Accused of plagiarism - What to do?!

chicken_food

I have a problem. I submitted a Thesis to another college for my undergraduate in March of 2009 - and then I redid it (keeping two of the 7 chapters the same) and submitted it as my Masters thesis.
The problem is, i was just informed by my supervisor that they ran it through turn-it-in plagiarism checker and it found that - the two chapters that I kept in were submitted by a student in Alemo County College Texas at the begging of June 2009.
According to the report on turnitin, it is word for word!! There's no way I could have copied it off of that student, but I'm wondering if they copied mine from the library in DIT?!
Now my problem is, to prove I didn't plagiarise-I must tell them that I kept the two chapters in from a previous thesis that I did. Which as far as I'm aware is still counted as pagiarism!!
So what do I do? What are the repercussions of this? I'm starting to worry that I will be forced to re-do my masters or worse they will kick me out. I'd appreciate any help or advice with this matter.

John_Mc

chicken_food wrote: »

I have a problem. I submitted a Thesis to another college for my undergraduate in March of 2009 - and then I redid it (keeping two of the 7 chapters the same) and submitted it as my Masters thesis.
The problem is, i was just informed by my supervisor that they ran it through turn-it-in plagiarism checker and it found that - the two chapters that I kept in were submitted by a student in Alemo County College Texas at the begging of June 2009.
According to the report on turnitin, it is word for word!! There's no way I could have copied it off of that student, but I'm wondering if they copied mine from the library in DIT?!
Now my problem is, to prove I didn't plagiarise-I must tell them that I kept the two chapters in from a previous thesis that I did. Which as far as I'm aware is still counted as pagiarism!!
So what do I do? What are the repercussions of this? I'm starting to worry that I will be forced to re-do my masters or worse they will kick me out. I'd appreciate any help or advice with this matter.

How can you plagiarise your own work? It may be against the rules, but it's definitely not as bad as copying the work of someone else.

The best thing you can do is approach your supervisor and tell them the story. You can also approach the students union for advice if you need it

chicken_food

I just used two chapters of a previous project in a previous school as part of my thesis for my masters (methodology and intro). As far as I'm aware it is still counted as pagiarism - but I'm unsure to what extenet and what the penalty is for doing so.

I've emailed the student union and got a 'i dont know what you should do-email your supervisor' - my supervisor is also the head of dept so asking for impartial advice will be pretty tough.

~I'm very worried right now!

John_Mc

chicken_food wrote: »

I just used two chapters of a previous project in a previous school as part of my thesis for my masters (methodology and intro). As far as I'm aware it is still counted as pagiarism - but I'm unsure to what extenet and what the penalty is for doing so.

I've emailed the student union and got a 'i dont know what you should do-email your supervisor' - my supervisor is also the head of dept so asking for impartial advice will be pretty tough.

~I'm very worried right now!

I don't think it is plagiarism. It is your work and you are entitled to use it, just like you are allowed use pieces of other peoples work provided they are given credit for it.

The students union can be like that - it's made up of people who care and people who don't. Walk in and ask for the education officer, it is their job to care so he/she will not fob you off.

Rather than worrying, I would arrange a meeting with your supervisor as soon as possible and go in and put your cards on the table.

chicken_food

Thank you for your reply, I really do appreciate the advice.

However there are two problems, my supervisor is in Europe on sabatical and then I'm in Dublin so can't just pop in to the SU. I think I'll just email my supervisor at the weekend with everything I have, and hope it suffices.

cson

I'd reccommend you contact Aoife Finnerty the SU Education Officer tbh.

chicken_food

Just sent her an email there. I don't mind having to re-write what I re-used , but i'm afraid they'll just throw the book at me!

pauln

It may not be plagerism but I do think that it's against the rules to submit the same piece of work twice to obtain acedemic credit i.e. If it was marked once and counted towards a qualification then it can't be used obtain another different qualification.

Gael23

The best advice has alreday ben given, and that is to contact Aoife Finnerty in the SU ASAP.

ninty9er

As you're a masters student it is Dan you need to email, not Aoife.

psapresident@ul.ie

I wouldn't see it as a major offence considering they are general chapters and not substantive ones, but academic issues aren't my forte.

pwd

You would only be plagiarising yourself if your undergraduate thesis was published.

If it wasn't published, then it would be nonsensical to be required to quote the source. You would have to state that you previously wrote things in notes or meeting presentations and all sorts of stuff.

The guy in Texas was blatantly plagiarising you though.

chicken_food

Thank you all for you help, I've emailed dan and aoife - so hopefully they will have some advice for me.

I am deathly afraid of getting kicked out of my course for this. My supervisor is the head of the dept and is ridiculously strict - who knows what he could do.

I know i shouldn't have to reference all my own work, but at the same time - I shouldn't have re-used work that I have submitted previously. Specially 6k words! (out of 24k)

Its getting on top of me lately, I havn't been able to sleep over this!

Skill

Contact the course leader and explain it was innocence on your part. You should def have to re-do the two chapters, as you can't have the same material submitted towards two different qualifications.

Also, your supervisor can't be both on sabbatical overseas and head of department - what's going on there? In fact, check and see if there is a new head of department, and if there is, then you have someone to turn to there also.

boarddotie

I would also be trying to track down the bucko in Texas who must have copied your chapters from your undergrad thesis and make a bit of noise about that too. You might get in trouble from UL but that person too will need to take some responsibility-thats your work!!! :mad:

Just be honest with your supervisor and that you made a massive mistake in using those 2 chapter again. That was a very silly mistake

On a side note (and this is not helpful but just think about it) how can redoing a project that you did for your undergrad be helpful for your career progression? Reusing your methodologies chapter makes me think the methodologies were exactly the same

Good luck though OP

Tastyboy

This is plagarism, unfortunately. Simply because you've written it yourself doesn't mean you can reuse it, this was sumitted for your degree I'd assume, therefore you can not use work previously used for a different award. Otherwise anyone can attempt to use the majority of their work for their masters thesis.

Approach your supervisor & explain you were unaware, then paraphrase what you did in the past, that or else totally re-write the 2 chapters.

I hope this is of help.

constantg

Firstly, dude, learn how to spell check. Mother of God I hope you checked your thesis!

Secondly Dan should be the primary point of contact as you're a postgrad. But you can also contact aoife as well should you wish; ULSU used to cater to ALL students when i worked there, not just undergrads.

Thirdly you cannot be convicted of plagiarism if you use your own work; quite simply because its yours! If you were stupid enough to not highlight the fact that you had used this work previously in another area then tough sh*t you are in for a shock and probably shouldnt have taken higher study options.

Fourthly your supervisor/HOD cant throw you off your course. He/She can make recommendations to the University's dicsiplinary committee which can see whether or not you have a case to answer.

Now what you need to do is get in touch with your Undergrad supervisor in DIT and get him/her to vouch for your submission date of said materials in DIT; they more than likely signed off on your work, that gives you a leg up here. Secondly if your work was copied verbatim then more than likely language usages and spelling mistakes were copied also. Therefore if DIT lecturer can prove you submitted before Texan person then in theory at least they copied your work.

Now it can probably be a bit more complicated than that, but thats my advice.



Did you really not reference the fact you had used your work elsewhere? Even just to bulk up the Bibliography a little???

Incredulous

jimbo007

unsure, you might be plagiarising your own work by using it word for word when you've already submitted it... if it's an FYP then it can probably said to be published... Even putting something up on the web can mean it's "published"...

I would come clean to my supervisor, since it's just intro and methodology it might not be so bad, these won't form the bulk of your thesis, and can be rewritten quickly... and send a complaint to the department of the other person who's used plagiarised your work previously...

emarfrog

I know when I was submitting my thesis I had to insert and sign the following declaration:

"I declare that this thesis has not been already accepted in substance for any degree and is not being submitted in candidature for any degree.

I affirm that the substance of this thesis is entirely the result of my own investigation and that due reference and acknowledgement is made where necessary to the work of other researchers".

If material you used in another thesis was used in your current thesis work you would have to be entirely honest about that and reference yourself in the work or draw a schematic outlining your previous research and how this ties into your current work. You should have also consulted with your previous supervisor in DIT about that. I feel sorry for you I really do, but you need to look at this from the viewpoint of your supervisor in UL. This is a most serious matter and their reputation is also at stake.

I would advise that you lay bare all the facts, be totally and utterly honest and upfront about this (and hope for the best).
I don't like stating this, but if it was left to me I probably wouldn't be so forgiving. To use two chapters from a previous work is a sign of laziness and shows a willingness to take short cuts. I would have to ask myself if I felt that you deserved your degree based on the evidence provided.

constantg

emarfrog wrote: »

I don't like stating this, but if it was left to me I probably wouldn't be so forgiving. To use two chapters from a previous work is a sign of laziness and shows a willingness to take short cuts. I would have to ask myself if I felt that you deserved your degree based on the evidence provided.

I think you're being quite generous there actually emarfrog; if it was me being your supervisor I'd probably shout at you a good bit and then tell you to go away. I probably wouldn't shop you to discipline, but that's purely cos I'd prefer to make you my b#tch for as long as it took to hammer home how silly you've been.

Mother of God like, did you never think of even casually mentioning in your introduction about previous work done in this field by you. I ean forget plagiarism, that's jus being professional!!


I say back to finger painting and eating crayons for you; and no, I'm not sorry if that sounds harsh.