Good Academic Practice

The Union

What is it and why does it matter?

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Throughout your time at Heriot-Watt University, you may hear or read the phrases academic integrity, good academic conduct, academic quality, and other similar phrases. But what do these words actually mean?

All these phrases refer to the expectation that all students of Heriot-Watt University will engage in honest, fair, ethical, and truthful academic practice. The university expects that all work submitted as part of your degree will be your own, with credit given where you have used other sources of information to supplement your work.

Academic integrity is one of Heriot-Watt University’s most valued policies. When you register as a student, you promise to follow this policy. If you break this policy, you have committed academic misconduct, an offence that the University takes very seriously, and can affect your marks, final award, or degree classification. Academic misconduct can either occur due to intentional actions, or unintentional mistakes. Regardless of whether the academic misconduct is intentional or unintentional, there will always be a penalty.

Therefore, it is very important that you understand the rules of academic conduct, and how to avoid academic misconduct. There are several types of academic misconduct. Typical types include:

Plagiarism

Self-plagiarism

Collusion

Contract Cheating

Misuse of generative AI

Exam misconduct

Research misconduct

The best way to avoid academic misconduct is to improve your academic writing and referencing skills. The Study Skills Hub and English Gym are both free, university-run resources where you can receive one-to-one help.

Additionally, we’ve created a simple, easy to read guide that explains each type of misconduct and addresses some of the most common mistakes and misunderstandings we see students make that result in them facing an allegation of academic misconduct.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the act of presenting someone else’s work, words, or ideas as your own. If you use or reference someone else’s ideas, words, or work in your assignment, you must give them credit. You do this by including a citation within the text of your assignment, as well as a works cited or reference page (sometimes also called a bibliography) at the end of your assignment.

This chart describes some of the most common mistakes students make, and some ideas for how to avoid them:

Common Mistakes	How To Avoid
Not using quotation marks around words taken directly from another source, such as a website, lecture slides, an academic article, or course material.	If you are using three or more words in a row taken directly from another source, you must put these words in quotes and cite the original source.
Using the wrong style of referencing.	There are many styles of referencing (such as APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, Turabian, etc.), each with their own way to format your citations. Make sure you are using the one your tutor is asking you to use!
Paraphrasing incorrectly, or not understanding what paraphrasing is.	Paraphrasing is NOT simply taking text and rearranging the words or changing a couple of words. Paraphrasing IS writing about an idea/theory topic in entirely your own words. Imagine someone stopped you on the road and asked you to summarise something you’d read a week ago. Unless you’ve got a perfect memory, you wouldn’t be able to recite what you’d read word for word. It would be your own understanding of what you’d read, after you’d had time to digest it. THIS is paraphrasing.
Not including a citation when paraphrasing.	Remember that when you paraphrase something you’ve read or heard, you are still referring to someone else’s work or idea. Therefore, you must still cite the original source!
Not citing information due to not remembering where it came from.	Many students take excellent notes during lectures, forget to write down where the content came from, and then use these notes to write an assignment. If you have copied down the information exactly as it was presented without a citation, it will be flagged as plagiarism. Be sure that if you use lecture notes to write an assignment, you are able to remember where it is necessary to include a proper citation!
Not realizing that tutors use similarity checkers to detect possible plagiarism.	Most tutors will use a program called Turnitin to check the similarity between a student’s assignment and other written content. It can check the similarity with any student paper submitted to any university, other academic material such as textbooks and articles, and other internet sources. Turnitin then produces a similarity report, which reports the total percentage of content that matches another source, as well as lists the sources that the copied material came from. Although Turnitin is not a plagiarism checker, it aids tutors in determining whether plagiarism could have taken place, especially if a high percentage is reported.

Self-Plagiarism

Self-plagiarism has earned its own section because it is such a commonly misunderstood concept.

One might think, if plagiarism is using or presenting someone else’s words or ideas as my own, then it couldn’t be possible to plagiarize myself, right? WRONG!

Self-plagiarism is the act of reusing work that you have already earned credit for. Self-plagiarism can arise from using chunks of an old essay for a new assignment, or by reusing an essay from a previous degree. It can also arise from using text from an academic article which you yourself have authored or co-authored. It is confusing because while they are your own words, if they are being presented as a new idea, or you’ve already received credit for the work that you did, you cannot receive credit for it again. If you need or wish to refer to work you’ve previously published or submitted, you need to cite it as you would any other reference. The only exception is if you have been explicitly told you can do so.

Collusion

Collusion occurs when two or more students have worked together to produce answers or work that were meant to be done individually. This can sometime be unintentional, as many students are keen to help their friends and to work in groups. To avoid confusion, we’ve made a chart to clarify what collusion IS and what it ISN’T, in hopes that it will help students avoid crossing the line from collaborating with peers to committing collusion.

Collusion IS	Collusion IS NOT
Sharing answers for assignments meant to be done individually.	Working together on a group project where collaboration is explicitly permitted.
Copying someone’s work.	Engaging in classroom discussions.
Letting someone copy your work.	Using the same sources as someone else.
Discussing your answers with someone else.	Discussing course concepts with a study group.
Sending your answers or work to someone.	Asking a friend to clarify coursework requirements, such as word count and referencing style.
Working together to gather lab data but then working together to analyze the data and submitting the same report.	Working together to gather lab data but analyzing the results individually.

Remember, unless specifically told otherwise, you are typically always marked on your own knowledge, understandings, and analysis. Students should engage in discussion and debates about general course topics with friends and peers but NEVER share specific answers for assessment submissions, whether that is text, artwork, design, data, analysis, code, or other information.

Contract Cheating

Contract cheating is when a student arranges for someone or an organization to produce the answers to their academic work. This might involve paying someone to write your assignment for you or having a friend or relative do it for free. Either way, someone else has done the work that you have tried to pass off as your own, which the university considers inexcusable.

In addition to being a very serious case of academic misconduct, contract cheating holds extra risks due to the involvement of third parties. Many students who have paid for work fall victim to blackmail schemes, where third parties threaten to report the student to the university unless more money is paid. Students who engage in contract cheating might also be reported by other students, who find their cheating unacceptable.

Tips to avoid falling victim to the evils of contract cheating:

Avoid essay mills. Essay mills are organizations that offer to complete any type of academic work for a fee. They commonly promise many things, such as high marks, zero plagiarism, affordability, and professionalism. Do not believe them. Many of these mills recycle essays, leading to allegations of plagiarism as well as contract cheating. Many also aim to blackmail students and use scare tactics to extort more money from them.

Do not sell your own academic work. Not only do students who have bought work get into trouble, but any student found to be selling work or materials will also be penalized. Sometimes students who have been found out for contract cheating wish to bring others down with them, meaning if they bought work from you, they might report you to the conduct department as well.

Apply for mitigating circumstances. Sometimes students engage in contract cheating out of sheer desperation. If something in your life is preventing you from studying effectively, such as an illness, mental health issue, unexpected financial burdens, or any other stressful situation, you can inform the university by completing a mitigating circumstances application. This way the university can support you without you needing to turn to cheating. A moment of poor judgement might result in a loss of your degree.

Misuse of Generative AI

The rise in generative AI use has exploded in the past few years, and many people are divided on the topic. As the policy stands at the moment, students are only permitted to use generative AI for coursework if it is explicitly allowed in your course, and only in the way that it is allowed to be used. It is important that you check your course handbook or ask your course tutor if you are unclear about whether you are allowed to use AI.

However, all students should keep in mind the following points:

It is never appropriate to simply copy and paste an answer from an AI program. This would be submitting work that you have not done yourself, which is academic misconduct.

It is more obvious than you think to tell when a student has used AI to write an assignment. Many students may not realize, but it can be incredibly obvious when a student has copied and pasted an answer from an AI programme without making any changes. AI programmes have a very formulaic way that they output answers and tend to include overly elaborate language. Tutors can tell.

Gen AI isn’t always accurate. Tutors have found that Gen AI programme’s will sometimes put in sources and citations that do not exist or are inaccurate. Never rely on Gen AI to be completely accurate and free from mistakes.

Exam Misconduct

Exam misconduct is doing anything during an exam that is not allowed, or not following the exam protocol. This can include bringing your phone into an exam, attempting to communicate with other students, bringing notes with you, copying off someone else, and letting someone else copy off you, and failing to follow the invigilator’s instructions. Invigilators must report anything they suspect might be exam misconduct, so be incredibly careful and vigilant in following all rules and instructions. Even mistakes or ‘forgetting’ to leave your phone outside the exam hall will count as misconduct.

Remember: if something outside of your control happens before or during the exam which could affect your academic performance, complete a mitigating circumstances application!

Research Misconduct

Research misconduct is doing anything during a research project that is dishonest or violates the approved ethics application. This can include:

Falsifying (making up) data

Specifically selecting data that support your desired outcome

Intentional suppression of relevant findings, or presenting intentionally flawed interpretations

Breach of research ethics, such as using different data collection methods than were approved, revealing participant identities, or not obtaining informed consent

....and so much more. Find more specific guidance on research misconduct here.