Assessment and examination

This section covers the assessment and examination for research degrees as well as providing information about University policies. It is your responsibility to ensure you have an understanding of the University's policies in relation to responsible research, plagiarism, academic honesty and ethical behaviour. If you have any questions regarding these policies you should approach your faculty.

Code of Conduct for responsible research

The University of Sydney Code of Conduct for Responsible Research Practice and Guidelines on Dealing with Allegations of Research Misconduct is included as Appendix 2 to this handbook.

The guidelines include material on retention of data, publication and authorship, the role of research supervisors and disclosure of potential conflict of interest.

Academic dishonesty and plagiarism

The University has strict policies and guidelines on plagiarism, copying, recycling and other forms of academic dishonesty. The Code of Conduct for Responsible Research Practice and Guidelines on Dealing with Allegations of Research Misconduct includes plagiarism (and misappropriation) under the definition of research misconduct, and explains the actions that will be taken if an allegation of misconduct is made. The policy can be found in Appendix 2 or visit sydney.edu.au/ab/policies/Rsch_Code_Conduct.pdf

It is your responsibility to ensure you have an understanding of the University’s policies in relation to academic dishonesty and plagiarism. If you have any questions regarding these policies you should approach your faculty.

Ethics approval

Projects that involve human and/or animal subjects need to be approved by the appropriate ethics committee. It is a supervisor’s responsibility to advise a candidate of the need to apply for ethical approval for research. Further information is available in Chapter 6 and at sydney.edu.au/ethics

If your project involves animal subjects, there is a two-day workshop on animal ethics which you will be expected to attend at the beginning of your research degree. Your supervisor will advise you as to when it will be available.

Please note that scholarship payments cannot be made to students who have failed to obtain ethical clearance where their research requires ethical approval.

Research programs: assessment and examination

At the end of the degree program you will present a thesis for examination by experts in your field. In most cases, the award of the degree depends entirely on the thesis. The examiners know nothing about the candidate or the way that the research project proceeded other than what is contained in the thesis presented for examination.

It is important, therefore, that the thesis is self-contained and conveys clearly the description of the project, how it relates to the field as a whole, how the project was pursued, what techniques were used and how successful they were, and the outcomes of the research.

All this must be presented in an integrated, coherent form that displays the competence of the candidate and demonstrates that a substantial and original contribution to knowledge has been made.

The University has not laid down detailed requirements as to the layout of the thesis other than is set out below with respect to binding.

Expectations and conventions as to what should be in a thesis vary from discipline to discipline. Departments will often recommend particular style guides or may even have their own publication. Precedent in the form of copies of successful theses in a departmental or school library is another useful reference point although these may have been written when current word processing technology was not available. SUPRA also has advice on the content and means of production of theses in its publication The Thesis Guide, available from:
supra.sydney.edu.au/assets/file/Publications/SUPRAthesisguide.pdf