We check the documents you submit as part of your international application for plagiarism using a third-party software
Why we check for plagiarism
The plagiarism checks ensure that the information you provide to us throughout the application process is reliable and authentic.
Accurate and authentic information is essential for us to assess whether an applicant meets our standards and is able to practise safely and effectively. Ultimately this is to fulfil our duty of protecting the public.
What we consider to be plagiarism
We define plagiarism as the practice of taking someone else’s work, ideas, credentials or experiences and passing them off as your own. This can include:
- copying by using another person’s language, work, ideas, credentials or experiences as if they were an applicant’s own; or
- collusion by collaborating with another person or organisation (for example an applicant, registrant or third party offering application services) to produce work, ideas, credentials or experiences and passing these off as if they were your own.
How we check for plagiarism
-
All documents you provide as part of your application (including any further information you submit), are scanned by our third-party software to check for plagiarism.
It’s important you provide your documents in a machine-readable format so that our software can read and process the information on those documents.
How to ensure your documents are machine-readable
-
If our software detects potential plagiarism, our Registration team will review the flagged content. This will affect the progress of your application whilst our review is carried out.
-
If the Registration team determines that there is a case of potential plagiarism, they will investigate this further. At this point they will reach out to you by email to ask for more information and gather evidence.
What happens if we find plagiarism
If we detect plagiarism following a closer review and investigation, we can come to the decision to reject an application. This decision would be made on the basis that the individual is not suitable to join the Register based on issues of character linked to plagiarism.
This may also impact the individual’s future applications and/or lead to fitness to practise investigations if the individual is already a member of another profession regulated by us.
See the full plagiarism policy and guidance document for more information
