Supervising and examining research students
Topic: Quality assurance of the submitted thesis
How do you satisfy yourself about the integrity and originality of a thesis that you have been asked to examine?
This topic is designed to help you improve:
- your understanding of how examiners ascertain the integrity and originality of a thesis
- your skills in ensuring that the examiner's report is thorough and thoughtful with regard to integrity and originality
In this topic, two academics share their approaches to examining a thesis for academic integrity.
Further reading on this topic:
Cadman, K. (2003). ‘Divine discourse': Plagiarism, hybridity and epistemological racism. In S. May, M. Franken & R. Barnard (Eds.), LED: Refereed Proceedings of the Inaugural International Conference on Language, Education and Diversity. Hamilton, NZ: University of Waikato Press.*
“From my experience, an example of a PhD examiner's comment on plagiarism (the only one that I have met) creates a rhetoric which fully and emotionally endorses this prevailing discourse of theft and lack of integrity: ‘The candidate has lifted text from others and, because it does not appear in quotations, or indented and single-spaced, portrayed it as [their] own…The candidate, by engaging in such a practice, raises fundamental doubts in the minds of others about the credibility of the entire work' (author's emphasis). … Plagiarism has clearly provoked an emotional response based on a belief that the socio-linguistic structures of academic English are held sacred, and that those who fail to reproduce them faithfully ‘need' to be penalised and/or converted by education to change their practices. The issue of interest to me here, however, is the extent to which these beliefs, however forcefully expressed, are actualized as practice by gatekeepers, that is, by examiners and supervisors, in the practical activities of research education.” (p.13-14)
Holbrook, A., Bourke, S., Lovat, T., & Dally, K. (2004). Qualities and characteristics in the written reports of doctoral thesis examiners. Australian Journal of Educational & Developmental Psychology, 4, 126-145. Retrieved June 1, 2006 from http://www.newcastle.edu.au/group/ajedp/Archive/Volume_4/v4-holbrook-et-al.pdf
A study of examiner reports on 101 theses at one Australian university reports 1% occurrence of plagiarism / resubmission evaluations among these reports, and gives examples of written comments on the literature review.
Mullins, G., & Kiley, M. (2002). It's a PhD, not a Nobel Prize: How experienced examiners assess research theses. Studies in Higher Education, 27(4), 369-386.**
No mention of plagiarism or integrity arose from a study of 30 experienced examiners in 5 universities. “Different examiners approach the task differently, but most examiners begin by reading the abstract, introduction and conclusion to gauge the scope of the work, and by looking at the references to see what sources have been used and whether they need to follow up on any of them. They then read from cover to cover, taking detailed notes, and finally go back over the thesis to check on whether their questions have been answered or whether their criticisms are justified.” (p.376)
Overview | Research skills training | Quality assurance of the submitted thesis
Formative assessment of the thesis | Editorial support for research students
* Used with the author's permission.
**Permission to reproduce copyright material has been requested from the publisher.