What is academic responsibility and conduct: Home

Make good quality notes. Look at the Making notes while reading section of Skills for Study (S for S) and our Notemaking guide.

Reference accurately in the correct referencing style. See Citing and Referencing. 

Avoid overusing direct quotations. See Quoting without plagiarising (S for S). Note: this applies to text cut and pasted from online sources as well as quotations from print sources.

Where you have paraphrased or summarised another person's work, acknowledge this through correct citing and referencing. See Ways of using other writers' texts (S for S) for examples.

Complete the Understanding plagiarism section (S for S) for further guidance on different ways of using academic sources without plagiarising them.

See this helpful plagiarism infographic created by the University of Connecticut for a straightforward guide to avoiding plagiarism.

Exams are an important part of University education. Allow yourself sufficient time to revise for your exams so that you are not tempted to cheat. See the exams guide for advice and guidance on how to plan and prepare. 

Make sure that you are familiar with the exam regulations (the web page includes information about use of approved calculators and dictionaries).

Ensure all the work you submit is distinctly your own, for both individual and group assignments.The collaborating or copying activity from Skills for Study (S for S) will help you to understand how you can work with others on group projects.

Understand the difference between getting help and collusion. The guidelines for collaborative work section (S for S) gives advice on how you may collaborate and which activates that would be considered as collusion.

Allow sufficient time to complete your assignments so you are not tempted to take ‘short cuts’ such as copying the work of another student. Use the Assignment Planner to help you manage your time.

External authorship/assistance is where you present work as your own that has been created using unauthorised input from another person or service. This may include asking for unauthorised assistance with assessments, engaging with essay mills, or using artificial intelligence tools in an unauthorised way to generate or alter the content or wording of academic work. The University recommends that you must not use artificial intelligence tools to generate content for any of your assessments unless such use has been specifically authorised. See the following Student Hub Knowledge Base article for more detail. 

Only submit your own work – presenting other peoples’ work as your own is cheating. Avoid the need to take ‘short cuts’ by careful planning and good time management. Try using the Assignment Planner. Ask for help from your Faculty Office if unexpected circumstances mean you need an extension to a deadline. 

Work submitted for an assignment should be new and original, unless you have specific permission to re-use material. If you have permission to submit previous work in a new context you must state this and include an appropriate citation.  Cite Them Right provides guidance on how to cite your own work. 

See our Getting Started website for more guidance on the topic of using your own words/ideas from a previous piece of writing. To test your understanding of recycling or 'self-plagiarism' you can complete a short activity here. You can also find a brief explanation of the topic here. 

Avoid this by ensuring you comply with any legal, regulatory or professional obligations, respect the Intellectual Property (IP) of others (this online tutorial from the Intellectual Property Office explains more about IP), take due care of research participants and personal data (see our Research ethics page for further guidance).

Obtain ethics approval for your research if necessary, see our Research ethics page for further details or check your student handbook.