Dear All,

I need your URGENT help please. I have just submitted my Phd final Thesis in computer science. Few months back I was attached a MSc student and I helped him toward exploring similar area in which I was working. He did it and also submitted his final MSc taught Thesis couple of months ago.

I have submitted my Thesis as electronic submission in my university and also two paper copies. Unfortunately I have detected 2 pages which I got from my MSc student who was attached to me. It is just his literature review comments. I forgot to change sentences and also providing his reference. So in theory it is exactly same text as he wrote in his MSc thesis. It happend by mistake. This is certain that the whole idea is mine and i was helping him. But by mistake I have used his literature review comments (2 pages). I am not sure when my Thesis Plagairism will be checked by University and if I will be allowed for Final Viva? What will be the process moving forward, I mean when Plagairism will be checked? If I will be given opportunity to revise my thesis, infact it should not take more than couple of hours as that text has no further reference in my rest of documentation so if I take this out, nothing should be impacted except minor changes.

Please can you advise what should I do now ? Should I wait for university call ? Will I still be call for a viva ? Will my examiners be aware about it ? Can I just revise my thesis after my viva and resubmit it ?

Please help as I am so much worried since I spotted my mistake.

Many thanks,
Asif

I think this will be found and will be viewed as plagiarism. If I were you, I would contact your supervisor and explain what's happened. They'll probably be understanding, but it would look better if you broach the subject first rather than waiting till they come to you.

thanks very much for your response. Infact I have already mentioned this to my Supervisor and he told me that although it is not good but you can change this when you will be given opportunity to make any corrections into your thesis followed by my viva. Does that mean , it will be be checked after final submission or before my viva ? Thanks for your help.

Regards,
Asif

If a final version hasn't been sent to your external and internal examiners then there's a fair chance you can submit a changed copy - you might have to pay for it to be re-bound etc. but given the circumstances then I'd say that's money I'd be willing to pay out.

Maybe run it through turn-it-in one more time before the final final submission

Do you mean final submission as a final copy after my viva. As my viva has not been conducted so far.

I have submitted my final copy as soft copy to university and 2 hard copies and now waiting for date to be announced for my viva. Still not sure what to do and who to approach ?

Thanks.

I mean, if your copy hasn't been sent to examiners, there still may be time to intercept it and hand another copy out. i'd go and see 1) supervisor 2) doctoral admin team and see if there's anything you can do - even if its putting a note in with the existing ones saying pages xx and xx will be removed.

Thanks for your quick response. I have mentioned to my supervisor and he said that I should be able to remove this after viva. I also gave quick call to research admin team and asked if i can submit another copy. They mentioned NO at this stage as once a copy is submitted, its not allowed to resubmit. So I believe only chance for me to update the stuff would be after my viva.

Kind regards,
Asif