Plagiarism and Academic Integrity

What is academic integrity?
Academic integrity is defined in the Student Handbook as "trust of those who look to universities for honest evaluations of academic work arrived at through honest processes."

When someone commits an act that violates academic integrity, they violate this trust. Ways that this can be done include: cheating, multiple submissions of one assignment, unauthorized collaboration, fabrication and misrepresentation, sabotage, forgery and bribery.

What is plagiarism?
The Binghamton University Student Academic Honesty Code defines plagiarism as: "Presenting the work of another person as one’s own work (including papers, words, ideas, information, computer code, data, evidence organizing principles, or style of presentation of someone else taken from the internet, books, periodicals, or other sources)."

How can you avoid plagiarizing sources?
While researching:

• Plan ahead to allow for time to gather your research and take notes.

• When you take notes for papers, be sure to keep track of the sources, and write the information in your own words (paraphrasing). Paraphrasing means that you convey the idea in your own words, as opposed to changing just a few words in the sentence.

• If you are using quotes, be sure to copy the quote exactly and indicate clearly that it is a direct quote, and not a paraphrase.

While writing:

• Cite sources, and ask your professor or the B.U. Writing Center if you are not sure what to cite.

What is meant by "citing sources?'
When you cite something, you give credit to the appropriate source for quotes, information and ideas that are not your own. Credit should be given to sources that you quote from, as well as sources consulted for ideas used in your research.

What do you have to cite?
It is difficult to create a list of examples that will cover every potential situation you could come across in your research. However, you will lower your likelihood of committing plagiarism if you follow these guidelines:

• Cite all quotes, whether direct or indirect, as well as all sources of paraphrasing.

• Provide citations for any idea presented that is not your own.

• Cite all statistics, unless they are from your own data analysis.

• Cite all pictures and illustrations not created by you.

• Cite sources that are in the public domain. Even though they are not protected under copyright, it is still an issue of academic integrity
  
• Online sources used and consulted, such as web pages, online articles, email discussions, blogs, listservs, discussion boards, etc.

Information that can be considered "common knowledge" does not need to be cited. Common knowledge refers to information and facts that are widespread, such as the dates of historical events or the chemical formula of water. Common knowledge can also be information that you knew about your subject without doing research. However, common knowledge can change depending on your research and your academic level - something that is well known to a biologist may be new information to you.

A good rule is that if you are not sure if something needs to be cited, talk to your professor or cite it.

How do you cite sources?
Go to the Citiation Help page for help in citing sources in common citation styles, plus information on how to find style guides both online and in print.

How can RefWorks help?

Refworks allows you to import the citations of the materials you have used into your own database and creates a bibliography for you. It can be useful because it lessens the chance to forgetting to record information about your source material. However, it can not tell if you need to cite information, or how to cite it. It is also important to check the bibliography that RefWorks generates, since it will not also be perfect, and will contain some errors in formating.

Where can you go for more help?
There are many sources available to help you understand plagiarism and how to avoid it, citation, and copyright issues.

• Use and Acknowledgement of Sources - B.U. Writing Center
  
  
• Plagiarism (from Indiana University) - covers how to recognize acceptable and unacceptable paraphrasing, plagiarism and the World Wide Web
  
  
• Avoiding Plagiarism (from Purdue OWL) - extensive guide on how to avoid plagiarism and how to identify it in your own work
  
  
• Plagiarism by Earl Babble - easy to read discussion about plagiarism with examples
  
  
• Writing Research Papers for North American Academic Institutions - a Guide for Students from all Nations (from William Badke) - provides information on how to develop a topic, write a paper, and avoid plagiarism.

Tutorials

• You Quote It, You Note It (from Acadia University)

• Success with Less Stress (from UCLA) -series of modules on the basics of academic honesty, intellectual property, file sharing, citing & documenting sources, time management, multiple submissions

Back to Instruction for Students | Back to Citation Help