plagiarise (also plagiarize)
▶ verb
Take (the work or an idea of someone else) and pass it off as one's own.
Stevenson, A., ed., 2010. Oxford Dictionary of English [online]. Revised edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Available from: http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199571123.001.0001/m_en_gb0637210
[From: Beat the Witch-hunt!, Peter Levin's Guide to Avoiding and Rebutting Accusations of Plagiarism for Conscientious Students. Please see this document for full references.]
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a rapidly developing area wherein computer generated content is being used to create text, images and other resources.
Referencing
If you decide to use these tools in your assignments you must reference them. To reference AI generated content, please see our Harvard Bath referencing guide and look under Generative AI content/Chat GPT and we have separate guidance on referencing AI generated images. We also recommend that you review the Centre for Learning and Teaching's guidance on referencing. If you have any questions about referencing AI generated content in your assignments, please email us at library@bath.ac.uk.
Using AI generated content
Artificial intelligence extracts information from the internet to generate content. Therefore, AI generated content may contain biases and not produce factual information. AI generated content can be inconsistent and you might find different answers for the same queries. You should be aware of this if you want to refer back to something the AI content produced previously. You should critically evaluate any AI generated content you do use, as you would with any information you refer to and consider what its strengths and weaknesses are? Take a look at our guidance on lateral reading for more on this.
The journal articles, books and other scholarly resources which are available through the Library are usually peer-reviewed, which means that experts in the subject areas have scrutinised the work before it has been published. Although you should still be critical of what you are reading, the quality of the resources and the facts provided through peer-reviewed resources will be of a much greater quality than computer generated content as it currently stands.
AI currently has severe limitations with dealing with data in terms of mathematics and producing graphs and charts. If you decide to use AI you should use it as a tool to help, not as a means to writing an assignment. If you used AI to write an assignment and claim it as your own work, it would be considered plagiarism, which the University takes very seriously and could harm your university degree and career. For these reasons, managing your time, researching widely and referencing all of your tools and resources is important.
A short introduction video [3:42]
A more in depth video on how to avoid plagiarism [13:17]
Your Course Handbook will contain a section on the penalties if you are caught plagiarising. These can range from being given 0% for a piece of assessed work to failing your degree. You may not think it happens, but since 2000 at least one University of Bath student who had plagiarised has been refused a degree and left the University after four years with nothing to show for their time here, not even a favourable reference.
Taken from:
Netskills, 2007, What is plagiarism? [online]. Available from: https://slideplayer.com/slide/6853351/ [Accessed 11 September 2018].
Taken from section 5.4 of the Moodle course: How to avoid Plagiarism
References
Hansen, S., 2004. Dear plagiarists: you get what you pay for [online]. New York Times, August 22, 2004. Available from: https://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/22/books/essay-dear-plagiarists-you-get-what-you-pay-for.html [accessed 10 September 2018].
Levinson, H., 2005a. Internet essays prove poor buys [online]. BBC News, April 7, 2005. Available from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4420845.stm [accessed 19 September 2009].
Levinson, H., 2005b. Essay sales ‘belittle education’ [online]. BBC News, April 15, 2005. Available from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4445357.stm [accessed 19 September 2009].
McGrath, C., 2006. At $9.95 a page, you expected poetry? [online]. New York Times, September 10, 2006. Available from: https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/10/weekinreview/10mcgrath.html?_r=1 [accessed 10 September 2018].
Also, some tutors use technology to uncover plagiarism and there are many different ways by which they can do this. For example there are pieces of software available that enable staff to conduct electronic comparisons of students’ work against a range of electronic sources including web sites and essays from cheat sites.
Taken from:
University of Essex, 2014, Plagiarism and how to avoid it [online]. Available from: https://www1.essex.ac.uk/outreach/documents/plagiarism.pdf [Accessed 10 September 2018].
Detecting plagiarism is reactive, short term, time consuming and can have a negative effect on students. Deterring plagiarism is proactive, has lasting impact and should have a largely positive effect.
Adapted from:
JISC, 2012, Plagiarism awareness [online]. Available from: https://rsc-archive.jisc.ac.uk/mod/page/view.php?id=708 [Accessed 10 September 2018].