What is plagiarism?
Plagiarism is presenting someone else’s work as if it were your own, whether you mean to or not. ‘Someone else’s work’ means anything that is not your own expression. It includes material from books, commentaries or any other printed source, work you have previously submitted, the work of other students, lecturers’ notes, or information from the Internet. Plagiarism is copyright infringement when the work being copied has been declared as legally belonging to another.
Strategies for avoiding plagiarism
- Cite all references to another author’s work.
- Put in quotation marks everything that comes directly from a text, especially when taking notes.
- Do not just rearrange or replace a few words.
- Do not paraphrase or copy work you have already submitted. If you re-do a lesson test, it must be written from scratch.
- Take notes when reading around a subject, and use your notes to produce your own work.
What is copyright?
“Copyright” is a property right which protects the expression of ideas, by giving the copyright owner the exclusive right to do certain specified restricted acts in relation to the work. In other words, copyright is when you have declared legal ownership of a piece of work that you have created. Copyright applies to original literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works; sound recordings, films, broadcasts or cable programmes; and the typographical arrangement of published editions.
The copyright owner has the legal right to publish, translate, adapt or amend, change or copy parts of a work, and to give someone else permission to use it.
BIBS Authenticity Policy & Procedure
Aims
BIBS is fully committed to helping students gain a deeper understanding of the Scriptures. This is achieved by means of lectures, tutorials and group study. Students are also taught how to use basic tools such as the Bible, lexicon, concordance and dictionary to maximum effect to aid study.
BIBS also encourages students to access and assimilate information from a wide range of trusted sources to increase knowledge and expand the mind. The aim of BIBS is to ensure that all student expressions are original. The Bible instructs us to study the Scriptures for the sole purpose of showing ourselves approved unto God.
Submitting work that is copied from another source (copyright or not) is a reproach. Plagiarism is therefore unacceptable and will not be tolerated at BIBS. Your work is assessed in good faith on the assumption that it is original; however, all teachers are widely read and will quickly detect plagiarism.
Assessments enable us to determine your knowledge and understanding of the Scriptures and to provide help where appropriate. Copying does not display your knowledge or understanding, but it does speak loudly about your character. Strive for excellence.
Quotes that are used but not explained in your own words are not considered evidence of understanding. Examples and illustrations should be used to support your own expressions; explanations in your own words are evidence of your understanding. Lecturers’ notes are designed to assist your revision during private study and must not be copied verbatim. Please refer to the BIBS Standard Reporting Format for the exact percentage of referencing permitted, as this varies by course (for example, the Certificate Course may cite up to 10%).
All students are required to:
- Adhere to the BIBS policy on plagiarism.
- Respect and comply with the copyright laws in the UK.
- Submit a bibliography with your work, identifying all sources accessed.
- Only submit work that is original.
Detection procedures
- All assessors are widely read and are likely to detect plagiarism.
- Work submitted by family members, friends and acquaintances is marked together and compared.
- The writing style is compared throughout.
- Work may be sampled on the Internet, and the electronic copy of your work checked for plagiarism.
Procedures for non-compliance
If a student is found to have submitted part or the whole of someone else’s work as their own, the work will be immediately returned and ‘No Level’ assigned. The same applies where a student resubmits more than five percent of a previous lesson test or assignment, or has not referenced work cited. The student will not be allowed to resubmit that lesson test or assignment in the same academic year, but will be encouraged to retake the unit in a future year.
The assessor will subsequently discuss the matter with the student and issue a verbal warning; minutes will be taken of the meeting, with one copy given to the student and a copy held in the central file. If the offence is repeated by the same student, no more work will be accepted from that student for assessment, though the student may continue at BIBS until the course is completed.
