The regulations in this section cover academic integrity considerations for postgraduate research (PGR) students, including plagiarism reviews for dissertations submitted for examination.
16.1. PGR students are expected to commit to the values of academic integrity and to uphold high standards. The core values of honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility, and courage form the foundations of the University’s approach.
16.2. The academic integrity policy sets out the University’s approach and defines a common understanding of academic integrity, including on its values and on responsibilities.
16.3. Academic integrity is integral to university study and academic life. PGR students must therefore maintain academic integrity in all areas of their studies, including in their dissertation and examination.
16.4. The University combines developing and nurturing academic integrity with a recognition that transgressions undermine its core values. Academic misconduct is taken seriously, and will be investigated where necessary, with a set of penalties available when academic misconduct has been proven.
16.5. PGR students must include citations and references in their work in a style appropriate for their discipline.
16.6. PGR students must not plagiarise in their dissertation. Plagiarism is presenting the work of others as one’s own either intentionally or by omission.
16.7. PGR students must maintain ethical standards in their work and, where necessary, obtain ethical approval for their research.
16.8. PGR students must ensure that their work is presented accurately. Data, results, evidence, research, and other material must not be falsified or distorted.
16.9. PGR students must not include work in their dissertation that they have already submitted for an academic award at the University of Bristol or at any other degree awarding body except where either of the following conditions are met.
16.9.1. The previously submitted work is re-used in a limited way and only covers short sections of material.
16.9.2. The previously submitted work is significantly changed and developed so that it has transformed into new work. For example, a substantial reanalysis of material or data from a previous study.
16.10. A PGR student must discuss the inclusion of previously submitted work with their supervisors and the student must provide appropriate references in their dissertation including details of any previous award. It must be clear to the examiners where work has been re-used and from where it originated.
16.11. PGR students are encouraged to publish their work, and this can happen before they submit for examination. Students can include their own published work, either in whole or in part, in their dissertation with appropriate referencing. If a student’s published works are used as full chapters in the dissertation, this must be in line with the policy on integrating publications as chapters in a PGR dissertation.
16.12. PGR students are responsible for the content of their dissertation and should in most cases proofread their own work, as this is an essential skill in academic writing. Proofreading involves checking text and identifying errors in spelling, punctuation, grammar, formatting, and presentation.
16.13. A PGR student’s supervisors will provide feedback on the development of the dissertation, but they are not required to provide a full proofreading of the dissertation before it is submitted for examination.
16.14. PGR students can where needed seek assistance with proofreading from a third party, such as a professional proofreader, another student, a friend, or a family member. Third-party proofreading is only permitted where it does not alter the intellectual content of the dissertation.
16.15. A third-party proofreader must not add to the content of the dissertation in any way. They must not amend or suggest ideas, arguments, subject matter, or comment on the structure of the dissertation, as this would compromise the authorship of the work.
16.16. A third-party proofreader can only suggest changes in relation to spelling, punctuation, grammar, formatting, and presentation. They can suggest changes to the presentation of references that are poorly formatted, but they cannot propose new references.
16.17. PGR students remain responsible for the content of their dissertation, and they must not accept advice from a third-party proofreader beyond the defined parameters. Failure to follow these defined parameters could constitute plagiarism.
16.18. Enhanced proofreading assistance can form part of a reasonable adjustment for disability.
16.19. As part of annual progress monitoring, PGR students must upload a substantial piece of writing (for example, a draft chapter or report) to Turnitin for at least one of their annual progress monitoring reviews. The text-comparison Turnitin report must be included in the review documentation and discussed with the reviewer/s.
16.20. Where there are contractual, security or safety concerns about sensitive material, the main supervisor can decide that it is not appropriate to upload the substantial piece of writing to Turnitin, which is a third-party platform. In these cases, the decision must be recorded, and the supervisors must provide a manual check on referencing and plagiarism instead.
16.21. All research degree dissertations submitted for examination (including submissions for doctoral degrees by published work) must be reviewed for plagiarism. The dissertation will not be circulated to examiners until the review has been successfully completed.
16.22. As part of the submission process, students must upload a copy of their dissertation to Turnitin. In exceptional circumstances, an alternative plagiarism review without an upload to Turnitin can be conducted with the approval of the Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor (PGR).
16.23. The school must nominate an academic to review the text-comparison reports for dissertations uploaded to Turnitin. A reviewer is usually nominated for a sustained period covering reviews for multiple students.
16.24. So that the plagiarism review is independent of the student and of the examination, another academic must be nominated by the school if the normal reviewer is a supervisor or the internal examiner for the student under review.
16.25. The nominated reviewer must review the Turnitin report within ten working days of the student’s notification to the school that the dissertation has been uploaded.
16.26. If the nominated reviewer finds no suspected plagiarism and/or minor referencing problems in the dissertation, the school must notify the student and the Academic Quality and Policy Office (pgr-exams@bristol.ac.uk). This permits the Academic Quality and Policy Office to circulate the dissertation to approved examiners.
16.27. If the nominated reviewer finds suspected plagiarism andor minor referencing problems in the dissertation, the reviewer must follow the policy on academic misconduct for PGR examinations and awards. The nominated reviewer and the school cannot request that the PGR student makes changes to the dissertation outside of the requirements set out in the policy.
16.28. A PGR student and/or their main supervisor can request an alternative plagiarism review on the appropriate form if there are contractual, security or safety obligations that mean information cannot be held on Turnitin, which is a third-party organisation.
16.29. The Faculty PGR Director must review the request and make a recommendation before submitting the form, via the Academic Quality and Policy Office, to the Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor (PGR) for a decision.
16.30. The Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor (PGR) must communicate their decision to the student, main supervisor and to the Faculty PGR Director.
16.31. If the request is approved, a supervisor must undertake a manual plagiarism review of the dissertation in lieu of the standard review. The supervisor must inform the Academic Quality and Policy Office (pgr-exams@bristol.ac.uk) when they have completed the manual review and are satisfied that there is no plagiarised material in the dissertation.
