Suspected plagiarism

If you in connection with the assessment of written assignments and Master’s theses suspect that a student has not written parts of the submitted assignment, i.e. has copied text written by someone else without proper reference to the source, it is possible to check the assignment for plagiarism in the plagiarism detection system Ouriginal (formerly URKUND).

  

About Ouriginal

  • Ouriginal can identify similarities between texts and thus help detect cheating in written assignments.
  • Ouriginal searches three different sources: the internet, published material and previously screened assignments from institutions that are licensed to use the system.
  • Ouriginal is integrated in WISEflow, but at the Faculty of Arts it is not enabled automatically unless a special agreement has been made.

The Ouriginal analysis

It is important that you do not regard the Ouriginal-analysis as proof that the student has committed plagiarism. It always requires an academic assessment to determine whether it is a matter of poor reference practice or plagiarism.

Please also note that a high similarity is not necessarily a sign of plagiarism. For example, students may have copied an identical exam question in their assignment, or they may have listed the same books and articles in their list of references.

If you need help reading the plagiarism report, please contact AU Library.

You can find guides and contact information here.

Reporting Plagiarism

If you have reached the conclusion that plagiarism or another form of cheating has taken place, you must file a report to Educational Law, which handles such cases on behalf of the dean. You can read more about how exam cheating is reported and handled on AU’s staff page about cheating at exams.

  

Working hours in connection with reporting of exam cheating

In the new agreement on working hours at the Faculty of Arts, it has been determined that you will receive remuneration corresponding to four working hours for handling a report - however, 5 hours, if it concerns a master's thesis (Ref. Agreement on working hours, Faculty of Arts, valid from 1 January 2018).

To have the working hours registered in Vipomatic, you must send an email notifying that you have filed a report on exam cheating to:

  • Danish School of Education: When filing your report, cc Director of Studies Anna Karlskov Skyggebjerg (aks@edu.au.dk)
  • School of Communication and Culture: When filing your report, cc arbejdstid@cc.au.dk.
  • School of Culture and Society: When filing your report, cc Director of Studies Liselotte Malmgart (lm@cas.au.dk).

Activation of plagiarism check

You can ask the examination secretary at Study Centre Arts to enable Ouriginal for the specific exam: