Fraud and plagiarism Tilburg School of Catholic Theology (TST)

Fraud is defined as follows: any action or omission on the part of the examination candidate which renders it wholly or partially impossible to form a correct assessment of his or her knowledge, insight, or skills. Article 13 of the TST Examining Board Rules and Guidelines contains detailed information about fraud. The Examining Board is notified whenever a suspicion of fraud arises.

Plagiarism is the reproduction of another person’s facts, texts, arguments, or thoughts without meticulous or accurate reference of the source. According to article 13 of the TST Examining Board Rules and Guidelines, this practice is deemed to constitute fraud.  

Several courses in the degree programs offered by the Tilburg School of Catholic Theology make use of assignments, papers, and theses. The purpose of these papers is to assess students’ knowledge and skills; students can use them to demonstrate that they are capable of substantiating their own arguments. It is of course permitted to use scholarly articles when writing papers, as long as this is done in an academically appropriate way.

• Quoting or paraphrasing parts of a source text without referencing the source.
• Incorrectly referencing a source (for instance by providing incomplete details or by referring to a book while the passage was taken from an article).
• Passing off other people’s ideas, texts, arguments, or thoughts as your own work. This also applies to paraphrasing other people’s work.
• Not using quotation marks when giving literal quotations.
• Not referencing the source each time information from that source is used.
• Using other people’s words, ideas, texts, or arguments to such an extent that this material constitutes the major part of a report, even if the sources are properly referenced. This also applies to paraphrases of the original source.
• Re-using your own work without alerting the reader to this.

These examples show that it is possible to commit plagiarism without intending to do so. Students who are not familiar with the rules on accurate source referencing can commit plagiarism without intending to pass off other people’s work as their own. Academic negligence can thus result in an accusation of plagiarism.

The multitude of electronic sources available and easy copying facilities make reproducing other people’s work very simple. Students who write their own papers should not be disadvantaged due to plagiarists. For this reason the Tilburg School of Catholic Theology uses plagiarism detection software (Turnitin). This software compares submitted texts with texts from the software’s own (ever-expanding) database, and with texts on the internet. The instructor receives a report which specifies any similarities found. The contract with Turnitin stipulates that the School retains all intellectual property rights on submitted texts and that external users have no access to the database. Submitted documents are stored in the database for future plagiarism checks. This procedure is laid down in a Data Processor Agreement and compliant with the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) on the basis of the legitimate interest to prevent fraud.

The process of writing theses is always supervised by an instuctor (also papers are sometimes supervised during the writing process). If the instructor believes that a draft text contains excessive paraphrasing or that the referencing of sources is deficient, he or she will reject the draft version and give instructions on how the thesis or paper can be improved. However, if the instructor suspects that intentional plagiarism has been committed, or if he or she observes plagiarism in the final version of the work, the instructor will notify the Examining Board of this suspicion. The Examining Board will then investigate the matter in conformity with the procedures as described in the Rules and Guidelines for the Examination Board (TST), and will impose a penalty if necessary. If plagiarism is detected after the thesis or paper has been graded and the grades have been submitted to the Student Administration, the Examining Board will be notified as a matter of course.

Plagiarism is a breach of academic attitude. If the Examining Board determines that the instance of plagiarism meets the definition of fraud contained in article 13 of the TST Examining Board Rules and Guidelines, it is authorized to exclude the plagiarist from one, several, or all examinations for the duration of up to one year.

Always ensure you are thoroughly familiar with the rules that the course instructor expects you to comply with in respect of source referencing etc. In addition, there are many books and websites that contain information about plagiarism and how to avoid it, and rules for source referencing. More information about quoting and referencing can also be found on the website under source references.