Academic work at a university entails that the student be exposed to the ideas, written material and other intellectual and creative material of others. The intention with academic studies is precisely that the ideas of both the lecturers and the students will be shaped and polished by others. At the same time, students ought to go further than what was devised, written and created by others; he or she should critically evaluate it, provide new and original input or syntheses, and apply these to contemporary and local studies of problems. This is where academic activity becomes satisfying at university level.

Naturally, lecturers can only evaluate the contribution of their students if the contributions of others are clearly distinguished. This takes place through acknowledged systems or the process of acknowledgement and referencing. If these conventions are not adhered to and the required recognition is not given, the basis of the academic work at a university is undermined. Plagiarism is committed when someone else’s work (words, ideas, creations) are taken over and passed off as the writer’s own.

The university uses Turnitin to test plagiarism. Turnitin integrates with the Learning Management System (Webstudies or Ematies). (See more information below) Assignment links are created within the LMS which students use to upload their assignments to. The assignments submitted by students are stored in a database used to check for plagiarism. This prevents one student from using another student’s paper, by identifying matching text between papers. Assignments are also be checked against web pages, books, newspapers and available journals on the net.

The University aims to ensure that mechanisms are in place that will enable lecturers to promote academic integrity and to eliminate plagiarism. The most successful approaches to dealing with student instances of plagiarism allow for a ‘developmental approach’, which implies that cases of plagiarism – with the exception of serious cases – be used as opportunities to instruct the guilty persons as to what is expected and how to handle information. In addition, such a student could be directed to redo the assignment.

For more information on the university’s the Interim Guidelines for dealing with Plagiarism, please visit the CTL website: http://stbweb02.stb.sun.ac.za/ctl/policies.html

Article compilied from the Interim approach to dealing with plagiarism policy by Marinda van Rooyen

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Akademiese werk aan ’n universiteit bring mee dat die student blootgestel word aan die idees, geskrewe materiaal en ander intellektuele en kreatiewe produkte van ander. Die bedoeling met akademiese studie is juis dat die idees van sowel die dosent as die student deur hierdie idees en materiaal van ander gevorm en geslyp sal word. Terselfdertyd moet die student ook verder gaan as dit wat ander gedink, geskryf en geskep het en dit krities evalueer, nuwe en oorspronklike insette of sinteses maak, en dit van toepassing maak op eietydse internasionale en plaaslike problematieke. Hierin lê die besondere bevrediging van akademiese werk op universiteitsvlak. 

Uiteraard kan die dosent slegs evalueer wat die bydrae van die student self is wanneer die bydrae van ander persone duidelik onderskei word. Dit gebeur by wyse van erkende stelsels van erkenning en aanhaling. Deur nie hierdie konvensies te volg en die nodige erkenning te gee nie, word die grondslag van die akademiese werk aan ’n universiteit ondermyn. Deur die werk (woorde, idees, skeppinge) van ander persone oor te neem asof dit die skrywer se eie is, word plagiaat gepleeg. 

Die universiteit gebruik Turnitin om plagiaat mee te toets. Turnitin integreer met die Leerbeheerstelsel (Webstudies of Ematies). Werkstukskakels word binne die LBS geskep wat deur studente gebruik word om hulle werkstukke na op te laai. Die werkstukke wat opgelaai word, word in ‘n databasis gestoor en word dan gebruik vir die toets van plagiaat. Dit verhoed dat een student ‘n ander student se werkstuk kan gebruik, deur woorde en sinne wat ooreenkom te identifiseer. Werkstukke word ook teen bestaande webblaaie, aanlyn boeke, koerante en journale getoets. 

Die mees suksesvolle benaderings m.b.t. die hantering van plagiaat in die geval van studente laat ruimte vir wat genoem kan word ’n ontwikkelingsbenadering, naamlik dat die voorkoms van gevalle van plagiaat – uitgesonderd gevalle van ’n ernstige aard gebruik word as ’n geleentheid om die persone wat hulle daaraan skuldig maak te wys op wat verwag word en hoe om met inligting om te gaan, asook om (byvoorbeeld) die werkstuk oor te doen. 

Vir meer inligting oor die universiteit se Interim-benadering m.b.t. die hantering van plagiaat, besoek die SOL webtuiste: http://stbweb02.stb.sun.ac.za/sol/beleide: 

Inligting verkry en aangepas uit Interim riglyne vir die hantering van plagiaat deur Marinda van Rooyen

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