It’s essential to understand the importance of academic integrity and know that it's your responsibility to adhere to UCL's high academic standards.
The aim of this guide is to show you what common issues our advisors see when supporting students through academic misconduct allegations and show you the resources available to help you avoid academic misconduct.
We've seen a variety of academic misconduct allegations - not all of which result in a finding of academic misconduct - so here are some common issues we see and how to avoid them.
Incorrect Referencing
- Don’t assume that how you referenced at a different institution is what your department want.
- Check your programme handbook or ask your department which style you should use.
- Any content that you put into your work and is not your own should be referenced. This includes images, webpages, graphs and data.
- Any content that you reference must exist. Generative AI (GenAI) is known for creating fake sources and references.
- If you use GenAI to create your bibliography or write your references, you must check that the referencing style GenAI has used is correct.
- UCL Library Services provides a guide on referencing and a tutorial on how to cite sources.
Unauthorised Collaboration
- Working with friends when you’re supposed to work alone can lead to collusion.
- Sometimes you may be encouraged to work with others or do a group project. If you’re unsure what you're allowed to do or share, ask your personal tutor or module leader for clarification, or check your programme handbook.
- Don’t share your work with friends, even if they are under pressure or need your help. You may be reported for academic misconduct if your friend uses your work or your notes in their own submission, even if you didn't know they would do this.
- If your friend is struggling, encourage them to speak to their personal tutor or Student Support and Wellbeing Services. If they need more time or another type of mitigation, they can use the Delayed Assessment Scheme or the Extenuating Circumstances process, depending on their circumstances.
Paraphrasing
- This involves rewording a sentence, paragraph or idea in your own words.
- Some referencing styles have specific requirements. If you’re using Harvard Referencing and some words stay the same in the same order (three or more consecutive words), you need to use quotation marks around these words.
- Review Paraphrasing for Beginners and the Good academic practice in the use of sources tutorials to help you understand how to paraphrase correctly.
UCL provides a test version of Turnitin via the “Plagiarism and academic writing for students” Moodle course. You can use this to check your work before submitting it as an assignment and make any corrections to how you have referenced. Importantly, your work will not be compared against the test version when you submit it.
Turnitin can only highlight similarities between your work and other sources. A high similarity percentage does not mean that you have committed academic misconduct, but you should check the similarities to ensure that you have referenced, quoted and paraphrased correctly.
Turnitin does not detect GenAI and UCL does not use any other GenAI detectors when marking. Instead, if a marker has any concerns about your work, they may speak to you to get more information. This doesn't automatically mean that they suspect you of academic misconduct.
To help you avoid academic misconduct, check out UCL's online resources:
- Academic Integrity Course: An online, self-paced course that helps you understand academic integrity
- Library Services: Library Services provide a guide on referencing, citations and avoiding plagiarism
- Turnitin Similarity Checker: This Moodle course allows you to check your work confidentially using the Turnitin Similarity tool
- Academic Communication Centre: ACC supports you to develop your academic language and literacies, including one-to-one tutorials and workshops
If you are considering using Generative AI (GenAI), it is essential that you read UCL's guidance on Can you use AI in exams and assessments?
Whether you can and how much you can use GenAI varies on your department and the specific module assessment criteria. You should be given an assessment brief or assessment instructions which explain whether GenAI can be used, and how. If you don’t know what acceptable use is, talk to the module leader for the assessment you're working on. In Engaging with Generative AI in your education and assessment, UCL state that “If no explicit instructions are given, the default for assessments should be that you use GenAI in an assistive role while making sure that the final submission is still substantially your own work”.
Transparency in your use of GenAI is crucial to maintain academic integrity and avoid misunderstandings. If you do choose to use GenAI tools, you should keep drafts of your work so you can evidence your writing process and record what prompts you give the GenAI tools and the answers it gives. If your department then suspect you have used GenAI incorrectly, you can show this evidence as proof of what is your work and what was written by GenAI.
If you don’t know how to acknowledge that you have used GenAI, the Library Skills pages share guidance on how and when to acknowledge GenAI in your work.
If your department suspects that you have used GenAI incorrectly or you have not acknowledged that you have used it, then you may be invited to an investigatory viva. During an investigatory viva, you will be asked questions to test your knowledge and understanding of the subject topic area and the content of your written submission.
Our experience of academic misconduct allegations involving GenAI include:
- AI-generated references which do not exist or are not relevant to the assignment content
- Not reading the book or article which GenAI has referenced
- Using data which GenAI has falsified
- The assignment content not being relevant to the question, leading to suspicion that the work is written by GenAI
- Work which is too generic on the assignment subject and doesn't include personal opinions or perspectives where these should be included
- Not acknowledging that GenAI has been used
- Use of translation software in the writing process, where the software rewrites a large proportion of your work
Your Advice Service can offer support throughout the Academic Misconduct process, including:
- Helping you understand your Academic Misconduct Report Form
- Reading through drafts of your statement
- Attending a panel meeting as your ‘friend’ for moral support
To book an appointment, please use our contact form.
You can also use our guide to Writing an Academic Misconduct statement to help you start and send our guide on how to Support a Student in a Meeting/Panel to any UCL staff or students you would like to have accompany you as a 'friend' to a panel.
If you receive an allegation of academic misconduct, it can be worrying and upsetting. We recommend that you speak to Student Support and Wellbeing Services if you’re upset by the allegation.