Academic misconduct is an act of obtaining or attempting to obtain or helping others to obtain or attempting to obtain an unfair academic advantage in university tasks, assessment, or any other activity that threatens the integrity of scholarship and research.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is a form of academic fraud that results from lying, disingenuous, untrustworthy, dishonest, and contemptuous attitude towards peers. Plagiarism occurs when someone steals the idea of someone else without disclosing the source, giving the appearance that the concept is his own. This may happen in situations below:
- One takes the whole idea, every word from published article or book
- One takes the idea from the book or article but using his own words without citing the source
- One takes idea from exchange of views in conferences, seminars or webinars, forums, talks or casual discussions between two or more people
- One treats data, figures, tables, images, or any other illustrative substance obtained from others as his own
In short, plagiarism is using the ideas, research, outcomes, or writings of others without proper citation that indicates no appropriate credit was given.
Types of academic misconduct & plagiarism
Academic misconduct includes but is not limited to:
- Plagiarism
- Cheating
- Submission of the identical work for multiple courses without getting permission from the instructor
- Portraying as someone else in process of going through a test or exam
- Discussing tasks, tests, and exams without permission from the instructors
- Purchasing or use any other means to gain term papers or assignments
- Fabricating, misrepresenting, or forging an academic record or supporting document
Plagiarism acts include but are not limited to:
- Presentation of another person's work, or research as own work
- Utilization of another person’s idea, outcomes of experiments, research materials, or analysis of discussions without proper citation or crediting the owner of the idea.
- Copying any words, or ideas without citing the sources such as from articles, figures, audio materials, images, multimedia products, art items, practical artifacts and many more that is related to the work that is plagiarized.
- Other act that is considered linked to plagiarism and fraud as accordance to the university authority
How to avoid academic misconduct & plagiarism
- Use own words, ideas and concept when doing assignments, tests, and exams
- Paraphrase and summarize ideas that are extracted from the internal or external sources
- Citing the source by using either in-text citation and providing the reference list
- Utilizing the platform ‘Turnitin’ that detects the percentage of plagiarism to prevent this type of academic misconduct to occur and upholding the integrity of academics in the university. The similarity index shall not exceed a certain percentage such as 10%, depending on the respective faculty.
Ways to report
Complaints can be made through various channel, such as:
Via e-mail
Via telephone
+603-7967 3400/ +603-7967 7853/ +603-7967 7934/ +603-7967 7910
Via fax
+603-7955 2975
Via post/letter
Integrity Unit, Office of the Vice-Chancellor,
Level 9, Chancellery Building,
Universiti Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia.
Level 9, Chancellery Building,
Universiti Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia.
Walk-in
Complainant can request to see an officer at the address above.
Appointment can be made through this number:
+603-7967 3400/ +603-7967 7853/ +603-7967 7934/ +603-7967 7910
Appointment can be made through this number:
+603-7967 3400/ +603-7967 7853/ +603-7967 7934/ +603-7967 7910
Via online form
- docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfB0H6bMWEa2D-gKnmnGI_4ITC5vfm5Z-9NBvHucJfjgpgWfA/viewformUM Integrity Online Form (General Complaint)
- Scan QR Code (you can scan the QR code from your mobile devices)
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Process of handling cases of academic misconduct & plagiarism
Academic Work
Course work of student / candidate for course evaluation
- Course work includes assignments, project papers, designs, computer programmes, laboratory reports / research reports, and other types of work completed alone and/or in groups. Reports on research projects are also categorized under course work.
- Upon receiving the Plagiarism Complaint Form, the Head of RC must take an immediate action to lodge it to the lecturer of the course.
- Within a week, the lecturer of the course must lodge a report to the Head of RC by filling out the Plagiarism Report on the assignments, tasks or projects made and completed by the student / candidate.
- If the course work contains plagiarism aspects that surpass the similarity index percentage for the RC, the Head of RC shall send a show cause letter to the student / candidate within a week after receiving the plagiarism report. The Head of RC shall notify the complainant of the judgment in cases plagiarism cannot be proven, or the work is below the similarity index % allowed for RC.
- Within a week of receiving the show cause letter, the student or candidate must put forward a written statement of clarification.
- Upon the Head of RC receiving response from the student or candidate. The RC’S JKSP (Plagiarism Investigation Committee) needs to be established. In cases where there is evidence of plagiarism, JKSP will have to make a decision whether to grant the student a zero mark or to refer the student or candidate to the Student Disciplinary Committee. But if there is no evidence of plagiarism, the head of RC shall be notified by JKSP. The Head of RC will be responsible in requesting the lecture to re-evaluate the assignment or work that was submitted and assign proper grade.
- No later than two weeks after receiving the plagiarism report, the JKSP report must be sent to the Head of RC.
- The Head of RC shall inform the student and the one who filed the complaint of the JKSP's decision. Plagiarism should be reported to the RC meeting if it is proven.
- The student or candidate has the right to appeal the RC meeting's decision. The appeal should be sent to the Student Disciplinary Appeal Committee, along with a copy to the RC Head.
Dissertation / Thesis Examination
- If an examiner thinks that a dissertation or thesis submitted for examination by a postgraduate candidate contains elements of plagiarism, the examiner is obligated to file a report to the Committee of Examiners.In the examination report form, a report on the questioned act of plagiarism must be created, together with evidence of the plagiarised original source.
- The report will be investigated by the Committee of Examiners. During the viva voce, the Committee of Examiners may ask for explanation from the candidate in regard to the dissertation or thesis. In situations where the RC’s did not practice viva voce, the Committee of Examiners must send a show cause letter to acquire a written explanation of the report collected.
- If the Committee of Examiners determines that additional inquiry is necessary, the report will be sent to the JKKS (Special Committee of Inquiry) formed by the Head of RC.
- The JKKS is in charge of investigating the report collected and lodging a show cause letter to the candidate involved for explanation. Within two months, the report and recommendation from JKKS must be lodged to the Committee of Examiners for review and judgment. In situations where there is evidence of plagiarism, the Committee of Examiners have the power to determine whether the candidate is given the result as further work or failed. The Committee of Examiners may refer the candidate to the University Disciplinary Committee consistent with the appropriateness of the case. But in situations where there is no evidence of plagiarism after investigating, the Committee of Examiners must decide on the thesis or dissertation submitted by complying with the provisions of the Rules and Regulations of the University of Malaya that controls the candidate’s program of study.
- Findings and results of the Committee of Examiners shall be reported in the Faculty and Senate meetings.
- The decision of the Senate shall be informed to the candidate. The candidate may exercise his right to appeal against the decision of the Faculty and / or Senate in compliance with the procedure laid out under Appeal, i.e. in the Appeal Review of the Thesis Examination Results or Dissertation in the Rules and Regulations of the University of Malaya governing the level of study.
Graduates
In cases of involvement of graduates with plagiarism, the process shall follow the Work Procedure for Stripping of the Degree, Diploma, Certificate and Other Academic Honors awarded to Graduates of the University Malaya due to plagiarism.
Publication
Publication by student/ candidate
- Immediate action to inform the lecturer or supervisor of the student must be taken by the Head of RC upon receiving the Plagiarism Complaint Form.
- Within a week, the lecturer or supervisor must submit a report to the Head of RC by filling out the Plagiarism Report on the product of the publication by the student or candidate.
- If the results of the publication contain aspects of plagiarism, the Head of RC shall send a show cause letter to the student or candidate within a week of receiving the plagiarism report. If there is no evidence of plagiarism, the Head of RC must inform the complainant of the decision.
- Within a week of receiving the show cause letter, the student or candidate must put forward a written statement of clarification.
- Upon the Head of RC receiving response from the student or candidate. The RC’S JKSP needs to be established. Say that there is evidence of plagiarism, the JKSP may propose to the Head of RC to reject the publication to fulfill the graduation requirements of the student or candidate’s course requirement. But if there is no evidence, the publication must be accepted by the RC.
- No later than two weeks after receiving the plagiarism report, the JKSP report must be sent to the Head of RC.
- The student/candidate and the complainant will be notified of JKSP's decision. The student has the right to appeal JKSP's judgement to the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic and International).
Publication by Academic Staff
Should there be any publication submitted by the academic staff that is suspected to correlate with plagiarism, it shall be reported to the Integrity Unit by the Head of RC for further action.
Penalties
Plagiarism is a serious academic offence that can lead to serious penalties for students, such as:
- Getting a "Fail" grade for the plagiarized work such as assignment, project, or thesis
- Getting suspended for one-semester or one-academic-session
- Being expelled from the university
- Getting revocation of degree
Written by: Deanna F. Eizlyn binti Khairul Herman