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Regulations on Fraud and plagiarism

At Radboud University, fraud is defined as any act or omission by the student which makes it impossible for a teacher to properly assess the student’s knowledge, understanding, and skills. The complete Regulations on Fraud are attached to the Education and Examination Regulations of your programme. Your academic skills course also explicitly addresses fraud and the prevention of plagiarism.

Examples of fraud include

  • Using non-permitted materials
  • Impersonating someone else during an exam or letting someone else impersonate you during an exam
  • Working together with other students on individual assignments
  • Cheating during exams by copying or exchanging information
  • All forms of plagiarism
  • Using any kind of artificial intelligence (e.g., Chat GPT) without explicit permission of the course coordinator

All regulations are applicable on all kinds of assignments

For more information, we refer to the EER, the Radboud University fraud protocol, as well as your academic skills course.

You must acknowledge a source...

...when borrowing another person's words, ideas, designs and/or theories, entirely or partially. This also applies when you are using a source on the Internet.

You acknowledge a source by...

  • quoting: this is the word for word quotation of a passage, where the quotation is included as a separate block of text (indented, between quotation marks or in italics) in your document;
  • paraphrasing with brief quotations: here the statement of the author is summarised in your own words and brief parts of the author's text are quoted;
  • paraphrasing without quotations: this is where you summarise the words of another person in your own words, without quoting them;
  • referring in a general sense to the work of a single author: this is the case if a publication supports your text in a general sense, where you don't summarise the content of the publication;
  • referring in a general sense to the work of multiple authors: this is the case if your text is based on the work of multiple authors, where you don't summarise the content of the publications.

You are plagiarising if you...

  • borrow the words, ideas, conclusions, designs and/or theories – entirely or in part – from other authors without acknowledging the source (book, journal article, report, Internet site, etc.);
  • use information in part or in modified form without acknowledging the source;
  • use your own work for two objectives without acknowledging this (self plagiarism);
  • submit a document that you have written together with others, without reporting this explicitly;
  • invent a source;
  • quote or paraphrase without showing this clearly in the text;
  • do not acknowledge a source correctly or completely;
  • do not use quotation marks with word for word quotations or if you place the quotation marks in such a way that it creates the erroneous impression that some of the selected passages are your own work;
  • do refer to sources, but not everywhere that you use information from those sources, resulting in some of this information being erroneously presented as your own work;
  • provide the references in such a way that they cannot be found by others;
  • derive a larger part of your project, report or other written test of competency from a single source (even if the source is acknowledged) than the part of the text that is your own work.

Also...

  • limit the number of quotations using many quotations is not a sign of good scholarship; the more quotations you use, the more you create the impression that you have not understood the source texts and used them in your own work;
  • quote only when it is really necessary quote another author only when the source text expresses a thought, insight or logical argument so well (beautifully formulated, compact, original, etc.) that a paraphrase would seriously discount the original quality;
  • quote passages only from authors who are acknowledged authorities
  • do not quote any clichés or generally known truths;
  • make sure that your quotation is relevant make sure the reader understands what you want to demonstrate or assert when you use a quotation: a quotation is part of your argumentation; never allow a quotation (or a series of quotations) to stand alone;
  • pay attention to the context of the quotation never use a quotation out of context, and make sure the quotation is related to your own text;
  • quote accurately if you want to leave out parts of a quotation, add to them or change them, then indicate clearly that this is your own intervention (avoid selective quotation where you only use the parts of the quotation that are compatible with your text);
  • brief quotations (less than three lines) can be placed in the running text, longer quotations must be indented as a block of text;
  • indicate whether the quotation you are using was quoted in another text by stating “quoted in...”.

If plagiarism (=fraud) is ascertained in your work then the sanctions described in the Education and Examination Regulations apply:

  • The Examining Board of his or her programme can prevent a student who has committed fraud from taking the interim examinations and final examinations in the faculty for a maximum of one year. In cases of serious fraud, the university administration, based on a proposal of the Examining Board, can definitively terminate the enrolment of the student concerned in the degree programme.
  • If the Examining Board of the relevant programme has determined that a student has committed fraud, then the final examination and/or Master examination of that student that must still be passed do not qualify for a degree classification (honours).

For all the rules on quotation and plagiarism, refer to...

  • the reader for the Academic Skills course
  • the guidelines from the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association

Example: should you want to use this source...

“Research has shown that the willingness of the lecturers to work in teams is primarily determined by the way in which the organisational change is directed by the changer. Among other things, it is important that the changer creates support for the change and communicates well about why the change is being made and how it will be implemented. The sensitivity of the changer is also important; the changer must allow sufficient space and be sensitive to the opinions of the lecturers, for example about maintaining or breaking existing social contacts. The role of the local changer is crucial to this process.”
Smetsers, F. (2007). Is cooperation in teams self-evident? A study into the conditions that affect the cooperation of professionals in teams [Electronic version: http://hdl.handle.net/2066/30069]. Nijmegen: University Library (host), p.250.

...What is unacceptable as a source reference?*

You wrote

According to research, the willingness of the lecturers to work in teams is primarily determined by the way in which the organisational change is directed by the changer. Among other things, it is important that the changer creates support for the change and communicates well about why the change is being made and how it will be implemented.

  • Except for the first three words, the text has been copied word for word from the original document without any quotation marks that would indicate that the passage is a quote;
  • The source you are using is not cited.

You wrote

According to research, the way in which the organisational change is directed by the changer determines the willingness of the lectures to actually work in teams. During this process, the changer must, among other things, create support for the change and communicate about why the change is being made and how it will be implemented. (Smetsers, 2007)

  • You mention the source, and it is not a word for word copy from the original document. However, because you use many of the original words, they should have been included as a quote with quotation marks.

You wrote

Research has shown that he willingness of lecturers to participate fully in teams is especially affected by the way in which the change is initiated by the advisor. During this process, it is important that the advisor creates support for the change and provides sufficient information about the reasons for the change and how it will be implemented.

  • Although most of the words have been changed, the sentence structure has remained the same. This is paraphrasing without acknowledging the source.

...What is acceptable as source acknowledgement?*

You wrote

In this book about the conditions that influence the cooperation of professionals in teams, Smetsers concluded that “the willingness of the lecturers to work in teams is primarily determined by the way in which the organisational change is directed by the changer. Among other things, it is important that the changer creates support for the change and communicates well about why the change is being made and how it will be implemented” (2007, p.250).

  • You acknowledged the author, used quotation marks and cited the page number of the reference.

You wrote

According to Smetsers (2007) “the willingness of the lecturers to work in teams is primarily determined by the way in which the organisational change is directed by the changer” (2007, p.250). He also emphasised the importance of creating support and providing good communication.

  • You have properly quoted and paraphrased the author.

You wrote

A study conducted by Smetsers (2007) showed the importance of the role of the changer in the proper implementation of teams in an organisation. Creating support and providing good communication have an especially important influence on the result of the change.

  • This is the proper way to paraphrase.

* the text in italics has been taken word for word from the source.

Also note...

Recently, a photographer demanded compensation for the damages that he suffered because a student had used an aerial photograph that he had taken to embellish the cover of her thesis. The photographer found the thesis on a website and submitted a claim for damages well over € 1,500. In view of the fact that theses are becoming more and more often digitally accessible, there is a great chance that in the near future we will face such claims more often. In order to prevent this from happening, the following rules will be in effect as of today:

  • If you make use of an image (photograph, cartoon, drawing, map, etc.) in your thesis (on the cover or inside), then you should mention your source and make sure that the image is not protected by copyright;
  • If there is a copyright, then you should contact the author of the image and ask if you can have his or her written permission to use the image; it is possible that the author claims compensation for the use of the image; in that case you should settle the financial compensation requested and/or agreed upon;
  • If you fail to comply, and the author of the image should demand his or her legal rights, then you will be legally responsible. This means that you will have to remove the image and that you will have to pay the fine and possible compensation.