Computer Laboratory

Declaration of originality

All dissertations must include an anti-plagiarism declaration immediately after the Proforma, preferably on the same page if there is room. Cut and paste the text below, then edit the highlighted details to apply to you. The declaration must have exactly the following syntax: 

I [Name] of [College],
being a candidate for Part II of the Computer Science Tripos,
hereby declare that this dissertation and the work described in it
are my own work, unaided except as may be specified below, and
that the dissertation does not contain material that has already
been used to any substantial extent for a comparable purpose.

Signed [signature]

Date [date]

The Lab would also like to retain the uploaded PDF copy of your dissertation for future internal use, although the source code will be deleted. Students should therefore include one of the following statements concerning the archiving of an electronic copy of their dissertation:

Either:

I give permission for my dissertation to be made available in the archive
area of the Laboratory's website.

Or:

I do not wish my dissertation to be made available in the archive area of
the Laboratory's website.

The University drafted the wording, which is similar to that relating to dissertations in a wide range of subjects; thus the “unaided except as may be specified below” clause merits some explanation:

  1. The clause does not require acknowledgement of the project supervision or informal conversations with peers.
  2. The clause is believed to be about collaborative projects which are not now permitted in Computer Science. As such it is not relevant to Computer Science dissertations.
  3. This clause aside and notwithstanding 1 and 2, candidates are required to draw attention, in the Implementation chapter, to the parts of the work which are not their own, in accordance with section 12.7 of this document. Other acknowledgements should be given wherever appropriate.

When the dissertations are submitted the Student Administrator is required to check that the declaration has been properly included and it will be helpful if each dissertation can be open at the relevant page on submission.