1. Frequently asked
questions about
plagiarism

2. Frequently asked questions page 1 of 2
Click on the questions below to see the answer
 Do I need to acknowledge sources with no author?
 How do I acknowledge sources that I have not read?
 I found this on a website, do I still have to provide a reference?
 I’m using a fact that everyone knows - do I need to provide a
reference?
 English is not my first language, can other students translate for me?
 What happens if I have an idea that someone else has had
independently?
 How do I reference a website which has no author or date?
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3. Frequently asked questions page 2 of 2
Click on the questions below to see the answer
 I understand that I need to give people credit for ideas they
created, but this is a fact about the world. How can someone own
that?
 I’ve run out of time for my assignment!
 I'm not sure how to reference the source that I've used. Do I have to
provide a reference?
 What is Turnitin?
– What is an acceptable percentage in a Turnitin originality report?
– Percentages in Turnitin: Examples
 What next?
When you are finished, please go back to Blackboard (the window will still be open)
and click “Mark Reviewed”.
3 The next lesson is called “Is this plagiarism?”

4. Do I need to acknowledge sources with no
author?
Even if you cannot find an author you must acknowledge
that the work is not yours
You do this by crediting the author as “Anonymous” or
“Unknown”
This includes images, websites, statistics and computer
code.
For more information go to Click here to
http://www.brad.ac.uk/library/plagiarism#anonymous return to the
index page
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5. How do I acknowledge sources that I have
not read?
 Try not to do this! You will get more marks for reading
everything you reference, especially in science subjects
 If you really cannot read a source (for instance, if it is in a
language you cannot read), you need to acknowledge
both the source you have read and the original source of
the information
For more information go to Click here to
http://www.brad.ac.uk/library/plagiarism# return to the
secondary_referencing index page
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6. I found this on a website: do I still have to
provide a reference?
 You must always give credit to people who create
– Websites
– Newspaper articles
– Models
– Television programmes
– Journal articles
 Or any other place you find out information.
Click here to
For more information go to
return to the
http://www.brad.ac.uk/library/plagiarism
index page
#sources
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7. I’m using a fact that everyone knows - do I
need to provide a reference?
 You do not have to provide a reference for facts that are
“common knowledge”
 “Common knowledge” is basic things that anybody might
know and there is no need to say where you learnt it.
 If you are unsure whether something is “common
knowledge”, try and find a source to back up your
information.
For more information go to Click here to
http://www.brad.ac.uk/library/plagiarism return to the
#common_knowledge index page
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8. I speak English as a foreign language - can
other students translate for me?
 Seek help from official University sources rather than
from your friends
 Your Bradford degree will be taken by employers as
proof that you are fluent in English. We must ensure you
are!
You can get help from the language centre Click here to
http://www.bradford.ac.uk/sled/what-we- return to the
do/university-language-centre/ index page
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9. What happens if I have an idea that
someone else has had independently? Will I
be accused of plagiarism even though I did
not know about the other person’s idea?
 It is very unlikely that you will come up with exactly the
same idea as somebody else.
 Your lecturers can tell the difference between a student
talking about their own idea and a student talking about
something they have read
For more information go to Click here to
http://www.brad.ac.uk/library/plagiarism return to the
#mistaken_plagiarism index page
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10. How do I reference a website which has no
author or date?
 If you cannot find an individual author, it is perfectly
acceptable to cite the organisation producing the website
as the author
 Check for copyright dates and the date that a site was
last updated if you cannot find a date of composition
 If you cannot find a date or an author, should you really
be referencing the source?
For more information go to Click here to
http://www.brad.ac.uk/library/plagiarism# return to the
websites index page
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11. I understand that I need to give people
credit for ideas they created, but
this is a fact about the world. How can
someone own that?
You still need to reference facts for two reasons:
 To establish the authority of the fact, data or statistics you
are quoting.
 You still need to acknowledge the work of others
For more information go to Click here to
http://www.brad.ac.uk/library/plagiarism#facts return to the
index page
11

12. I’ve run out of time for my assignment!
 Try to manage your time carefully
– Note when all your assessments are due
– Work out how much time YOU take to do assignments: you may
take more or less time than your friends!
 Remember that it is better to get a bad mark for a poor
piece of work than no mark for cheating!
For more information go to Click here to
http://www.brad.ac.uk/library/plagiarism# return to the
time_management index page
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13. I'm not sure how to reference the source
that I've used. Do I have to provide a
reference?
 You do need to provide a reference to anything from
which you have taken information
 It is much better to reference a source badly than not
to reference.
 Construct a reference for your source giving enough
information to enable your lecturer to trace the source.
For more information go to the referencing guide for Click here to
your course at return to the
http://www.brad.ac.uk/library/elecinfo/cite.php index page
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14. What is Turnitin?
 Turnitin is a tool that helps your lecturers by showing
parts of your assignments that use very similar words to
other documents in their database.
 It generates a report based on the percentage of
similarity with the sources it examines. This is called the
originality report.
 You may be able to see the originality report, depending
on how the assignment has been set up.
For more information go to
http://www.brad.ac.uk/lss/documentation/turnitinuk-student-
guide/Student-Guide-to-using-TurnitinUK-at-Bradford.pdf
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15. What is an acceptable percentage in a
Turnitin originality report?
 There is no set number that you have to aim for.
 Different kinds of assignment work differently
 A low percentage does not necessarily indicate that there
is no plagiarism
– There are examples of this on the next two pages.
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16. Percentages in Turnitin: Example 1
The whole of the first
paragraph of this
essay was cut and
pasted from
Wikipedia without
acknowledgement.
As it was only the first
paragraph, the
similarity index was
only 22%, but this is
still plagiarism
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17. Percentages in Turnitin: Example 2
This essay used
many
frequently-used
phrases and so
had a similarity
of 32%. This is
not plagiarism.
Click here to
return to the
index page
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18. What next?
Please go back to Blackboard (the window will still be open)
and click “Mark Reviewed.
The next lesson is called “Is this plagiarism?”
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