Notification of Suspected Academic Misconduct

Information for tutors about suspected academic misconduct.

The Academic Misconduct Process

If a marker suspects academic misconduct, they must not approach the student in the first instance. Rather they must immediately notify the School Academic Conduct Officer (SACO) of their concerns, without applying any penalty to the work. If you notice elements of poor scholarship (e.g. improper paraphrasing that replicates phrasing from originals; signs of misunderstandings surrounding referencing, etc.), you should also flag the piece of work.   

What to do if you suspect Academic Misconduct

It is very important that all cases of suspected academic misconduct in undergraduate or taught postgraduate work are reported to hca-misconduct@ed.ac.uk as soon as possible within any marking turnaround, ensuring that we can decide promptly what action to take before any marks are returned to students.

To flag a piece of work, please email hca-misconduct@ed.ac.uk and copy in the course organiser with the following information:

  • Student’s exam number
  • Course affected
  • Type of assessment and weighting within the course
  • Face value mark
  • Brief summary of reason(s) for flagging the piece of work
  • A fair mark estimate (based on what you deem to be the student’s own contributions)

We will use this information to create an Academic Misconduct Report Form (to see what this looks like, there is a link at the bottom of the page).

The Academic Conduct Admin team will be able to access the Turnitin Originality Report so you do not need to send a copy of this as well. However, if you have detected the plagiarism in another way, please supply the supporting evidence, ideally as attachments and certainly as references or links.

The SACO and Deputy SACO are happy to discuss specific cases if you are unsure whether something ought to be flagged, but we would appreciate that you always copy in hca-misconduct@ed.ac.uk so that we have an electronic paper trail of reported concerns.

Once you have reported a piece of work, you do not need to take further action. However, if you would like to speak to the student yourself in addition to flagging the piece of work, that can often be accommodated - just let us know in your email.

What happens next

The SACO or Deputy SACO looks at every reported piece of work and forms a decision on how it ought to be handled. We will always inform you about this decision.  In most instances, some formal action is deemed necessary and cases are handled in one of two ways: at School level as poor scholarship; or at College level as suspected academic misconduct.

Handling cases of Poor Scholarship

If the SACO or Deputy SACO decides that errors or problems with a piece of work ought to be handled as poor scholarship alone, the common practice is to invite the student to a formal meeting. In many cases, the purpose of the meeting is educational, not punitive. The SACO or Deputy SACO will identify and explain issues with the piece of work, and provide guidance on good academic conduct in order to avoid such issues in future work. Sometimes, in cases which are more ambiguous or complicated (e.g. possible collusion between students), the SACO or Deputy SACO will meet with the student(s) before making a decision on whether there is a case to answer and, if so, how it should be handled.

It is important to stress that we cannot apply formal mark penalties at School level; only the College Academic Misconduct Officer can apply formal mark penalties (starting at 10 marks). However, University policy does allow for the SACO or Deputy SACO to ‘return the assessment to the marker to determine a mark that fairly reflects the student’s own contribution’ (Academic Misconduct Investigation Procedures 3.4, p.3).  In some instances, then, the SACO or Deputy SACO may discuss with a marker whether it is appropriate to factor poor scholarship into the mark in line with existing marking criteria. If the marker agrees, this must be done before coursework marks are released to students. It is very important that this is not described as a 'penalty' for poor scholarship in feedback. Only the College Academic Misconduct Officer has the authority to apply a penalty for academic misconduct.

In distinguishing poor scholarship from academic misconduct, and in deciding on how best to handle poor scholarship, the SACO or Deputy SACO will take into account various factors within the framework of University policy, which was updated in May 2019. According to this updated policy, a case can be handled at School level if a) it is a first offence, b) the SACO or Deputy SACO is satisfied it came about through genuine lack of understanding and c) the SACO or Deputy SACO concludes it can reasonably be handled without recourse to a formal mark penalty.  The SACO or Deputy SACO will also consider other factors specific to the student and assignment in question. For example, new international students or visiting students (whether undergraduates or postgraduates) writing their first piece of coursework may not yet understand the University's requirements for referencing, the use of quotations, the nature of proper paraphrasing, and so on. Similarly, 1st or 2nd year undergraduate students may also be unfamiliar with the University's requirements for good academic conduct.

It follows that what the SACO or Deputy SACO might interpret as poor scholarship in years 1 and 2, they might refer to College as suspected academic misconduct in years 3 and 4. It is therefore in our students' best interests that poor referencing, overly close paraphrasing, etc. are reported in the pre-honours years so that we can help students address these problems before their honours years, when penalties applied by College can impact upon their degrees. If matters are dealt with internally and informally by individual course organisers or tutors, it is much more difficult to pick up recurring cases.

Handling cases of Academic Misconduct

If the SACO or Deputy SACO decides that a case is one of suspected academic misconduct (e.g. serious cases of blatant cheating; repeat offences) it must be referred to College with a face value mark that applies no penalty and makes no reduction as well as a fair mark estimate to reflect the student’s own contributions. The SACO or Deputy SACO will collate and explain the evidence before referring the case to the College Academic Misconduct Officer, who will investigate, give the student an opportunity to respond or challenge and, ultimately, decide whether a mark penalty should be applied and, if so, what form it should take.

Case outcomes

It is perfectly understandable that markers want to know what happens next with any flagged piece of work. The SACO or Deputy SACO will always write to let you know how a particular case is being handled. However, it is not possible to share documentation, which is deanonymised by the Academic Conduct Admin team upon receipt and restricted to staff with relevant misconduct or pastoral roles (e.g. the student's adviser or cohort lead). Additionally, while you will be informed when a case is being referred to the College Academic Conduct Officer, the investigation and outcome are confidential. 

Key Contacts

For Semester 1 2023/24, the SACO is Dr David Lewis and the Deputy SACO is Dr Mark Newman. In Semester 2, the SACO is Dr Julius Ruiz.

Please use the hca-misconduct@ed.ac.uk mail address to discuss any academic conduct related matters.

This mailbox is used to record and consistently manage all cases (UG and PGT), and as the central point where cases are escalated to College level. It is monitored by the Academic Conduct Admin team: Tracy Noden (Teaching Planning Administrator) and Vicky Swann (Head of Teaching Planning).

Record keeping

The SACO, Deputy SACO, and Academic Conduct Admin team keep a record of all the meetings held in School to report to College at the end of the year.  This record also helps to identify students who, after receiving such support, go on to make further errors (repeat offenders are more likely to be passed on to College).

Links:

View a slide presentiation on good conduct:

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