The University of Manchester Plagiarism Interest Group (PIG)

The University of Manchester Plagiarism Interest Group (convenor: Toby Howard) is an informal grouping of colleagues across the University who share an interest in detecting plagiarism and academic malpractice at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and in educating students against plagiarism. The idea is to share resources and experiences. We have a email list for discussion and announcements. If you'd like to join the list, please contact Toby.

PIG meetings

• Notes from the second PIG meeting, Weds 7 November 2007, kindly compiled by Alan Williams. [PDF]
• Notes from the inaugural PIG meeting, Weds 20 June 2007, kindly compiled by Alan Williams. [PDF]

Major web resources

• JISC Plagiarism Advisory Service
• plagiarism.org, an enormous collection of resources and links
• Sharon Stoerger's huge "clearinghouse" site for papers and articles

University resources (added 02/11/09)

• Teaching and Learning Support Office
• Guidance for students on plagiarism (PDF)

Resources for students (added 02/10/07)

• The Student Learning Centre at the University of Leicester has developed an interactive online tutorial to help students understand what plagiarism is and how to avoid it. (from Keith Elliot)
• Bristol and MMU have also produced a freely accessible site called Internet Detective. It primarily deals with web use but includes section on plagiarism.  Written in an amusing way as a detective story. (from Keith Elliot)

JISC / Turnitin

• JISC Plagiarism Advisory Service
• Turnitin UK User Group Forum (free registration)
• Turnitin manuals: for Administrators, for Instructors, for Students.
• Turnitin UK Data Protection Act Factsheet (PDF)
• Turnitin UK Copyright Factsheet (PDF)
• Integrating Turnitin with Moodle [PDF]
• The AMBeR project being undertaken by JISC is looking at the range of penalties for plagiarism - UoM has provided data and will be taking part in the next stage when they will be looking at how the penalties are actually applied (from Keith Elliot).
• [08 Oct 07]: JISCPAS has announced the publication of a report on plagiarism detection software [PDF, 100 pages] (from Keith Elliot).

Other resources

• Advice on referencing at LearnHigher (from Rosalind McNally)
• FIGS - Finding Information, a Guide for Students. This is designed to give students the skills to avoid plagiarism in their work (from Richard Jardine).
• This document was a handout from the Higher Education Academy-organised  "HEA 24 Plagiarism Event" facilitated by Jude Carroll. It's a collection of advice and information on various issues concerning plagiarism (from Trudy Hoye).  [PDF]
• An example of how to reference properly and avoid plagiarism, which presents a mini-essay created entirely from plagiarised bits, the Turnitin report of the essay, and advice on how to reference correctly (from Toby Howard and Alan Williams).
• An example of an "own work" declaration for submitted coursework. It has an explicit tick box to explain to them exactly what plagiarism is (Glasgow University) [PDF]
• Guide to correct and incorrect citation (Keele University)
• Guide to Citing Internet Sources (Bournemouth University)
• Evaluating an electronic plagiarism detection service, Robert Evans, Cardiff School of Social Sciences [PDF]
• Some articles from Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, Volume 31 Issue 2 200
• Wikipedia entry for "Plagiarism", with interesting examples of literary malpractice (from that page: "Alex Haley settled a lawsuit with Harold Courlander that cited approximately 80 passages in Haley's novel Roots as having been plagiarized from Courlander's novel The African.")
• Interactive (Flash) tutorial for students on what plagiarism is (University of South Florida)