Good education practice: further details and guidelines

What is fraud?

Tilburg University understands fraud to be

wholly or in part, to make a correct assessment of the knowledge, insight, and skills of a student or of another student.

Tilburg University identifies, amongst others, the following situations and behaviors as fraud:

• The possession, during an examination, of documents, electronic devices, or any other means with similar characteristics or functions, the consultation or use of which during the examination is not explicitly permitted.
• During an examination, checking with a fellow examinee or exchanging information with him/her in any way, inside or outside the examination room.
• Assuming the identity of another person during the examination or to have another person take the examination instead of the examinee.
• Substituting the distributed question and/or answer forms or exchanging them with others.
• Prior to the examination, providing yourself or one or more fellow examiners with questions, assignments, or answers to the examination in question.
• Making changes to the examination after it has been handed in.
• Copying data, texts, reasoning, or thoughts of others in a thesis or other paper without correct reference to the source in accordance with generally accepted rules in science.
• In a thesis or other paper, copying research you have previously carried out or texts previously written for another thesis or paper without the prior permission of the lecturer involved.
• When carrying out a (graduation) research project, manipulating the research results or not reproducing them correctly, all with the aim of misleading the reader.
• Creating the opportunity, or inciting of fellow students or fellow examiners to commit fraud.

Prevent fraud or suspicions thereof during written examinations

Sometimes fraud happens unintentionally. Make sure that you do not make a mistake in your written exams:

• As soon as you enter the examination room, place your coat and bag in the aisle, on the windowsill, or at the front of the room; do not take valuables with you; turn off your phone and put it in your jacket or bag.
• Be on time. If you are late, you have no right to continue working for longer. If you are late for the exam for more than 30 minutes, you will no longer be allowed to enter. As a participant, you are not allowed to leave the room until 30 minutes after the start of the examination.
• Make sure you can identify yourself with your Tilburg University card. Put this card on your table so that it is visible. If you do not have a Tilburg University card, please bring your passport, identity card, or driving license with you.

• The use of the toilet is only permitted in very exceptional cases. The invigilator will only allow a short stop and will not allow multiple participants to use the toilet at the same time.
• At the end of the examination, hand in the sheets with the answers and/or answer cards and unused scrap paper to the invigilator’s table. The invigilator will place a check mark next to your name to indicate that you have handed in the examination.

What is plagiarism?

Tilburg University is defined as plagiarism:

Copying parts of the text, reasoning, or thoughts of others in a thesis or other paper without mentioning the source.

You have to submit your own work for each thesis or paper. Other people’s work that is included in papers must be recognizable as such. This makes demands on the way you should quote and paraphrase.

Quoting

You must quote correctly at all times. This means that you must always indicate when you are quoting literally. You already commit plagiarism when only one line is cited without reference to the source.

Paraphrasing

When paraphrasing, a short reference in the text indicates which texts have been used as a source. For each source to which you refer in the text, a complete and correct title description must be included

in a reference list. Frequent paraphrasing of pieces of text, even with text references included, is not permitted. In that case, is no longer considered original work. This will be reflected in the assessment of the paper(s).

Prevent plagiarism and suspicions of plagiarism

Nowadays, copying and pasting is so easy that you sometimes commit plagiarism without realizing it. However, in some cases plagiarism is committed. Among other things, you commit plagiarism if you copy sentences, phrases, paragraphs, or even ideas from (the work of) others, published or unpublished, without mentioning the original author. Even if you replace a number of words in a paragraph, it is plagiarism. So how should it be done?

• Make it clear in the text which ideas are your own and which you have copied from someone else’s text.
• If you are paraphrasing, also include a source reference.
• Graphs, tables, statistics, and images also need to be identified as sources.
• Follow the rules for correct quoting and paraphrasing as they apply in your own scientific domain.

More information on fraud and plagiarism per School

In addition to Tilburg University’s general fraud policy, each School has its own additional rules for dealing with fraud. You can find them here:

• Catholic Theology
• Economics and Management
• Humanities and Digital Sciences
• Social and Behavioral Sciences
• Law

Further details and guidelines

• Education and Examination Regulations (per School)
• Rules and Guidelines of the Examination Boards (per Examination Board)
• Regulations for written examinations
• Rules on fraud and plagiarism