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Consequences of being caught in plagiarism


Vivo_007

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I wanted to ask what will happen if I get caught in plagiarism in my math IA?

to be very honest, I didn't do the IA by myself and copied a lot of material from the internet. I cited it all though

Will the diploma be cancelled? 

And if it does, the US university which has already enrolled me, will it withdraw the admission?

please reply...i think over this a lot these days

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citing material from the internet is not plagiarism as long as you give credit to whoever said/wrote what you're quoting; citing a lot of sources and material could give you lower marks if the examiner feels you haven't really put much work into your IA, but it will not count as plagiarism. Even if you didn't quote all of it but you "didn't make a deliberate attempt to gain an unfair advantage", this will not count as malpractice, so while you might get 0 marks for your IA, you're still eligible for the award of the IB diploma. you can find this in section B of the IB Handbook (Articles 25 and 26 )

Also from the Handbook (section C): (Plagiarism counts as malpractice)

"The school’s Diploma Programme coordinator must inform the IB Organization if he or she identifies any malpractice (for example, plagiarism) in relation to a candidate’s work after the candidate has signed the cover sheet to the effect that it is his or her own work and constitutes the final version of that work. In such cases, or when an examiner or the IB Organization suspects malpractice, the school will be required to conduct an investigation and provide the IB Organization with relevant documentation concerning the case. If questions arise about the authenticity of a candidate’s work before the cover sheet has been signed, that is, before the work has reached its final stage, the situation must be resolved within the school.

Candidates suspected of malpractice will be invited, through the school’s Diploma Programme coordinator, to present a written explanation or defence.

Cases of suspected of malpractice will be presented to the final award committee, or a sub-committee of the final award committee. After reviewing all evidence collected during the investigation, the committee will decide whether to dismiss the allegation, uphold it or ask for further investigations to be made

If the final award committee decides that a case of malpractice has been established, no grade will be awarded in the subject(s) concerned. No IB diploma will be awarded to the candidate, but a certificate will be awarded for other subject(s) in which no malpractice has occurred. The candidate will normally be permitted to register for future examination sessions, which may include the session that follows six months later if the relevant registration deadlines are met.

If a case of malpractice is very serious, the final award committee is entitled to decide that the candidate will not be permitted to register for any future examination session."

So. if you get caught plagiarizing, you will lose the diploma; I do not know about the university question. 

Hope this answered your question

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@eross I agree with you. I want to point out though that what you have linked to is not the Handbook, it's the General Regulations document. The Handbook goes though very minute details about how IB is carried out in individual schools, whereas the GR is a summary of contents useful for the students. It appears that the GR goes through less frequent updates than the Handbook.

@Vivo_007. Nobody expects an IA to be completely free of external references. So if you are able to express someone else's ideas in your own words, in the case of math IA, then that's not counted as plagiarism as long as you cite. For math it's less about generating contributions to math academia but more about knowing and applying more math. You are still expected to play a large role in the math IA, such as bringing in some of your own thoughts and synthesize the materials you've found. It's similar that way to a group 1 essay, in which you bring in lots of citation and can still argue for a position that might not be entirely original since the dawn of literature.

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Guest iblearner

My English teacher told my class that last year, three people were convicted of plagiarism, just because they did not specify the page number of a book they used. They had to write a letter to IB, but it was of no effect. They didn't get their diploma. That's scary. 

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Guest iBinbar

@Vivo_007 Is the entire paper made up of a quotation or do you have your own thoughts and writing in the paper as well? If your IA was simply one long quotation and none of your own writing there is a likely chance that you will at least fail the paper and at most be convicted of plagiarism because you effectively reprinted someone's work and submitted it to the IB. 

@kw0573 Is right though, no one expects the IA to be 100% your own, so if it is a combination of your own original thought and other people's data then you should be fine. 

Cheers and good luck.

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@iBinbarThat's starting to sound like a ToK question. :PYou should try to have as much original content there as possible, and original to you has a distinct meaning from original to the math society/academia. And IB favors that you should try to write something new and interesting to you, without worrying about whether or not this is known to rest of the world. So in that sense, most IAs would be a combination of original and others' thought. 

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  • 4 years later...
On 5/1/2016 at 2:02 PM, Vivo_007 said:

I wanted to ask what will happen if I get caught in plagiarism in my math IA?

to be very honest, I didn't do the IA by myself and copied a lot of material from the internet. I cited it all though

Will the diploma be cancelled? 

And if it does, the US university which has already enrolled me, will it withdraw the admission?

please reply...i think over this a lot these days

I'd like to know how it went, I'm facing a pretty similar issue at the moment. Thanks in advantage for ur help

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