as an appendix.