Updated: 2023-11-16 23:10 EST[-0500]

Academic Fraud - Plagiarism

This page deals with plagiarism, group work, and academic fraud in the field of writing and submitting computer software, programs, and scripts.

Re-use of code is normally a mark of a good programmer; however, copying assignment code from other people or from books, or writing software in a group won't teach you how to program. Unless you are specifically assigned to a project team where sharing is required or group work is allowed, you must learn to solve your own programming problems. You may not copy code from someone else. You may not "work together" on a problem.

Possession of source code belonging to another person is an academic offence with penalties for everyone involved, both the author and the recipients.

Definition of Plagiarism

See Algonquin College Policy AA20 for the full text.

Definition:
Plagiarism, whether done deliberately or accidentally, is defined as presenting someone else's work, in whole or in part, as one's own, and includes the verbal or written submission of another work (for example, ideas, wording, code, graphics, music, and inventions) without crediting that source. This includes all electronic sources (for example, the Internet, television, video, film, and recordings), all print and written sources (for example, books, periodicals, lyrics, government publications, promotional materials, and academic assignments), and all verbal sources (for example, conversations and interviews).
Also:
The facilitation of plagiarism, that is, one student sharing his or her work with other students, is also considered an act of plagiarism.

If you put your name on a piece of code or submit the code as part of your own assignment, all that code must be your own independent work. If you "worked together" on the code, or if any of the code was copied from someone else (including from your teacher), putting your own name on it is plagiarism.

Plagiarised material may come from such places as other student disks, source listings, textbook examples, the Internet, and even the classroom blackboard or other posted course notes. For most assignments, no copying of any material, published or otherwise, is permitted. You may not "work together" on an assignment. You may not copy material from the blackboard or from course notes and claim that you wrote it by putting your name on it. You may only put your name on code that you write.

Penalties for Plagiarism

See Algonquin College Policy AA20 for the full text.

Algonquin College has severe penalties for people who claim authorship of material they did not write. In this course, the following rules may apply, depending on the circumstances:

  1. The first occurrence of plagiarism will result in a mark of zero for the assignment. All the students involved (including the student whose work was copied!) may be required to redo the copied assignment individually and an additional assignment may be assigned to ensure that the students have mastered the material. No marks will be awarded for the additional assignment; but, the assignment must be completed satisfactorily to receive credit in the course.
  2. A second occurrence of plagiarism will result in an overall course grade of F for all concerned. If the source of the plagiarized material is an Algonquin student, that student will also be penalized.
  3. Students who knowingly allow their work to be copied (by lending diskettes or source listings, or by leaving their account directories unprotected) will receive the same penalties and sanctions as the plagiariser. Do not share your disks or listings with other students. Do not "help" other students by giving them your code. Protect your account directories; do not share your computer accounts.

Share your ideas, not your source code.

I recommend reading lots of other programs. I do not permit copying any of them and handing in the copy as your own work. If you find you must get help or refer to code that helps solve a problem for an assignment, study the other example to understand how it works and then put it away. Write your own coding solution to the problem without referring to the example.

In those cases where you are authorized to incorporate code from other people into an assignment solution, or where your solution is an authorized modification to someone else's code (including code supplied by your instructor), you must credit the origin of the copied material. Do not copy the material and claim it as your own original work. You must give credit for all material that is not your own work, no matter what its origin. Do not put your name on someone else's work.

Student Attestation of Academic Integrity

See Algonquin College Policy AA20 - Plagiarism for the full text.

I hereby declare that the work I submit throughout the duration of this course will be my own work.

I understand that plagiarism, whether done deliberately or accidentally, is defined as presenting someone else's work, in whole or in part, as one's own, and includes the verbal or written submission of another work (for example, ideas, wording, code, graphics, music, and inventions) without crediting that source. This includes all electronic sources (for example, the Internet, television, video, film, and recordings), all print and written sources (for example, books, periodicals, lyrics, government publications, promotional materials, and academic assignments), and all verbal sources (for example, conversations and interviews).

I understand that the facilitation of plagiarism, that is, one student sharing his or her work with other students, is also considered an act of plagiarism.

I understand that contravening Algonquin College Policy AA20 - Plagiarism will result in an academic sanction(s) as described in this directive.

References


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