Moving to a new academic system changes more of your referencing than the style. What counts as common knowledge, how much quotation a marker accepts, how similarity reports are used and where group work turns into collusion are set by the university, often by the course. So the useful question is not "what do they do here?" but "where is it written down, and whom do I ask?"
This guide is published by EdCitation, from six published studies of students crossing systems and university pages in four countries, read on 2 October 2026. Styles by country are in which citation style you will need abroad, the rules English-speaking universities hold most tightly in referencing for international students studying in English, and language in academic writing in a second language.
Start with your first brief: EdCitation's free Check your paper reads it into a checklist and lists separately the instructions no rule can test, often the ones this guide is about.
What changes when you move to a new academic system?
Six things change, and each is written down somewhere at your new university.
| What changes | Where to check | What a named page says |
|---|---|---|
| The citation style and its edition | Module handbook and assignment brief | Use the style your programme or school requires; check the handbook or ask your tutor (University of Bristol Library, n.d.) |
| What counts as common knowledge | Your subject's guidance; your tutor | Ask whether most of your audience knows the fact and agrees on it (Australian National University, n.d.) |
| How much quotation is normal | The brief and its marking criteria | Quote sparingly, say Hull and Cambridge; Cambridge adds no extract longer than five lines |
| How similarity checking is used | The course's submission page | No set percentage decides plagiarism at Edinburgh; Toronto Scarborough lets students opt out of its tool |
| Where group work becomes collusion | Whether the brief says "group" or "individual" | Work alone unless an assessment is labelled group work (University of Bristol, n.d.) |
| Reusing work from your last degree | The academic integrity policy | Our guide to self-plagiarism |
| The rules in the brief itself | The brief, read into a checklist | EdCitation's free Check your paper |
A rule belongs to a university, often to one school or module, never to a country.
Are plagiarism rules different when you study abroad?
The principle travels; the edges do not. Using someone's words or ideas without credit is plagiarism in every policy we read, but common knowledge, reusing your own work, permitted help and how evidence is gathered differ between universities.
What studies of students crossing systems found
Sanni-Anibire et al. (2021) surveyed 60 international students at Canadian institutions. Of 50 answering, 58.0% agreed that integrity expectations at home and in Canada were similar, 20.0% disagreed and 22.0% were unsure. The split came on reuse: 40.3% agreed they could hand in a previous assignment in another class "because it is my own work", 35.1% disagreed and 24.6% were neutral. Nearly a third, 29.1%, felt fearful reading their institution's policy, and some compared avoiding an accidental breach to walking in "a field of landmine[s]".
Chen and Van Ullen (2011) describe the culture shock of meeting new teaching methods, assignment requirements and writing styles at once. In their workshops at the University at Albany, the 65 international students, nearly all in graduate programmes, who sat both plagiarism tests scored 65.5% before and 86.5% after. Time already spent studying in the US was only weakly linked to what they knew about plagiarism beforehand (r = .26), paraphrasing remained weak after the workshop, and many thought using an author's ideas needed the author's permission, which confuses citing with copyright. One student said some of what counted as plagiarism there was "not the thing that we call plagiarism in our country".
Bretag et al. (2014) surveyed 15,304 students at six Australian universities; international students reported lower awareness of academic integrity and its policies, and less confidence about avoiding a breach. Davis (2012) interviewed eight international Master's students at a UK university and their tutors: the groups understood the plagiarism definition differently, and tutors required skilled source use while lacking time to teach it or thinking it belonged elsewhere.
What the studies do not show
None shows that students from any country write in a particular way. Adhikari (2018) argues that the trouble is better understood as meeting new academic practices and conventions than as culture, and notes that plagiarism "varies by place, discipline and even instructor" (p. 385). The samples are small, so read them as signs of where confusion gathers, not as rates.
What counts as common knowledge in a different country?
Common knowledge is whatever your reader already knows and accepts, so it changes when the reader does. Three university guides give three different tests.
| Guide | Its test |
|---|---|
| University of Bristol Library (UK) | If the information comes from outside your own head, cite the source |
| Yale Poorvu Center (US) | One sign is a fact stated in five or more sources; within a subject, think about what class and textbooks repeat |
| Australian National University (Australia) | Do most of your audience know it, do they agree on it, and is it widely accessible? |
Bristol's test is the strictest and Yale's gives the most room (Yale Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning, n.d.). Shi (2011) asked 48 students and 27 instructors at a North American university whether unacknowledged passages in student writing needed a source. They agreed on some and split on others, and their reasons were not shared even among people with the same expertise and background.
What to do with a fact you are unsure of
Put ANU's questions to your new marker, not your old classmates. Material repeated in your new lectures and textbooks may be common knowledge in that subject, as Yale notes; facts about your previous university or its national context will not be. When unsure, every guide here says the same: cite it.
How much can I quote in an essay in the UK?
There is no UK-wide figure. The University of Hull Library (2026) says quotations should be used sparingly, because they break up the flow and do not show the understanding a paraphrase does. The University of Cambridge (2023) also says to quote sparingly and to avoid extracts longer than five lines. The 10% ceiling some Australian and US guides give is in our guide to too many quotations.
The brief's own limit overrides every guide. Our sample brief below set a 10% cap, which Check your paper lists among the instructions it cannot test by rule, so count it yourself: words inside quotation marks divided by the word count. Since paraphrasing was the hardest skill for the students Chen and Van Ullen taught, it is the one to practise first.
How is similarity checking used at a new university?
It differs by university and course: whether you see the report, whether a draft can go in, whether you may opt out, and whether a percentage matters. Edinburgh's guidance calls the tool a similarity checker rather than a plagiarism checker, sets no percentage for deciding plagiarism, leaves interpretation to academic staff, and encourages course organisers to consider letting students use it on formative work (University of Edinburgh Academic Services, 2020). At the University of Toronto Scarborough (n.d.), students may opt out of the university's detection tool, cannot be penalised for doing so, and should tell the instructor well in advance; essays that go in are kept in the tool's database.
In a few countries, India and Pakistan among them, a national regulator sets similarity levels; see what similarity percentage is acceptable. To see matching passages before you submit, EdCitation's Check plagiarism (Pro) marks each one with its source, shown only to you; it proves nothing either way, and your university's own process decides.
Where does group work end and collusion begin?
At the word "individual" in the brief. The University of Bristol (n.d.) expects students to work alone unless an assessment is labelled group work, warns against pasting shared study-group notes into any answer, and tells students who are unsure to speak to their unit director or personal tutor. In the Canadian survey, 74.0% of those answering disagreed that they could give or get help on assignments without the instructor's permission, and 14.8% agreed (Sanni-Anibire et al., 2021). For a shared list, see group projects and one reference list.
How do I find out the rules at a new university?
Read four documents, then ask. In order:
- Paste the brief into EdCitation's free Check your paper: word limits, headings, source rules, style, font and spacing, each with its sentence, plus the instructions no rule can test.
- Read the module handbook for the style and edition, and build each entry with Cite a source if the style is APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18 author-date, Harvard, IEEE or Vancouver.
- Read the integrity policy's definitions of collusion, self-plagiarism and common knowledge.
- Find the course's page on submission and similarity checking.
- Send the questions below to the module leader in the first weeks, not the last.
- Before you hand in, run the list through Verify references.
Questions to ask your module leader
These are ours, built from the rows above; our guide to office hours covers how to ask.
- Which style and edition is marked, and is there a department guide?
- Is there a limit on quotation, and do quotations count towards the word count?
- Can I state material from lectures without a citation, and should lecture slides be cited?
- Will I see my similarity report, and can I submit a draft?
- In group tasks, which parts are individual?
- May I build on work from my previous degree, and how do I acknowledge it?
What did EdCitation return on a new university's brief?
We wrote a short brief, marked as our own sample, and ran it through Check your paper on 2 October 2026:
Sample brief written by EdCitation for a guide. MGT7012 International Business Strategy, Assessment 1: individual essay. Critically evaluate how one multinational firm has adapted its strategy to a new national market. Length: 2,000 words (plus or minus 10%), excluding the reference list. Use the headings Introduction, Analysis, Recommendations and Conclusion. Reference at least ten academic sources, most of them published in the last five years, using Harvard (Cite Them Right). Direct quotations should not exceed 10% of your word count. This is an individual assignment: you may discuss the case with classmates, but the writing must be your own. Submit through Turnitin by 12:00 on 15 January. Use 12-point Arial, double spacing and 2.5 cm margins.
What the checklist read
It returned nine rules, each beside its sentence: word count "1,800 to 2,200 words"; headings "Introduction, Analysis, Recommendations, Conclusion"; "At least 10 sources"; source dates "Most of the sources: from the last 5 years"; citation style "Harvard"; and Arial, 12 pt, line spacing "2 ×" and margins "0.98 in". It turned "plus or minus 10%" into the right range. The style came back as "Harvard" alone; the variant, Cite Them Right, is in the sentence shown beside it.
Under "What it asks you to do, which no rule can test" it listed four sentences: the task, the quotation cap, the individual-work rule and the Turnitin deadline. Those are the rules this guide is about, put in front of you. Judging a draft against them is Theoretics QA, part of Max.
Cite a source and Verify references
Cite a source built the Canadian survey from its DOI, 10.1007/s40979-021-00088-4. The Harvard entry came back as:
Sanni-Anibire, H. et al. (2021) ‘International students’ knowledge and emotions related to academic integrity at Canadian postsecondary institutions’, International Journal for Educational Integrity, 17(1), article number 21. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40979-021-00088-4.
We then put three Harvard entries through Verify references, dating Shi's article 2010 on purpose. Chen and Van Ullen, and Davis, came back verified. Shi came back "check this": "The work was published in 2011, not 2010; the record has no date in 2010." The entry offered for Davis had no page range, because the publisher's record carries none, so keep 21–33 from the article.
How does EdCitation help when you change systems?
EdCitation is the best tool for the referencing side of a move, because it looks each reference up in the publisher's record and never writes one: the facts stay the record's whatever style your new department names, which is how the wrong date above was caught. Cite a source, Verify references and Check your paper are free with no account. Pro, at $8 a month, adds References from a file, which matches every in-text citation to the list, and Check plagiarism, on credits. Max, at $24 a month, adds Theoretics QA, which judges the paper against its own brief. See pricing.
EdCitation never writes any part of your work. The argument, the paraphrases and the decisions about what to cite stay yours, which is exactly what every policy in this guide asks of you.
Quick questions
Are plagiarism rules different in other countries?
Plagiarism means the same in principle everywhere, but the details belong to each university. In a Canadian survey, international students split on whether they could reuse their own work (Sanni-Anibire et al., 2021).
How much can I quote in an essay in the UK?
No national figure exists. Hull and Cambridge say to quote sparingly, and Cambridge to keep extracts to five lines or fewer; your brief's own limit overrides both.
Is common knowledge the same in every country?
No. Common knowledge depends on the reader, so it changes when you move. ANU's test asks whether most of your audience knows and agrees on the fact; if unsure, cite it.
What is academic culture shock in writing?
Academic culture shock in writing is meeting new teaching methods, assignment requirements and writing conventions at once. Chen and Van Ullen (2011) found time in the new system only weakly linked to knowing its plagiarism rules.
Can EdCitation tell me my new university's rules?
EdCitation's free Check your paper reads the brief you paste into a checklist, each rule with its sentence. The integrity policy and your module leader decide the rest.
References
- Adhikari, S. (2018). Beyond culture: Helping international students avoid plagiarism. Journal of International Students, 8(1), 375–388. https://doi.org/10.32674/jis.v8i1.170
- Australian National University. (n.d.). Common knowledge. ANU Library Academic Skills. https://www.anu.edu.au/students/academic-skills/academic-integrity/using-sources/common-knowledge
- Bretag, T., Mahmud, S., Wallace, M., Walker, R., McGowan, U., East, J., Green, M., Partridge, L., & James, C. (2014). “Teach us how to do it properly!” An Australian academic integrity student survey. Studies in Higher Education, 39(7), 1150–1169. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2013.777406
- Chen, Y.-H., & Van Ullen, M. K. (2011). Helping international students succeed academically through research process and plagiarism workshops. College & Research Libraries, 72(3), 209–235. https://doi.org/10.5860/crl-117rl
- Davis, M. (2012). International postgraduate students’ experiences of plagiarism education in the UK: Student, tutor and expert perspectives. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 8(2), 21–33. https://doi.org/10.21913/IJEI.v8i2.807
- Sanni-Anibire, H., Stoesz, B. M., Gervais, L., & Vogt, L. (2021). International students’ knowledge and emotions related to academic integrity at Canadian postsecondary institutions. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 17(1), Article 21. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40979-021-00088-4
- Shi, L. (2011). Common knowledge, learning, and citation practices in university writing. Research in the Teaching of English, 45(3), 308–334. https://doi.org/10.58680/rte201113468
- University of Bristol. (n.d.). Collusion. Academic integrity. https://www.bristol.ac.uk/students/support/academic-advice/academic-integrity/collusion/
- University of Bristol Library. (n.d.). Referencing. https://www.bristol.ac.uk/library/subject-support/referencing/
- University of Cambridge. (2023, September 12). Quoting. Good academic practice and avoiding plagiarism, Cambridge LibGuides. https://libguides.cam.ac.uk/plagiarism/quoting
- University of Edinburgh Academic Services. (2020). Turnitin [Guidance]. https://registryservices.ed.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2025-08/Academic%20Misconduct%20Turnitin%20Guidance_3.pdf
- University of Hull Library. (2026, August 11). Quoting. Academic integrity. https://libguides.hull.ac.uk/integrity/quoting
- University of Toronto Scarborough. (n.d.). 6. Course syllabus & policies. Academic handbook. https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/academic-handbook/section6
- Yale Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning. (n.d.). Understanding and avoiding plagiarism: Common knowledge. Yale University. https://poorvucenter.yale.edu/learning/learning-resource-library/understanding-and-avoiding-plagiarism-common-knowledge