UEH Policies

UEH Plagiarism Policy

UEH PLAGIARISM POLICY 2016

(Issued together with Decision No. 4621 / QD-DHKT-VSĐH dated December 15, 2016 of the President of University of Economics, Ho Chi Minh City)

Article 1. Purpose, Scope and Targeted Subjects

1. To improve the quality, transparency, honesty and value of all Graduation Theses, Master's Theses, Doctoral Theses, Scientific Article, Scientific Research Report, Seminar Speeches, Discussions, etc. (hereinafter referred to as Academic Products) at University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City (hereinafter referred to as University or UEH).
2. This Policy specifies how to manage, control and handle plagiarism in all academic products during the process of learning, training and scientific research conducted at the University.
3. Targeted Subjects: This Policy is applied to the following 3 subjects (collectively referred to as “The Author”):

1. All students, research students, interns (collectively referred to as “Learners”);
2. All officials and public employees working at the University;
3. All other subjects having academic products reported, printed, taught, exchanged in teaching, learning and scientific research activities at UEH and UEH-affiliated organizations.

Article 2. Plagiarism

1. Plagiarism is the intentional or unintentional use of an author's scholarly works of sentences, paragraphs, articles, figures, images, information, and ideas into their own work without proper or formal indications/acknowledgements of the author whose content was being used.
2. Failure to inform the readers of the actions defined in Clause 1, Article 3, the author of the scholarly work is determined to be guilty of plagiarism. Plagiarism is a serious misconduct of scientific ethical standards, which cannot be ignored by the law (intellectual property) and educational institutions.
3. Should an academic product be determined to exhibit the following formats, it is determined to be in violation of plagiarism:

1. Using the scholarly work of another author but claiming to be his or her own (replacement/change of the original author’s name)
2. Copying extensively from a project (despite citation sources being indicated) to form a large part of his/her work;
3. Failure to cite the quoted source when modifying and/or rearranging words, phrases or ideas of other authors; attaching phrases from different sources and refining articles; modifying words/phrases but keeping the structure of the paragraph or article
4. Using any scholarly work or data available to other authors (including individuals, groups of people, regulatory bodies, businesses, NGOs, and other entities, etc.), not their own without specifying the source and author;
5. Inaccurate reporting of the author, the source of the information cited (for example: information of author A, but the source quoted for author B; the source of the information is from an unpublished article, but it is recorded in the form of published articles or books);
6. Using more than 30% of their published academic works in new scholarly works because they are authors or co-authors without specifying the source, which is called self-plagiarism.

Article 3. Basic requirements to avoid plagiarism

1. Academic Product means an article presenting the writer's arguments, analysis, consolidation, and research results. When quoting information of other authors to explain, compare, illustrate, and compare what is related to the research in their topic, it must clearly state the source of the information and the author that has been cited.
2. To avoid violations of plagiarism, when writing, learners can follow the following basic guidelines:
1. Follow the instructions on how to quote and make a list of references issued by the University. Guiding materials are added and updated annually by the Institute of UEH Graduate and are posted on the website, printed and released for use throughout the University since 2012;
2. Must clearly state the source of the citation in the article or footnote when using any terms or specific words; any ideas that already got published on any media including magazines, books, newspapers, computer programs, website, TV news, advertising, etc; when quoting or using a sentence or paragraph that is originally from another person and when using formulas, figures, pictures, charts, diagrams, opinions or any audiovisual products;
3. When it is necessary to quote verbatim, such information must be enclosed in quotation marks and cite the source. This excerpt should only be done when the quoted sentence or paragraph is difficult to re-express in the learner's own language;
4. In other cases when the learners only take the main ideas, main contents or main concepts of other people to rewrite and express in their own language but still retain the meaning of the sentence, paragraph, the information source of author must be quoted, and the source of the quote must be specified;
5. To write scientific ideas in their own writing, do not copy and paste in articles.

3. The following points do not necessarily include the source of the citation

a) Learners themselves write about their own life experiences, observations, thoughts, mindset, and conclusions on their own topic;

b) When discussing, analyzing and presenting results from interviews, surveys and experiments of learners;

c) Using the learners' own products obtained from audio-visual media;

d) When the written matter is of common knowledge such as folk culture, customs, traditions, myths, historical landmarks, universal knowledge, basic facts that most people know of.

Article 4. Detection and handling of plagiarism errors

1. To check and detect plagiarism errors, the University officially applies Turnitin [1] plagiarism software on a whole University scale for all subjects mentioned in Clause 3, Article 1 from January 2. / 2017.

2. Academic works are considered plagiarism if they violate the errors set out in Article 2 or as a result of Turnitin's examination, that at least a verbatim copy of a paragraph with 100 or more words is taken verbatim; or from 20% of the text is similar to the data sources of other authors or there is changes in the title, words, data, but remain the structure and content the same to others' works.

3. Plagiarism checking applies for graduation thesis, thesis, thesis, article, lecture, course outline, research outline, and scientific works

a) After the first plagiarism check (before protecting, reporting or presenting), the author must rewrite or revise the article;

b) After the first time of inspection and modification, if the submitted product from the author still has the same amount of over 20% and at least one paragraph from 100 or more is considered to be detected for the second time. The unit that directly manages the author, or directly manages the scientific works must suspend the report, protect, take over the test within one month to continue the second modification;

c) In the process of defending the dissertation and report, if a member of the council finds out any errors, the chairperson of the council will decide that the scientific work, dissertation or thesis fails, that it must be adjusted and applied for the second defense;

d) After the second inspection and modification, if the third time there are still errors in the work mentioned in Clause 2, Article 4, the unit managing the author or directly managing the scientific works shall make a termination record which states that the unit will not accredit the academic products, will not protect, post, submit any other report, terminate the contract and other related procedures;

e) After having reported, protected and accepted, if there are other findings of any individual or organization of the society and there is a lawsuit petition, the author of the product is responsible before the law according to the Intellectual Property law of Vietnam and in accordance with the University's provisions on intellectual property rights.

4. Handling errors of plagiarism for tests, exercises, essays and other articles of the module:

a) For the first checking, when submitting papers, reports or presentations: learners must rewrite and revise the article;

b) Second checking: after the first check and modification, if the submitted article still has the same amount of over 20% and at least one paragraph from 100 or more, the lecturer in charge of the course will make a record to transfer to the department / school/ institute to deduct 30% of the course score. The deduction rate will be announced by the instructor / lecturer from the beginning.

5. With academic products from lecturers, public servants and employees of the University: when submitting the products, they must ensure that they do not violate the provisions of Article 2. The units directly managing the academic products shall only check one time. If a second violation is found, the academic product will be terminated, the unit will state that they will not accredit the academic products, will not protect, post, submit any other report, terminate the contract and other related procedures;

Article 5. Implementation

1. Responsibilities of the academic product's author:

a) Authors of academic products at the University are responsible to strictly implement the provisions in this regulation on scientific honesty and complying with Vietnam's Intellectual Property Law;

b) Encourage all learners, University officials to notify and provide evidence to the Inspection Department, or the direct management unit of suspected plagiarism violations.

2. Responsibilities of lecturers:

a) Instruct learners to implement the regulation of citation in academic products issued by the Institute of UEH Graduate, and this regulation to improve scientific honesty;

b) Use Turnitin software to control assignments, homework, essays, etc. of learners within the module they are in charge of and to control the quality implementation of the terms in the regulations;

c) Use Turnitin software to check the draft content of the graduation thesis and dissertation before introducing it to the management units;

d) Self-check their academic products before submitting them to the management units.

3. Responsibilities of the faculty / institute / training departments:

a) The faculty/ school receives and handles plagiarism violations within the modules of lecturers (including collaborative lecturers) directly under the faculty / institute;

b) Conduct the first check of the plagiarism and submit the conclusions about the plagiarism errors of theses, proposals, and dissertations before transferring to the Institute of UEH Graduate.

4. Responsibility of the training departments and scientific management units:

a) Disseminate this regulation widely and guide learners and officials to acknowledge and implement the provisions of these regulations;

b) The training departments (postgraduate, full-time, working-learning programs, international training programs) randomly check on learners' academic products (graduation thesis, dissertation, doctoral proposal, thesis) after having examined all levels of the training departments; civil servants and officials' academic products (research topic) to monitor and directly handle plagiarism cases and report to the Board of Directors.

c) The Institute of UEH Graduate is ultimately responsible for the quality of content accreditation of subjects, theses, articles, reports, textbooks, and other products under the control of the School.

d) The Department of Research Management and International Cooperation is ultimately responsible for the quality assurance of topics, articles, reports, textbooks and other products under its management. .

e) The Journal of Economic Development is ultimately responsible for the quality of content examination of scientific articles under its management.

5. Responsibilities of the Information Technology Department

a) Manage the Turnitin software system to ensure that the system operates continuously and stably.

b) Coordinate with relevant units to receive documents (dissertations, articles, etc.) and update the internal data system of the University on the Turnitin system.

c) Provide accounts and technical assistance to relevant UEH agencies, faculty, learners, civil servants, and officials, and manage all the active accounts.

d) Organize and conduct technical training sessions on using Turnitin software widely for units, lecturers, public servants and employees.

6. Responsibility of the Inspection Department

a) Periodically inspect the implementation of plagiarism control at the Faculties / Institutes / Training Department, and the Department of Research Management and International Cooperation, The Journal of Economic Development.

b) Conduct random check on theses, doctoral proposals, dissertations, research topics that have been submitted to the training departments, scientific management units and under the process to prepare for defense or report.

c) Being the main unit to coordinate with the relevant units when there are complaints about conclusions of plagiarism violations, plagiarism evidence provided by other individuals or organizations. Report to the University disciplinary board for advice on handling when there are allegations discovered after receiving the Degree or having the work accepted.

Article 6. Terms of implementation

1. This regulation applies on the scope of University of Economics in Ho Chi Minh City from January 3, 2017 and supersedes the previous regulations.

2. Heads of training departments, heads of departments / faculties / institutes / related units are responsible to disseminate this regulation on their website and to widely notify lecturers, civil servants, related officials, learners to perform accordingly.

3. During the implementation process, the Institute of UEH Graduate records and synthesizes the comments on which need to be revised to submit to the Board of Directors in order to make decisions on amendments to the regulations.

[1] Turnitin software is capable of detecting similarity (duplication) in academic products written in Vietnamese language (along with other languages) and clearly indicating the source that learners and authors have copied from. The range of data sources to examine is very wide, including endogenous data sources of the university, links to other Vietnamese universities, domestic and international magazines and magazines, in the Turnitin management system and the program can give a detailed report of the degree of overlap.