Plagiarism

Plagiarism is an area of great focus at University of Copenhagen at the moment. At LIFE, the following actions have been taken:

• Student Services has prepared a flyer on plagiarism in Danish and English explaining that plagiarism is a very serious offence and that plagiarism is illegal and has serious consequences if discovered.

• The flyer is handed out to exchange students and full-degree students at their first welcome meeting.
  
  
• New Danish students will be made aware of the flyer and the illegality of plagiarism in connection with their introduction week.

• A paragraph on plagiarism has been incorporated into all contracts on MSc theses and BSc projects. With their signature the students thus agree to the rules when entering into the contract.
  
  
• All teachers are asked to make sure that they hand out the flyer to their students every time assignments or projects are about to be written.
  
  
• The flyer has been sent to all departments. The departments may order more flyers from Student Services.

For your information, University of Copenhagen is considering investing in an IT system that can uncover plagiarism.

If you discover plagiarism/examination fraud:

If as a teacher/supervisor you discover plagiarism in connection with an assignment or project (or suspect it) you must contact the Registrar Agnete Vibholt, tel. 35332349. You will be asked to report the matter and to submit an account and to document the plagiarism. The Registrar will then deal with the matter together with the Director of Studies.

In connection with the inquiry into the matter, the student will usually be summoned for a meeting. If it is found that it is indeed a matter of examination fraud/plagiarism, the punishment of the student will depend on the extent and seriousness of the offence. The student may be given a letter of reprimand or an oral reprimand, the student’s mark may be annulled (or the assignment cannot be assessed) whereby an examination attempt is used, or the student may be suspended from the university for a period (for instance six months) or expelled alltogether.

 

You may find links in the right hand side if you need more information on plagiarism.