Plagiarism - Computer Science, UTSC

Plagiarism is a kind of fraud: passing off someone else's work or ideas as your own in order to get a higher mark. Plagiarism is treated very seriously. The assignments you hand in must be your own and must not contain anyone else's ideas. Refer to the section on Code of Behavior on Academic Matters in the Calendar for a more detailed description of plagiarism.

Guidelines for avoiding plagiarism

You may discuss assignments with friends and classmates, but only up to a point: You may discuss and compare general approaches, but you must not leave such discussions with any recorded material. You must not look at someone else's solution to an assignment on paper or on the computer screen, even in draft form. The actual coding of your programs, analysis of results, and writing of reports must be done individually.

If you do talk with anyone about an assignment, then you must state this in your assignment and state the extent of your discussion. Also, if you make use of other resources such as books or webpages, then you must state this in your assignment and paraphrase the solution in a way that shows you actually understand the material.

Note that it is also a serious offense to help someone commit plagiarism. Do not lend your printouts, reports or memory sticks, and do not let others copy or read them. To protect yourself against people copying your work without your knowledge, retain all of your old printouts and draft notes until the assignments have been graded and returned to you. If you suspect that someone has stolen a printout or memory stick, contact your instructor immediately.

To help you avoid committing plagiarism, here are some rules that you must follow.

1. After any discussion about an assignment, you must immediately destroy all notes from such discussions and you must wait at least one hour before going back to the work you discussed.
2. Never discuss an assignment with anyone if he/she is going to leave with recorded notes or is going to return to his/her work without spending an hour doing something other than the work you just discussed.
3. Never show anyone (other than your instructor or tutor) anything, even in draft form, that you intend to submit as your own work.
4. Never let anyone show you anything, even in draft form, that he/she is likely to submit as his/her own work.
5. If you make use of material from a source other than your current course texts and notes (for examples, books, journals, webpages, solutions to assignments from past or concurrent offerings of a course), then you must do the following.
   • You must make appropriate reference to the source of what you use.
   • After consulting such sources, you must wait at least one hour before writing out your solution on your own.
   The first point helps you to avoid committing plagiarism. The second point helps you to avoid getting zero for your work. After all, when we read the work you submit, it must be clear that it is your work and yours alone, and that you fully understand it.

Helping each other

Although you must not solve your assignments with the help of others, there are still many ways in which students can help each other. For instance, you can go over difficult lecture or tutorial material, work through exercises, or help each other understand an assignment handout. This sort of course collaboration can be done in study groups.