Plagiarism Investigations from 2018

Plagiarism is a serious offense and cases of suspected plagiarism are investigated on a case-by-case basis. If a student or candidate is guilty of plagiarism, penalties will be applied. Below we outline the types of cases that are dealt with regarding plagiarism and the number of cases found in the previous year from CPA PEP and CPA preparatory courses. Cases from the last CPA PEP session (Fall 2018) are not included in this number since reviews are still in progress.

Total Cases	Type of Case	Case Definition-examples	Penalty Applied?
22	Copier	Student A gains access to another student’s assignment or uses copyrighted material (such as a CPA created solution) and submits the content as their own work. Student A would be investigated for plagiarism.	Penalties were applied
7	Enabler	Student E asks Student F who completed the module in a previous session for an assignment as he is going through a rough patch in his life. Student F feels bad and shares their assignment to help their colleague/friend. Student E will be investigated for plagiarism (Copier) and Student F – for enabling plagiarism. Student A (enabler) completes their assignment on their own and then shares it with Student B (copier). Student B copies this assignment and both students are investigated for plagiarism.	Penalties were applied
7	Failure to Provide Reference	Student J finds information for an assignment on a website. The student copies the information and includes it in their assignment. No reference is made to the website and the student is therefore claiming this information to be their own original work. This student will be investigated for plagiarism.	Penalties were applied
6	Joint Submission	Candidate G and Candidate H are in the same module at the same time and work on an assignment together. Both candidates submit their individual assignments with the same content and layout. Due to the similarities of the work, both candidates will be investigated for plagiarism.	Penalties were applied
5	Unauthorized Use	Candidate C gets access to Candidate D’s assignment files and uses them for their own submission. Candidate D is unaware of this. Candidate C is investigated for plagiarism with unauthorised use. Penalties for these cases are more serious.	Penalties were applied

Check out these previous posts for more information on plagiarism.

• Updated Plagiarism Policy (published May 30, 2018)
• Professional Conduct & CPA education (published October 3, 2018)
• Updated CPAWSB Plagiarism Review Process (published November 7, 2018)
• Understanding Common Knowledge  (published March 14, 2018)
• Checking your own work for plagiarism (published April 30, 2018)
• Personal Implications of Plagiarizing (published August 29, 2018)
• Reporting Plagiarism (published July 4, 2018)