Student Handbook 2022

Plagiarism

Description:

Committing an act of plagiarism, which includes, but is not limited to, submitting examinations, reports, notes, or other materials as one’s own work when such work has been, wholly or in part, authored by another person. The term “plagiarism” (See the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed., 2020) for a full description) includes, but is not limited to:

  1. Use of paraphrase or direct quotation of the published or unpublished work of another person without fully and properly crediting the author with footnotes, citations or bibliographical reference;
  2. Unacknowledged use of materials prepared by another person or agency engaged in the selling of term papers or other academic materials;
  3. Unacknowledged use of original work/materials that has been produced through collaboration with others without release in writing from collaborators; or
  4. Misuse of electronic media; piracy of electronic information.

Turnitin Policy:

Turnitin may be used by faculty as a detection tool for plagiarism and/or as an educational tool to improve writing skills, evaluate understanding of the originality of scholarly works, and encourage academic integrity.

Faculty may use the Turnitin application in the Learning Management System (LMS) as a detection tool prior to assessing any written work comprising 1,000 words or more (excluding references). The Similarity Index Report does not indicate plagiarism; it only checks for similarity of student’s work to other sources. Therefore, the Similarity Index Report percentage cannot solely be used to determine plagiarism. To evaluate if a student’s work meets the definition of plagiarism, faculty must use their informed judgement. If the Similarity Index from Turnitin exceeds 24% (excluding references), faculty are required to review the student’s written work and compare it to the Turnitin reports to determine:

  1. Whether the student has plagiarized unintentionally;
  2. Whether the student has plagiarized intentionally;
  3. Whether there is insufficient evidence to support plagiarism.
  4. Whether there is no evidence of plagiarism.

If it is determined by faculty that the student has plagiarized intentionally, the student will be subject to the College’s Student Integrity Discipline Process.

Turnitin Submission Methods:

Undergraduate Students:

Accelerated students in first and second terms or Upper Division students in their first, second, and third terms will be permitted multiple submissions to the Turnitin application in the LMS. The application will be used as an educational tool to improve writing skills, evaluate understanding of the originality of scholarly works, and encourage academic integrity.

Accelerated students in the third term or Upper Division students in the fourth and fifth terms will be permitted only one submission of a written work comprising 1,000 words or more (excluding references) to the Turnitin application in the LMS. The application will be used as an evaluation tool to identify the possibility of plagiarism. Additionally, the application may continue to be used as an educational tool.

Graduate Students:

As a general rule, graduate students will be permitted multiple submission attempts to the Turnitin application in the LMS. Faculty will guide graduate student use of Turnitin for specific writing assignments as needed. The application may continue to be used as an educational tool.