Plagiarism guidelines
You can find the current and valid version of the Plagiarism Policy on the website of the Faculty of Linguistics, Literature and Cultural Studies.
What is plagiarism?
Plagiarism is a blatant violation of the principles of good scientific practice and will be severely punished in all Faculty degree programs. An examination paper (or preliminary work) is plagiarized if the author adopts the findings, thoughts, ideas, argumentation (individual arguments, chains of argumentation), outline structures or formulations of others and passes them off as his/her own work. It is also considered plagiarism to take your own texts or text passages that have already been submitted as examination work and present them as new work. Plagiarism is an attempt to deceive students about the nature and extent of their own work. The most common forms of plagiarism are
- the verbatim copying of entire texts or individual passages from texts by others or oneself without labeling them as citations or self-citations and citing the source
- the paraphrased adoption of findings, thoughts, ideas, arguments, structures, etc. without labeling them as borrowed material and citing the source
- the verbatim or almost verbatim adoption of text passages with reference to the source but without labeling as a citation (here it is pretended that own formulation work and a scientific examination of the material have been carried out)
- the use of translated foreign-language texts or text passages without labeling them as quotations and citing the source.
Familiarize yourself with the citation rules of your subject -- many Institutes and Chairs offer handouts on this! Take advantage of the offers in courses in which citation and other techniques of academic work are discussed (e.g. in introductory courses or tutorials)! Take advantage of the opportunities offered by your examiners to obtain feedback on examinations (e.g. debriefing of assignments, access to correction comments)!
Procedure in cases of plagiarism
If the suspicion of plagiarism in an examination or partial performance is confirmed, the examiners must inform the responsible Examination Committee immediately. The notification must be accompanied by the work in question and the reasons for it.
After examination by the Examination Committee and a positive result, an official notification of plagiarism will be issued to the student concerned, in which the failure of the examination and the award of the grade "fail" (5.0) will be communicated.
With reference to the relevant paragraph of the examination regulations, it is also pointed out that in the event of a repeat attempt, the student may be excluded from further examinations (possibly resulting in de-registration).
Any attempt to cheat will also be noted on the grade certificate.
In order to insist on compliance with the rules of Research Associate work, all examiners will only accept written work if it is accompanied by a declaration of independence with the following wording:
"I confirm that I have written the paper independently and have not used any sources or aids other than those stated. I am submitting it for the first time as an examination paper. I am aware that an attempt to cheat will be penalized with the grade 'insufficient' (5.0) and may lead to exclusion from further examinations if repeated."