Academic Writing & Research Integrity Workshop

1. Academic writing Guidance on research and academic integrity

2. Workshop Presenter Dr Irene Glendinning Academic Manager for Student Experience Office of Teaching and Learning

3. What we will cover • good study habits and writing skills • understanding referencing and citation conventions and using these appropriately • the importance of academic integrity • finding good quality information sources and assessing reliability of information • understanding the expectations and requirements of assessors

4. Research into academic integrity Impact of policies for Plagiarism in Higher Education Across Europe http://plagiarism.cz/ippheae/ South East Europe Project on Policies for Academic Integrity http://plagiarism.cz/seeppai/ European Network for Academic Integrity http://plagiarism.pefka.mendelu.cz/

5. What is Academic Integrity? • Conduct • Ethical, honest, fair • Assessments • Representative, safe • Policies and processes • Reliable, consistent, transparent, proportional • Values, culture • Promoting good practice

6. What is plagiarism? Definitions • Using the work of someone else and presenting it as your own • Failing to correctly cite and reference the work of someone else • Not giving due credit for the contribution of someone else to your work

7. Academic Dishonesty • Deliberate plagiarism • Exam cheating • Impersonation • Inappropriate collusion and sharing of work • Copying text or programming code from others • Buying essays or code to order • Submitting work completed by someone else • Submitting work you’ve submitted before (self-plagiarism) • Presenting someone else’s idea as your own • Fabrication, falsification, selectivity • Bribing lecturers for higher grades

8. citation Referencing and Citation Certainly in a higher education context there are many factors that prevent rapid changes. Kolmos and de Graaff compare the management of a university faculty to “the navigation of a super tanker….The inertia of mass precludes any abrupt change of course” (Kolmos & de Graaff 2007: p.35). This analogy clearly reflects the experience of the SEE team. Kolmos, A., De Graaff, E. (2007) Process of changing to PBL in De Graaff, E. and Kolmos, A. (eds.) Management of Change Implementation of Problem-Based and Project-Based Learning in Engineering, Rotterdam / Taipei: Sense Publishers. Reference CUHarvard

9. Referencing and Citation • Have you had instruction about academic writing? • How to find academic sources • Identifying good sources • How to acknowledge sources • Referencing style requirements? • Referencing tools RefWorks, Endnote, integral to MS Word

10. Exercise 1 Read through the following scenarios and questions provided and decide whether or not you think these examples describe plagiarism and also think about what sanctions should be applied for such cases

11. Exercise 1 Qu 1 If a student buys an essay from a web site and uses the text provided (a) just as it was provided or (b) with a few changes, is it: 1. Serious plagiarism 2. Plagiarism 3. Not sure 4. Poor academic practice 5. None of the above

12. Exercise 1 Qu 2 If 40% of an essay is taken from other sources and the text is copied word for word into the student’s work with no quotation marks, references or in-text citations, is it: 1. Serious plagiarism 2. Plagiarism 3. Not sure 4. Poor academic practice 5. None of the above

13. Exercise 1 Qu 3 If 40% of an essay or paper is from other sources and the text is copied with a few changes into the student’s work with no “quotation marks”, references or in-text citations, is it: 1. Serious plagiarism 2. Plagiarism 3. Not sure 4. Poor academic practice 5. None of the above

14. Exercise 1 Qu 4 If 40% of an essay is from other sources and the text is copied with a few changes into the student’s work with no “quotation marks” or in-text citations, but has a list of references to sources used, is it: 1. Serious plagiarism 2. Plagiarism 3. Not sure 4. Poor academic practice 5. None of the above

15. Exercise 1 Qu 5 If 40% of an essay is taken from other sources and the text is copied with a few changes into the student’s work with no “quotation marks”, but has references and in-text citations, is it: 1. Serious plagiarism 2. Plagiarism 3. Not sure 4. Poor academic practice 5. None of the above

16. Why do students plagiarise? Reasons from Slovenian students (~2012) • 66% they think they will not get caught • 63% don’t want to learn just pass the exam • 61% run out of time • 53% easy to cut and paste • 45% don’t understand how to cite and reference • 42% not aware of penalties • 42% they have always written like that.

17. Why is plagiarism and cheating a problem? • By-passes learning • Dishonest to claim credit for unoriginal work • No credit for the originator of the work • Damages university’s reputation • Reduces reliability of assessment to measure learning • Consumes time to resolve dishonesty cases • Unfair advantage over honest students • Leads to low marks and failure

18. How do we detect Plagiarism? • Text matching software • Writing styles • Viva voce or presentation questions • Search engines, Google • Staff experience

19. Cheating: process and penalties • How common is student cheating here? 0=never 1=sometimes 2=fairly often 3=frequently 4=everyone does it • What is the process if a student is accused of cheating? • What penalties can be applied? • How often are penalties applied? 0=never 1=sometimes 2=fairly often 3=frequently 4=every time • How much cheating is not penalised?

20. Markers’ expectations • Different levels of response eg • University entry • Final year undergraduate • Postgraduate student • Learning outcomes: expectations • Bloom’s Taxonomy defines the criteria distinguishing different levels

21. Bloom’s Taxonomy & verbs

22. Software text-matching tools • Does text-matching software tell you whether text is plagiarised? • No, results need interpretation • Shows where text matches with other sources in the repository • But may not show the source that was accessed • What percentage match indicates problems? • Depends, needs interpretation • Can correctly referenced work show a high % match? • Yes, but this would suggest poor scholarship • What could I do to reduce a high % match? • Understand how sources add value to your work!

23. Why use academic sources? Your views please: Why do you have to acknowledge sources? Why do you have to use sources?

24. Exercise 2: Feedback Why do you have to acknowledge sources? To give due credit to the author To allow your readers to follow up on your work and research To show you are building on the “body of knowledge” on which your own work is based Why do you have to use sources? To add the academic value and credibility of your work To demonstrate that you are aware of previous related research

25. Quality of sources • Quality not quantity: • Good journal papers, peer reviewed conference papers, authority, relevance, currency • Primary, Secondary, Tertiary sources • Literature search • Defining parameters, • Generating key words • Recording your findings • Referencing and citation

26. Sources of information Assessing quality and relevance • Dates, currency of information • Focus, context appropriate • Citations from other sources? • Supports or contradicts your arguments? • Demonstrates bias or poor technique? • Degree of precision of findings • Record, index all sources as you find them

27. Assessment Criteria • Relevance to the research question • Understanding, explaining • Applying, designing • Analysing, synthesising, innovation • Critically evaluating, abstraction, justifying • Referencing and quality of sources • Quality of writing and expression • Structure and focus, vocabulary • Answering the “question”

28. Quotations and paraphrasing • Quotations • Paraphrasing or rewriting same idea? • Reference or bibliography • References alphabetic (CU Harvard)

29. Exercise 3 – Paraphrasing Read the quotation from Lindquist (1999) provided and try to paraphrase or rewrite this in your own words by referring to the source In E. E. Masters’ study of lifestyles in a working-class bar in a Midwestern town, for example, the author concludes early on that “the tavern in this small community was the centre of social life”, to the extent that “the proprietor had an amazing amount of knowledge about the residents of the town” such that “he could predict election results with great accuracy”. (Le Masters 1975)

30. Exercise 3 – Feedback Compare your answers Sample solution E. E. Masters’ reported in his study of lifestyles in a working class bar that the tavern was so central to communications of the local community that the bar owner was able to confidently guess the result of elections (Le Masters, 1975).

31. Further Information www.plagiarism.org/index.html www.wok.mimas.ac.uk (citation index, Web of Knowledge) www.qaa.ac.uk http://www.qaa.ac.uk/Publications/InformationAndGuidance/Documents/computing07.pdf www.plagiarism.org/index.html Citation index, Web of Knowledge: www.wok.mimas.ac.uk Bloom’s Taxonomy verbs: http://www.clemson.edu/assessment/assessmentpractices/referencematerials/documents/Blooms%20Taxonomy%20Action%20Verbs.pdf Scimago Journal rankings: http://www.scimagojr.com/ IPPHEAE project: http://Iplagiarism.cz/ippheae/ SEEPPAI project: http://plagiarism.cz/seeppai/ Lindquist, Julie. Class Ethos and the Politics of Inquiry: What the Barroom Can Teach Us about the Classroom. CCC 51.2 (1999): 225-247.

32. Bachelor level skills Subject-related cognitive abilities and skills Computational thinking and relevance to everyday life Knowledge and understanding of concepts, facts, principles, theories… Modelling, requirements, critical evaluation and testing Methods and tools, reflection and communication, professional issues Subject related practical abililty to: Specify, design, construct computer-based systems Evaluate systems ... and possible trade-offs within the given problem Recognise risks or safety aspects… Deploy effectively tools used for construction & documentation, .. Understand whole process .. computers to solve practical problems Operate computing equipment effectively.. logical and physical properties Additional transferable skills Info-retrieval, numeracy, literacy, IT, team-work, time-management, CPD Extracts from QAA subject benchmarks for Computing 2007

33. Bachelor level capabilities Three levels: Threshold, Typical and Excellence On graduating with honours degree students should be able to Excellence: such students will be Creative and innovative in their application of the principles covered in the curriculum and may relish the opportunity to engage in entrepreneurial activity Able to contribute significantly to the analysis, design or the development of systems which are complex and fit for purpose, recognising the relationship between these Able to exercise critical evaluation and review of both their own work and the work of others Extracts from QAA subject benchmarks for Computing 2007

34. Master’s level capabilities Students will have demonstrated: (Assessment) • A systematic understanding …and a critical awareness.. • A comprehensive understanding of techniques.. • Originality in the application of knowledge, together with.. • Conceptual understanding that enables... And will be able to:(Outcomes) • Deal with complex issues… • Demonstrate self-direction… • Continue to advance their knowledge.. And will have: (Employability) • The qualities and transferable skills necessary for.. Adapted from QAA Benchmarks for Master’s degrees