Plagiarism and Academic Integrity

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Plagiarism and Academic Integrity

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Plagiarism and Academic Integrity

The University of Akron believes that...

"Academic honesty is fundamental to the activities and principles of any university. All members of an academic community must be confident that each person's work has been responsible and honorably acquired, developed and presented. The assumption that your work is a fair representation of your actual ability, knowledge and skills form the basis of institutional quality and the quality of its graduates.

The University of Akron

. . . regards academic dishonesty as a serious matter and an act of academic misconduct, which can cause sanctions to be imposed, such as a failing grade, disciplinary probation, suspension, or dismissal from the University.
-- Academic Integrity UA Office of Student Judicial Affairs.

What is Plagiarism?

Plagiarism is stealing or passing off ideas or words of another as one's own; using another's production without crediting the source; committing literary theft presented as a new and original idea or product derived from an existing source.
-- Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

Please keep in mind that plagiarism is still plagiarism whether one knows it or not! Have you ever tried telling a police officer that you thought the speed limit was 55mph when in fact it was 35mph? Ignorance of the law is never an excuse.

Teaching and Promoting Academic Integrity

Summarizing, Paraphrasing and Citing Sources

Tutorials

Style Manuals and Research Guides

 

  • American Psychological Association. Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th ed.
    Washington: American Psychological Association, 2001
  • Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 6th ed. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2003
  • Turabian, Kate L. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 6th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996
  • Chicago Manual of Style. 15th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005.
  • Strunk, William Jr. and White, E.B. The Elements of Style, 4d ed. New York: Longman: Boston Allyn & Bacon, 2000
  • Citing Internet and Print Resources - Online access to style guides including APA Style Guide,
    MLA Style Guide, Turabian Citation Guide, and others
  • Assembling a List of Works Cited in Your Paper - A detailed guide how to cite articles from journals, magazines, newspapers, books, and other resources
  • RefWorks - Online database manager and bibliography creator.

Bibliography

(Some sources may be listed more than once)

General Sources

  • Harris, R.A. (2001). The plagiarism handbook: strategies for preventing, detecting, and dealing with plagiarism, Pyrczak Publishing, Los Angeles, CA
  • Caroll, J. (2002). A handbook for deterring plagiarism in higher education, Oxford: The Oxford center for staff and learning development
  • Whitley, B. E., Keith-Spiegel, P. (2002). Academic dishonesty: an educator's guide, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. (! Only for users of the University of Akron)
  • Lathrop, A. (2000). Student Cheating and Plagiarism in the Internet Era: A Wake-Up Call, Englewood, Colo.:Libraries Unlimited
  • Taylor, B. Integrity: Academic and Political: A letter to my students Available at http://www.academicintegrity.org/pdf/Letter_To_My_Students.pdf
  • Hansen, B. (2003). Combating plagiarism, CQ Researcher 13 (32) Available at http://www.cqpress.com/docs/Combating%20Plagiarism.pdf
  • Scanlan, P. (2003). Student online plagiarism: how do we respond , College Teaching, 54 (4), p. 161-164
  • Martin, David F. (2005). Plagiarism and technology: A tool for coping with plagiarism, Journal of Education for Business, 80 (3), p. 149-154
  • Harris, R. (2002). Don’t police plagiarism. Just teach!, Digest, 67 (5), p. 46-50
  • Thomas, David A. (2004). How educators can more effectively understand and combat the plagiarism epidemic, Brigham Young University Education & Law Journal, 2, p. 421-431

Academic Integrity and Honor Codes

Advice and Anecdotes

Assignments Designed to Discourage Plagiarism

ESL Students—a Different Perspective?

Online Plagiarism

Plagiarism Detection Tools

Plagiarism in the News

Professional Plagiarism

Studies and Surveys (Forthcoming)

Plagiarism Verification Software

Several companies have developed software to aid in the detection of student plagiarism. UA University Libraries does not endorse or advocate any of these products and has serious reservations about the methods and processes used to collect and compare data.

 

Often times, student papers are submitted to these companies for comparison without the student's knowledge or consent. Once submitted, the papers are considered proprietary property of the software vendors and are used as comparative data for future submissions and analysis, totally disregarding any intellectual property rights of the students. It is a lawsuit waiting to happen!

Google - A Last Resort