What are Students' Responsibilities?

It is every student's responsibility to:

  1. Read, and ensure that you understand, the University-wide Definition of academic misconduct which defines misconduct, and the forms that it can take.
  2. Familiarise yourself with guidance issued by your faculty or department which outlines the referencing techniques and other academic conventions that you will be expected to adhere to.  This will be given to you in your handbook or other induction materials, but if you are in doubt ask your Director of Studies or Tutor.
  3. Ensure that you always follow these conventions, and ask for clarification or support if you need it from your Director of Studies or Tutor. If in doubt about any aspect of academic integrity it is always best to seek clarification at an early stage.

On our Resources and support pages, you can find more information about the various referencing conventions in use at Cambridge and guidance on good academic practice and sources of support.

 

Remember the Golden Rule: THE EXAMINERS MUST BE LEFT IN NO DOUBT AS TO WHICH PARTS OF ANY SUBMISSION ARE YOUR OWN ORIGINAL WORK AND WHICH ARE NOT.

 

Using commercial organisations and essay banks

Writing for commercial organisations or submitting work to essay banks for financial gain undermines the academic system. Working on your own degree is a far better investment than the short term profit to be gained by selling work to such companies. You should contact your Tutor if you have financial concerns: you should never need to resort to selling your work.

Similarly, buying work and submitting it as your own is a form of academic misconduct and carries disciplinary penalties, as well as being unethical and a waste of the study opportunities open to you at Cambridge.

 

How the University detects and disciplines plagiarism

Your examiners are experts in their field and are therefore extremely likely to spot work that has been copied from another source or not referenced appropriately. Your faculty or department may also check the authenticity of your work by using specialist software, such as (but not only) Turnitin UK, which can detect matching text. This can identify work submitted by another student, even if they are studying at another University, as well as from the internet and particular journals.

Any suspected cases of plagiarism will be investigated by the University. This might involve initially being interviewed by the Examiners and Proctors and could ultimately lead to suspension from the University or failure.

 

Collusion

It can be a very useful study technique to discuss and share ideas with your peers, but it is important to understand the difference between collaboration with another student and copying each other's work:

  • if you wish to collaborate with another person on your project, you should check with your supervisor whether this might be allowed and then seek permission as appropriate;
  • if you have been authorised to work together with another candidate or other researchers, you must acknowledge their contribution fully in your introductory section. If there is likely to be any doubt as to who contributed which parts of the work, you should make this clear in the text wherever necessary, e.g., 'I am grateful to A. Smith for analysing the sodium content of these samples'.
  • Graduate research students should refer to the Research Best Practice pages of the Cambridge Students site, for information on collusion and Intellectual Property (IP)


Proofreading

Students have overall authorial responsibility for their work, but having an independent proofreader check or comment on your work can be helpful.  It is important that students, supervisors, examiners and proofreaders understand what is and is not acceptable when checking text.  Students should note that the use of a proofreader will not be accepted in mitigation of any deficiencies in their work.