A Longitudinal Study of Nonoriginal Content in Final-Year Computing Undergraduate Projects

This paper describes a four-year longitudinal study of the extent of nonoriginal material in final-year undergraduate computing projects. This was done in conjunction with the establishment of a proactive departmental policy on academic integrity which emphasized education and prevention as well as detection and penalty. The intention of the project was to attempt to reduce the amount of nonattributed nonoriginal (plagiarized) content in the projects. The amount of nonoriginal material contained in each of approximately 900 projects over all four years was automatically measured and subsequently investigated and evaluated. Despite problems caused by the continual development of the measurement tools during the project, the conclusion can be drawn that the amount of nonoriginal material has declined and that which remains is being used with greater integrity.