Academic integrity and honesty are fundamental principles in teaching and learning at SAE. The University College aims to produce graduates with strong ethical and moral values. An essential aspect of academic integrity is producing your own original work.

Plagiarism is using the work of others without due acknowledgement, deliberately or unintentionally, and proclaiming it or allowing it to be considered as one’s own. This applies to all written documents, interpretations, computer software, designs, music, sounds, images, photographs, and ideas that were created by someone else.

Plagiarism is a serious violation of academic values and has potentially serious consequences. See the steps in dealing with academic integrity matters in the SAE Academic Integrity Procedure, which is designed to support the implementation of the Academic Integrity Policy. While there are cases of deliberate plagiarism or cheating, most cases of student plagiarism are the result of ignorance, carelessness or a lack of good writing skills.

Common forms of plagiarism include:

• Copying or paraphrasing another person's work (any document, audio-visual material, computer-based material or artistic piece) without appropriate acknowledgement of the source.
• Representing the work of another person as your own work.
• Using, adapting or developing an idea from the work of others without appropriate acknowledgement
• Submitting an assignment that is all or partly written or created by someone else (including AI tools).

A lesser-known form of plagiarism is self-plagiarism.

Self-plagiarism is the presentation of your own previously published or submitted work as original; like plagiarism, self-plagiarism is unethical. You cannot submit the same assessment item for two separate units or re-use part of a previously submitted assessment item without referencing the earlier work. You should always seek permission from the Unit Coordinator if you wish to re-use your own work. 

Please note that self-plagiarism only refers to re-using material that has been published or submitted as part of a formal assessment. You are free to re-use your own work if it only exists in draft form and has not been previously submitted as part of an assessment in order to receive academic credit in any institution.

How to avoid plagiarism:

• Write all your notes in your own words.
• Improve your note-taking skills - write down where you obtained the information you put in your notes.
• Learn how to quote, paraphrase or summarise. Always cite the sources of ideas and information. Do this even when paraphrasing.
• At the end of your work, write a full list of references.
• For details on how to reference and cite sources, see the SAE Library APA7 Referencing guide.

If you need help with your writing skills, book an appointment with a Learning Advisor.