Principles of NOUN policy on plagiarism
In order to maintain high standards of academic integrity, it is the obligation of every member of the University to know and respect the acts or inaction that is plagiarism, and to seek and foster a learning environment that encourages the development of academic skills including in particular, skills in academic writing, that are appropriate for each discipline. No person(s) participating in the University academic or scholarly activities of NOUN shall commit plagiarism as the University has zero tolerance for plagiarism. The National Open University of Nigeria views the under listed activities as acts of plagiarism:
Failure to obtain permission for the use of portions longer than a paragraph or to acknowledge the source and the name of the author from where sentences or passages not longer than a paragraph, figure, pictures have been taken and used word-for-word (this is also known as Direct Plagiarism.
Paraphrasing, translation without proper acknowledgement of the source and pulling out of key points and then rewriting these points as if they were ones’ own ideas.
When a work which was previously presented by author and is used in a different work by the same author without acknowledging himself, it constitutes an act of plagiarism.
When a student submits his or her own previous work, or mixes parts of previous works, without permission from all lecturers involved (the former and latter are also referred to as Self-Plagiarism).
Borrows phrases from a source without using quotation marks, sometimes called “patch writing or Mosaic Plagiarism,” this kind of paraphrasing, whether intentional or not, is academically dishonest, even if the footnote indicates the source.
Neglects to cite sources, or misquotes of sources, or unintentionally paraphrases a source by using similar words, groups of words, and/or sentence structure without attribution (this is also called Accidental Plagiarism).
Copying of another student’s assignment and submitting it as one’s own work; and paying someone to do an assignment on one’s behalf and submitting it as one’s own work.
Therefore:
Any thesis or dissertation submitted to the University either at undergraduate or postgraduate level must be accompanied by a plagiarism declaration. It is by this policy 3 all stakeholders involve in students’ projects/thesis should not validate such without plagiarism declaration.
All cases of plagiarism must be handled consistently according to established processes, either at department, faculty or management level and these processes must comply with both this Policy and the Procedure for the investigation and management of allegations of plagiarism enunciated therein.
However, theses and dissertations must be submitted to the Turnitin or Grammarly custodians located at various departments/faculties (or other appropriate similarity index evaluating software) prior to submission for moderation.