Plagiarism Policy

  1. Guidance regarding plagiarism 

Plagiarism is defined as taking someone else’s ideas, intellectual effort or work and presenting it as one’s own; it is dishonest and unethical. As yoga practitioners we should abide by the principles of sattya: truthfulness and authenticity and of asteya: honesty and non-misappropriation. Plagiarism is a serious violation of academic honesty which TSYP takes seriously. Plagiarism may result in your work being destroyed and/or expulsion from the course.

  • Most plagiarism relates to copying information from books, the internet, visual or audio sources or the work of another person and submitting this as original work. 
  • Plagiarism occurs when a writer reuses a mix of word, phrases, and ideas from a source without indicating which words and ideas have been borrowed and/or without properly citing the source.
  • Borrowing a fellow students’ word or buying an assignment and submitting it as you own are plagiarism.
  • Self-plagiarism occurs when a student submits their own previous work, or mixes parts of previous works.
  • Accidental plagiarism may occur due to a lack of knowledge of how to reference and for new learners, being unsure of how to express themselves in their own words. Although lack of intent does not absolve the student of responsibility for plagiarism, in these cases a warning will be given and suitable guidance provided for future work and the opportunity to resubmit the plagiarised work.
  1. Preventing plagiarism

TSYP course tutors are obliged to authenticate submitted students’ work as being the original work of the named candidate. 

In order to prevent plagiarism tutors should:

  1. Raise student awareness of restrictions surrounding plagiarism during induction and throughout the course. 
  2. Emphasise the importance of creating authentic work that is the students’ own and emphasise that plagiarism will be penalised.
  3. Reinforce to students the significance of their signature confirming that they understand plagiarism is forbidden on their initial learning agreements/enrolment forms and their signature on their submitted work
  4. Make clear what is acceptable in respect of the use of all sources of material, including websites; i.e. candidates must provide details of any web pages from which they are quoting or paraphrasing.  
  5. Ask students to uses the Harvard system of referencing to acknowledging sources and give guidance on this.
  6. Ensure that enough time is allocated for assessments to be completed and that adequate support is in place, including processes to support the application for extension to deadlines in the right circumstances, within agreed timescales.
  1. Student guide to referencing

In the text you should use the Harvard System. This means you must put in brackets the author and year of publication – like this (Smith, 2002) or (BBC, 2002) – either immediately after a quotation or (when paraphrasing, summarising etc) at the end of the sentence or paragraph. 

You need to add a page number (where possible) if you have actually quoted the author’s words, rather than paraphrased them. Like this: (Smith, 2002, p94) or (Smith, 2002:94). (Don’t put them in Bold, of course!)

For two authors: (Smith and Jones, 2002). For three or more authors: (Smith et al, 2002)

For two articles published in the same year: (BBC, 2008a) (BBC, 2008b) etc. You choose which paper to give the a. b and c etc. to.  The same letters will apply in the Bibliography

A bibliography should be shown at the end of the work and contain a full and accurate reference to the source of each item that has been used.  In the bibliography you put down all the details, arranging the references in A-Z order by author’s (or organisation’s) name

The usual order for a book is:

  1. Author’s surname followed by initials. Then 2nd (and 3rd) author’s name with their initials first)
  2. Year of publication (in brackets)
  3. Title of book in italics
  4. Edition of book, if not the first (e.g. 2nd ed.)
  5. Place of publication
  6. Publisher’s name (leave out ‘Co’ and ‘Ltd’)

For an article is:

  1. Author’s surname followed by initials. Then 2nd (and 3rd) author’s name with their initials first)
  2. Year of publication (in brackets)
  3. “Title of article in quotation marks”
  4. Title of journal in italics
  5. Volume number (then issue no, in brackets)
  6. Pages on which the article appears (e.g. 66-68)

For a web page is:

  1. Author’s surname followed by initials (or Organisation e.g. BBC)
  2. Date page last updated (in brackets) – if known
  3. “Title of page in quotation marks”
  4. Title of website section / electronic journal in italics
  5. Type of medium (e.g. CD-ROM, online etc) 
  6. Location (URL)
  7. [Date Accessed (for online sources) in square brackets] 

Other guides to the Harvard system are available, this one is useful: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/admin-services/library/learning-support/reference-management/harvard-style/

VersionFinal
AuthorMichelle Tarling
Ratified byTSYP Education Committee
Date RatifiedSeptember2020
Date issuedSeptember 2020
Date to be reviewedSeptember 2023