Transcript Plagiarism - UMBC: An Honors University In Maryland

Acting With Integrity
Microsoft Office Online
Survival in our society
requires that we look out
for our own interests.
Each of us must find a
way to support ourselves,
seek out shelter and food,
and do everything else it
takes to be satisfied with
our lives.
No one else can do these
things for us.
Environmental Protection Agency
Fortunately, we don’t
have to do this alone.
To help us with these
tasks, we build
communities to
provide us with
certain resources we
all depend on.
Collecting firewood
© S. Braatz/ FAO
© T. Hofer/FAO
There are times when
pursuing our
individual best
interest actually works
against us, because it
destroys a resource
that we and others
rely upon.
Deforestation
Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference
When it is immediately
obvious how our
actions deplete a
common resource,
most of us will see the
conflict and make
other choices.
Arctic Climate Impact Assessment
But sometimes the
conflict is not so
obvious.
Sometimes it takes
time or experience
to see how our
actions harm our
communal
resources.
Communities have rules to preserve
the resources we all rely on
To protect common resources that we all
depend on, we ask our community leaders to
see the “big picture” for us, and provide us
with rules that spell out when we should
refrain from following our individual interests.
But we are also
members of smaller
communities.
UMBC Alumni Association
The most obvious rules
are the laws and
regulations set by the
governments of the
local, state and
national communities
we live in.
The United States Capitol
UMBC Alumni Association
For example, the residents
in a dormitory form a
community.
Members of the dorm
community expect their
rooms will be quiet at
night so that they can
sleep.
To protect the resource of
“peace and quiet” that
residents depend upon,
dormitories limit when and how
loudly you can play music in
your private room.
Communal resources for scholars
Both professional scholars
(professors) and scholarsin-training (students) rely on
certain common resources:
 Free access to the work of
others
 Information that is accurate
and reliable
 Feedback on our work that
is fair and accurate
Stacks at the UMBC library
Medical College of Virginia Alumni Assn.
Communities of
individuals that
share professional
goals have rules
too.
The rules of
professional
communities are
called
“professional
ethics.”
New medical students reciting the
Hippocratic Oath at the Medical College
of Virginia
UMBC is a community of scholars
Emily Davis
There are many
communities at
UMBC, but
above all UMBC
is a community
of scholars.
UMBC students present their work at the 5th
Annual Undergraduate Research
Symposium.
.
To help protect those scholarly resources, UMBC
has developed codes of professional ethics for
students and faculty.
The professional ethics code for students is called
the UMBC Undergraduate Student Academic
Conduct Policy.
The complete code can be found at this website:
http://www.umbc.edu/integrity/students.html
Many of the professional ethics
rules in our academic conduct
policy are easy to understand
and apply. But others are not.
In the two tutorial modules that
follow, you will find instruction
in the areas students have the
most difficulty applying: citing
your sources properly, and
receiving help from other
students.
Ethics For Using the Work
of Others
“If I have seen farther it is by standing
on the shoulders of Giants.” Isaac Newton
The task of a scholar is to create new
knowledge: insights or information that no
one else has contributed before.
However, most of our knowledge builds
incrementally. Individual scholars hear of
other people’s work, then use that
information to make new discoveries.
Office of NIH History
For example, Gregor Mendel
established that the
inheritance of traits could
be predicted by applying
some basic principles that
we now call “Mendel’s
Laws of Inheritance.”
Gregor Mendel
Nobel Foundation
When Thomas Hunt Morgan applied
Mendel’s Laws to the inheritance
of white eyes in fruit flies, things
did not work out as Mendel
predicted. The discrepancy
between his results and Mendel’s
predictions led Morgan to
Thomas Hunt Morgan discover sex chromosomes.
Building new knowledge requires
free exchange of ideas
Mendel’s ideas formed a framework that helped
Morgan to interpret his new findings, but
Mendel’s ideas alone were not sufficient to
explain how traits are inherited.
Scholars count on future generations to build on
their work, and previous generations to inspire
them.
For this reason, we all benefit when scholars freely
share their work.
Disincentives to free exchange of ideas
The primary reward for scholarship is
recognition.
Scholars are reluctant to share their work if
they see others using their work without
giving them the recognition they’ve
earned.
Citations establish the origin of ideas
So on the one hand, scholars NEED to use others’ ideas to
do their own work, but on the other hand, incorporating
someone else’s work into your own can give false
impressions of who should get credit for the ideas.
To keep track of who is responsible for each idea in an
intellectual work, scholarly societies have devised
methods for marking passages that contain other
peoples’ ideas. When these methods are followed,
scholars are satisfied that their work is adequately
recognized.
When another author’s work is incorporated into someone
else’s writing without proper attribution, it is called
“plagiarism.”
When do students commit plagiarism?
The ones you probably know…
Downloading a paper from an internet papermill site
Copying a paper written by another student
Copying sentences or phrases word-for-word
from printed sources (books, encyclopedias,
etc.) WITHOUT enclosing the words in
quotation marks
When do students commit plagiarism?
Also plagiarism . . .
Presenting the information from another
author’s work in your own words without citing
the source of the information
Reporting “facts” you just learned from a
website without citing the website
Incompletely rewriting another author’s
passage so that it is too close to the original
So What Exactly is
Plagiarism?
Plagiarism- Incorporating someone
else’s intellectual work into your own
work without giving them credit
Plagiarism- Incorporating someone
else’s intellectual work into your own
work without giving them credit
First, we need to clarify what is considered
“intellectual work.”
The following are considered
“intellectual work”:
CREATIVE WRITING
IDEAS
INFORMATION
INVENTIONS
ARTISTIC CREATIONS
CREATIVE WRITING- A particular
choice or sequence of words to
express an idea or fact
Example- Three different ways to explain
the symptoms of diabetes:
“polydipsia, polyphagia, and polyuria. . .”(1)
“extreme thirst, frequent urination [and]
increased appetite”(2)
Are you hungry and thirsty a lot? Are you
inconvenienced by an “overactive bladder?”
These are all signs that you might have
diabetes.
IDEAS- Interpretations of events,
data or facts
Example:
Using an analogy of empty chairs to explain how
enzyme rates change as you increase substrate
concentration
A mathematical equation expressing an the
relationship between population density and fertility
Generalizations about the voting patterns of “soccer
moms”
INFORMATION- Facts, measurements,
results from an experiment, statistics,
eyewitness accounts
Example:
The chromosome a gene is located on
The number of people living in the United
States in 2004
INVENTIONS
Examples:
A computer program
A mathematical proof
An engineering design
ARTISTIC CREATIONS
Example:
 A photograph posted on a website
Summary
 If it’s information, creative writing, ideas, an
artistic creation or invention
 AND you were not the first to come up with it
 You MUST cite the source
Plagiarism- Incorporating someone
else’s intellectual work into your own
work without giving them credit
So how do you properly give credit?
Take good notes
Avoiding plagiarism begins with good notetaking.
As you take notes from your reading, be
sure to keep track of where your
information comes from. In your notes,
you should mark which words are
summaries written in your own words of
someone else’s information (also known
as a “paraphrase”), which are your own
ideas, and which are direct quotations
(word-for-word copies).
A plagiarism-proof note-taking strategy
 Before you begin to read a source, prepare a blank piece
of paper for your notes. Head the paper with the
complete bibliographic information you will need for your
reference list.
 Read the material once, from beginning to end. Then
CLOSE THE BOOK (or turn your monitor off) and writein your own words- what you learned from the source
that you didn’t know before. This is called paraphrasing.
 Leave space after each of your paraphrased statements
so you can add missed details later.
 Now open up the book and go back and fill in the
missing details (numbers, facts, etc.).
 If you must copy a phrase verbatim (word-for-word), put
quotation marks around it IMMEDIATELY.
Read the text below. How would
you paraphrase this passage?
Even though it was located but seven miles from Savannah, in
terms of style and grace the Pin Point, Georgia, of the 1940s
and 1950s was light-years away from its big city neighbor to
the west. With a population of 500, Pin Point was more
hamlet than town, more drive-past than drive-in. The thought
that this bump in the road could be the birthplace of a child
who would rise to become a justice of the United States
Supreme Court– a black child who would rise to become a
justice of the United States Supreme Court—was
inconceivable. The distance from here to there, or, as the
justice himself would grow fond of saying, from the outhouse
to the courthouse, was simply too great. A black child from
Pin Point, Georgia, becoming a member of the U.S. Supreme
Court? It simply couldn’t happen. Except that it did (4).
An example of successful paraphrasing (5)
Paraphrase: Greenya (4) notes that in
the small, insignificant town of Pin Point,
Georgia, no one would have predicted that
one of its citizens, particularly a black
citizen, would become a justice for the
highest court in the land. However, that is
exactly what happened when Clarence
Thomas became the second black
Supreme Court Justice.
Incomplete paraphrasing
When paraphrasing, it is important to avoid
copying phrases, sentence structure and
paragraph structure.
Paraphrases must be rewritten in your own words.
What follows is an example of a paraphrase that is
identical to the original passage except for a few
shuffled phrases and substituted synonyms. We
call this “incomplete paraphrasing.”
Incomplete paraphrasing (6)
Original text:
“In research writing, sources are cited for two
reasons: to alert readers to the sources of your
information and to give credit to the writers from
whom you have borrowed words and ideas”(7).
Plagiarism:
In research writing, we cite sources for a couple
reasons: to notify readers of our information
sources and give credit to those from whom we
have borrowed (7).
Fixing incomplete paraphrasing (6)
If your paraphrase matches the original text too closely, go back and try
again to rewrite it in your own words, or treat it as a direct quote.
Original text
In research writing, sources are cited for two reasons: to alert readers
to the sources of your information and to give credit to the writers
from whom you have borrowed words and ideas.
Acceptable- NOT plagiarism
 A researcher cites her sources to ensure her audience knows where
she got her information, and to recognize and credit the original
work (7).
 In her book A Writer's Reference, Diana Hacker notes, “In research
writing, sources are cited for two reasons: to alert readers to the
sources of your information and to give credit to the writers from
whom you have borrowed words and ideas” (7) .
Fixing incomplete paraphrasing (6)
You can also fix your incomplete paraphrase by treating it as a direct quote
with quotation marks at the beginning and end, ellipses (…) to show where
you’ve left out words, and brackets [ ] to show where you’ve substituted
words.
Original text
In research writing, sources are cited for two reasons: to alert readers to the
sources of your information and to give credit to the writers from whom you
have borrowed words and ideas.
Incomplete paraphrase- plagiarism
In research writing, we cite sources for a couple reasons: to notify readers of
our information sources and give credit to those from whom we have
borrowed (7).
“Fixed” incomplete paraphrase- NOT plagiarism
“In research writing, [we cite sources for a couple] reasons: to [notify] readers
[of our information sources] and …give credit to [those] from whom [we]
have borrowed …”(7).
While this last solution adequately acknowledges the creative writing AND the
information in the original text, it’s very messy to read and write! For this
reason, it is better to treat it as a direct quote or rewrite it.
Avoid direct quotes
 Direct quotations are seldom used in scholarly writing.
In scientific writing, they are NEVER used.
 If you find yourself copying down lots of direct
quotations, it’s probably a sign that you haven’t fully
understood what you have read.
 Go back and look up the terms you don’t understand,
then see if you can successfully paraphrase the
information.
 Alternatively, go back and look at the instructions for the
assignment again, and consider leaving out the
information altogether. If it’s so highly technical that you
don’t understand it, chances are it’s not a main point.
How to properly cite
Whether it is creative writing, ideas or information,
when you are ready to introduce someone else’s
work in your own, in order to “cite” you have to
do two things:
 Mark the passage that comes from someone
else
 List the bibliographic information for the
source of the passage in a reference list
How to properly cite
How you mark the passages depends on
Whether the passage is a direct quotation
or a paraphrase
The citation format you have chosen to
use
Citing direct quotations
( i.e. word-for-word copying)
To mark a direct quote you must:
 Put quotation marks around copied words. Even twoword phrases copied from a source- if they are uniquemust be enclosed in quotation marks.
 If the passage is long (more than 4 lines), set the
passage off by indenting at the beginning and end of
each line instead of using quotation marks.
 Put an in-text citation mark between the final quotation
mark and the period.
Example: Citing direct quotations
 Put quotation marks around copied words. Even twoword phrases copied from a source- if they are uniquemust be enclosed in quotation marks.
 If the passage is long (more than 4 lines), set the passage off by indenting at the
beginning and end of each line instead of using quotation marks.
 Put an in-text citation mark between the final quotation
mark and the period.
“In research writing, sources are cited for
two reasons: to alert readers to the
sources of your information and to give
credit to the writers from whom you have
borrowed words and ideas”(7).
Example: Citing direct quotations
 Put quotation marks around copied words. Even two-word phrases copied from a
source- if they are unique- must be enclosed in quotation marks.
 If the passage is long (more than 4 lines), set the passage off by
indenting at the beginning and end of each line instead of using
quotation marks.
 Put an in-text citation mark between the final quotation mark and
the period.
Even though it was located but seven miles from Savannah,
in terms of style and grace the Pin Point, Georgia, of the
1940s and 1950s was light-years away from its big city
neighbor to the west. With a population of 500, Pin Point
was more hamlet than town, more drive-past than drive-in.
The thought that this bump in the road could be the
birthplace of a child who would rise to become a justice of
the United States Supreme Court– a black child who would
rise to become a justice of the United States Supreme
Court—was inconceivable. The distance from here to there,
or, as the justice himself would grow fond of saying, from the
outhouse to the courthouse, was simply too great. A black
child from Pin Point, Georgia, becoming a member of the
U.S. Supreme Court? It simply couldn’t happen. Except that
it did (4).
Citing paraphrases
For paraphrases, you only need to do ONE
thing to mark the passage:
Put an in-text citation mark at the end of
each sentence that contains new
information, even if it came from the same
source as the previous sentence.
Putting one in-text citation mark at the end
of a paragraph is NOT sufficient.
Example: citing paraphrases (8)
Put an in-text citation mark at the end of each sentence that contains
new information, even if it came from the same source as the
previous sentence. Putting one in-text citation mark at the end of a
paragraph is NOT sufficient.
Giardiasis, the most common waterborne disease
caused by an enteric parasite in humans, is
produced by the flagellated protozoan Giardia
lamblia (1). The Giardia life cycle present two
morphologically distinct forms, trophozoites and
cysts, [but] the disease is caused by the
trophozoite forms and frequently presents as
acute or chronic diarrhea ... (1). Transmission
occurs through the ingestion of Giardia cysts,
usually from fecally contaminated food or water
or interpersonal contact (2).
Formatting
The way scholars format their reference lists
and in-text citation marks depends on their
discipline.
You should ask each professor which
format- MLA, APA, CSE, etc- they would
like you to use for your assignments.
The instructions that follow show you how to
format your citations with a system used
by biologists- the Council of Science
Editors (CSE) system.
Formatting in-text citation marks
There are two ways to format in-text citation marks in the CSE
system
 CSE citation-sequence system
 Insert [#], (#) or # at end of passages, with # replaced with a number
representing the order in the paper in which the sources appear.
 If same source is cited later in the paper, the number is the same. For
example, all information from Jones, 1983, is marked [3] throughout the
paper because it’s the third source mentioned in the paper, even if the
next time it’s mentioned comes after source #12.
 CSE author-year system
 Insert (Author last name, year of publication) at end of passages
 If two authors: (Last name of first author & last name of second author,
year)
 If three or more authors: (Last name of first author, et. al., year)
Examples of Citation-Sequence in-text
citation marks
 This passage from a scientific journal article (8):
Giardiasis, the most common waterborne disease
caused by an enteric parasite in humans, is
produced by the flagellated protozoan Giardia
lamblia (1). The Giardia life cycle present two
morphologically distinct forms, trophozoites and
cysts, [but] the disease is caused by the trophozoite
forms and frequently presents as acute or chronic
diarrhea. . . (1). Transmission occurs through the
ingestion of Giardia cysts, usually from fecally
contaminated food or water or interpersonal contact
(2).
 This tutorial
Examples of Author-Year in-text
citation marks
Here is the same passage (8) rewritten in authoryear format:
Giardiasis, the most common waterborne disease
caused by an enteric parasite in humans, is produced
by the flagellated protozoan Giardia lamblia (Adam,
1991). The Giardia life cycle present two
morphologically distinct forms, trophozoites and cysts,
[but] the disease is caused by the trophozoite forms
and frequently presents as acute or chronic diarrhea
(Adam, 1991). . . Transmission occurs through the
ingestion of Giardia cysts, usually from fecally
contaminated food or water or interpersonal contact
(Craun, 1990).
Formats for CSE reference lists
Put at end of paper under a separate
heading called “References”
Organize in order cited if using numbersequence system
Organize alphabetically by last name of
first author if using author-year system
Bibliographic information to include
depends on type of source (website,
journal article, book, etc.)
Example reference lists
 Citation-sequence
References
1.
2.
3.
Sambrook, J., Fritsch, E. F. & Maniatis, T. (1989)
Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual (Cold Spring
Harbor Lab. Press, Plainview, NY).
Holt, W.V. (1982) J Reprod Fertil 64:485-9.
Anonymous. Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
Homepage. URL: http://www.jdrf.org/index.cfm.
Accessed 1/10/2004.
Example reference lists
 The same list in Author-Year format
References
Anonymous. Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
Homepage. URL: http://www.jdrf.org/index.cfm.
Accessed 1/10/2004.
Holt, W.V. (1982) J Reprod Fertil 64:485-9.
Sambrook, J., Fritsch, E. F. & Maniatis, T. (1989) Molecular
Cloning: A Laboratory Manual (Cold Spring Harbor
Lab. Press, Plainview, NY).
 Notice that both the appearance and
the order of the list is different
Which to use?
Advantages
Disadvantages
Citationsequence
Less typing, papers not
so cluttered with
references
Must re-number after
each round of editing
Author-year
Acquaints you with
workers in the field,
allows you to make
connections between
publications written by
same authors
Harder to read
Choose only one
Whichever you choose to use, you must use
the same system for marking text
passages throughout the entire paper.
When DON’T I have to cite?
When providing your own original analysis
of other people’s intellectual work
When expressing an original thought of
your own
When relating information from your own
research or life experience
When reporting “common knowledge”
When DON’T I have to cite?
 When providing your own original analysis or
summary of other people’s intellectual work
Example: Making a generalization about a pattern or
trend in biology gleaned by reading other people’s
papers. E.g. “Eukaryotic genes have introns, but
prokaryotic genes don’t.”
But: If someone else makes an analysis or summary
that you agree with, it’s still not your own, even if you
thought of it before you read the paper. In scholarly
work, the first person to publish an idea gets credit for it.
When DON’T I have to cite?
When relating information from your own
research, or your own life experiences
Example: “A common myth is that swallowed
gum sits in your stomach, undigested, for seven
years.”
Example: Data collected by you in your science
laboratory classes
When DON’T I have to cite?
 When reporting “Common Knowledge”
Common knowledge: Information that is commonly
known among your peers
Who your peer group is changes depending on the
context of your writing assignment
 For school assignments, use students whose knowledge is
limited to what they learned in courses that are pre-requisite
to the course you are writing for as your peer group
 For professional papers, use specialists in the field as your
peer group
“Common
Knowledge” in Freshmanlevel science courses (high school
diploma pre-requisite)
EXAMPLES
Diabetes is a disease caused by an
inability to either make or use insulin
DNA is the genetic material in
chromosomes
The chemical formula for water is H2O
Electricity is caused by the flow of
electrons
“Common
Knowledge” in any upperlevel course that lists a UMBC course
as a pre-requisite
EXAMPLES
Any information found in the textbook of
the pre-requisite course
NOT common knowledge in a
freshman-level science course (high
school diploma pre-requisite)
EXAMPLES
The symptoms of diabetes are polydipsia,
polyphagia, and polyuria
Mice have 20 chromosomes
The abundance of the elements in the
universe
The effect of black holes on the angular
momentum of objects
Common misconceptions
 I only need to cite the source of direct quotations.
FALSE
 I don’t need to cite information I get from the
internet. FALSE
 When I summarize information in my own words
(i.e. paraphrase), it becomes my work, therefore I
don’t need to cite the information source. FALSE
 If the instructor tells me to use certain sources,
the instructor already knows where I got my
information from so I don’t need to cite. FALSE
FAQ’s #1
Q. Why don’t I have to cite sources when answering
questions in my lab manual?
A.
Questions in lab manuals usually ask you to do one of
two things:
1)
2)
Report or interpret your original results from an experiment
Apply information you’ve been given to a specific situation
Your data, your interpretations of your data, and your
analyses are your own original work, and so all of
these are adequately cited by your name at the top
of the assignment.
FAQ’s #2
Q. I’ve written papers during the entire 3 years
I’ve been in college, but this is the first time
I’ve ever been charged with plagiarism.
Why now?
A. Plagiarism is an issue that only comes up
when your assignment requires you to consult
someone else’s intellectual work. There are
many types of writing assignments you can do
without consulting outside sources.
FAQ’s #3
Q. Some places define plagiarism as
“misrepresentation of authorship.” While I forgot
to put an in-text citation mark in my paper, I also
never put in a mark saying the information was
mine. So why is that misrepresentation?
A.
When you put your name at the top of a paper, you’re
claiming that the words, ideas and information in the
paper are your intellectual work. In-text citations and
quotation marks show the reader the exceptions to that
rule. If a passage is not marked, it’s assumed to be
the author’s work by default.
FAQ’s #4
Q.
I never see citation marks or reference lists in newspaper
articles, magazines or textbooks. Are you saying that THEY
are plagiarizers?
A.
Magazines, newspapers and textbooks are commercial
publications, not scholarly publications, and so they follow
different rules for acknowledging other people’s intellectual work.
The editors and publishers of all three of these sources are
responsible for making sure their writers follow intellectual
property law (copyright law), which is based on the same principle
of respecting ownership of other people’s intellectual work.
Journalists primarily use interviews with “experts” or “the man on
the scene” as their source of information, so they only need to
mention the name and the qualifications of the person they are
interviewing (e.g. “according to John Jones, the deputy chief of
administration”…). The quality of the information they give you,
therefore, is only as good as that “expert’s” memory or knowledge
of his/her field. Caveat emptor!
FAQ’s #5
Q.
In the country I came from, copying from someone else was a way
to show your respect for their status as an “expert”, and it was
considered presumptuous for students to write anything original. I
can’t help but feel I’m doing a poor job of writing unless I copy
someone else’s work. How can I be penalized for doing what seems
to me to be the most honorable thing?
A.
In American educational institutions we expect students of all ages to
make original contributions, and we show our respect for other people by
giving them explicit credit for their work. These are the values that
govern practice at UMBC.
As a student who was raised in a different culture, your choice to earn a
college degree at an American university requires some extra work on
your part. Not only do you have to learn the material taught in your
classes and express yourself in a second language, but you also need to
learn a whole different value system. Start by studying the academic
conduct policy. If you are not sure how the policy applies to particular
situations, ask your professor for guidance. You will probably find it
useful to seek the advice of faculty members or more senior students
who came from academic backgrounds similar to your own. They may
be able to help you find other assumptions you carry from your
upbringing that are in conflict with our university rules.
Ethics For Learning From
Your Peers
Research has shown
that studying with
other students can
improve your
understanding of
course material (9).
At UMBC we encourage
you to learn from your
peers as well as from
your professors.
UMBC Alumni Association
Study groups are an effective strategy
for learning
Learn from others ethically
However, when learning from others, you need to make
sure you don’t use other student’s work inappropriately.
How do you know when you are using someone else’s
work inappropriately?
Let’s start to examine this issue by looking at what YOU
think.
In the next slide is a fictional story about two students
collaborating together on an assignment. Do you think
these students are using each other’s work
inappropriately? Why or why not?
The Case of the Lab Partners
Pedro and Napoleon have been best friends since high
school, and now they are lab partners in a physics
course.
Since they are asked to work in pairs on their physics
experiments, Pedro and Napoleon take turns operating
the equipment and recording the measurements in their
lab manuals.
After class, they go home and use the measurements to
complete a worksheet assignment.
Napoleon cannot figure out how to do a problem, so he
calls Pedro and asks him to explain how he solved it.
After Pedro reminds Napoleon that the professor worked
a similar problem on the board during lecture, Napolean
hangs up the phone, reviews his notes, and is now able
to finish the problem by himself.
University rules
There are two rules from the Undergraduate Academic
Conduct Policy that apply to situations like this. The
Policy forbids cheating and plagiarism, which are defined
as follows:
“Cheating means knowingly using or attempting to use
unauthorized material, information, study aids, or another person’s
work in any academic exercise.”
“Plagiarism means knowingly, or by carelessness or negligence,
representing as one's own in any academic exercise the words,
ideas, works of art or computer-generated information and images
of someone else.”
We’ve already talked about plagiarism in the previous
module, but what determines which material is
“unauthorized?” And at what point does what you
learned from someone else switch over from “another
person’s work” to become your own knowledge?
Individual professors determine what’s
“authorized”
What is considered “unauthorized” use is
determined by each faculty member, for
each assignment in each course.
Nevertheless, you can usually predict for
yourself what practices your professors
will prohibit if you understand their point of
view.
So let’s begin by reviewing why professors
give assignments in the first place.
What assignments accomplish
Professors give you assignments because
they hope to accomplish one or both of
the following:
1. Learning- In the course of completing the
assignment you will learn something new
2. Evaluation- The end-product of the
assignment demonstrates how much
you’ve learned
What would be considered unauthorized?
Faculty members are likely to forbid use of other students’
work or knowledge if it would interfere with either of
those goals. They would consider that inappropriate
use.
Inappropriate use of other student’s work/knowledge
 Any use of another student’s work or knowledge which
prevents you from learning the skills or information
your instructor intended for you to achieve from the
assignment
 Any use of another student’s work or knowledge which
causes the evaluation of what you know to be
inaccurate
Checklist for learning from your peers
You can turn these objectives into a simple checklist of
questions to ask yourself when working with other
students. If you answer “yes” to either question below,
you have probably crossed the line into inappropriate
use of another student’s work or knowledge.
 By using another student’s knowledge or work as a
resource, have I learned less than I would have without
it?
 Does this assignment give a more accurate snapshot of
what’s in somebody else’s head than what’s in mine?
Applying the checklist
Let’s see how this checklist works by applying it to
The Case of the Lab Partners- Napoleon and
Pedro.
Applying the checklist to The Case of
the Lab Partners
 By using another
student’s knowledge or
work as a resource, have
I learned less than I
would have without it?
 Does this assignment
give a more accurate
snapshot of what’s in
somebody else’s head
than what’s in mine?
Napoleon would answer NO to
both questions.
Pedro coached Napoleon. He helped
him find resources to solve the
problem for himself, he didn’t just
give Napoleon the answer.
Napoleon learned all that the
instructor intended him to, and he
now knows how to do the
problems on her own, so the
answer he gives is an accurate
picture of what’s in Napoleon’s
head. Napoleon now “owns” the
knowledge
The verdict: Napoleon used Pedro’s
knowledge appropriately. This is
what effective learning from your
peers looks like.
More practice
Here are three more fictional accounts of
students using each other’s work. Did
they behave appropriately?
One Person’s Trash is Another
Person’s Treasure
Brittney and Kevin are
suitemates. Kevin took the
same introductory psychology
class Brittney took last
semester, so he gave Brittney
all his lecture notes, graded
assignments and exams to
help her study for the course.
For the rest of the semester,
Brittney completes her
assignments by using Kevin’s
assignments as “templates.”
She copies Kevin’s
assignments, improving them
wherever she thinks she can
do a better job than he did,
then hands them in with her
name at the top.
How would Brittney answer these
questions?
 By using another student’s
knowledge or work as a
resource, have I learned less
than I would have without it?
 Does this assignment give a
more accurate snapshot of
what’s in somebody else’s
head than what’s in mine?
Applying the checklist to One Person’s
Trash is Another Person’s Treasure
 By using another student’s
knowledge or work as a
resource, have I learned less
than I would have without it?
 Does this assignment give a
more accurate snapshot of
what’s in somebody else’s
head than what’s in mine?
Brittney would have to answer YES to
the first question.
As she edits Kevin’s work, she is learning the
“correct” answer from his assignments, and
she also has learned more than he did in
some respects, since she is able to improve
on his work with her ‘edits.’
However, composing assignments requires that
you search through everything you’ve learned
from the class, understand it well enough that
you can figure out which material is relevant
to the assignment and which is not, then
organize the material in your head until you
can give a coherent answer using the
vocabulary you learned in class.
By using Kevin’s assignments as a template,
Brittney has skipped all of those steps, and
thus she has learned less than what the
instructor intended for her to learn from the
assignment.
The verdict: Brittney used Kevin’s work
inappropriately.
The Purloined Paper
Elvis is in over his head. He’s taking
seventeen credits, working twenty
hours per week bagging groceries
at the local supermarket, and has
been rehearsing for the next
American Idol competition.
A paper is due in his history class the
same day as his chemistry exam,
and he doesn’t have enough time
to prepare for both. He goes to
visit Priscilla- a friend of his from
his history class. While Priscilla is
using the restroom, Elvis finds her
finished history paper on her
computer and emails it to himself.
When he gets home, he replaces
Priscilla’s name at the top of the
paper with his own, then hands it
in to his history professor the next
day. This leaves him plenty of
time to study for his chemistry
exam.
How would Elvis answer these
questions?
 By using another student’s
knowledge or work as a
resource, have I learned less
than I would have without it?
 Does this assignment give a
more accurate snapshot of
what’s in somebody else’s
head than what’s in mine?
Applying the checklist to
The Purloined Paper
 By using another student’s
knowledge or work as a
resource, have I learned less
than I would have without it?
 Does this assignment give a
more accurate snapshot of
what’s in somebody else’s
head than what’s in mine?
Elvis would answer YES to both
questions.
Although he might have read over her
paper before submitting it, he skipped
all the steps that go into researching,
organizing and composing a paper, so
he definitely learned less than his
professor intended.
By copying Priscilla’s paper word-for-word,
Elvis is presenting a snapshot of
what’s in Priscilla’s head, not his.
And by using Priscilla’s paper without her
consent, Elvis has most likely ruined
his relationship with Priscilla. Not
covered by academic conduct rules,
but definitely not a smooth move.
The verdict: Elvis used Priscilla’s work
inappropriately.
Taking Efficiency Too Far!
Will and Grace met each other as
freshmen in their introductory
computer programming class.
Both of them have decided to
pursue a major in computer
science, so they often study
together for the classes they
are taking simultaneously.
The approach that they have
found most useful is to divide
up the work. Each of them
takes turns writing the code for
the assignments, then gives it
to the other to copy down.
How would Will and Grace
answer these questions?
 By using another student’s
knowledge or work as a
resource, have I learned less
than I would have without it?
 Does this assignment give a
more accurate snapshot of
what’s in somebody else’s
head than what’s in mine?
Applying the checklist to Taking
Efficiency Too Far!
 By using another student’s
knowledge or work as a
resource, have I learned less
than I would have without it?
 Does this assignment give a
more accurate snapshot of
what’s in somebody else’s
head than what’s in mine?
Will and Grace would answer
YES to both questions.
Unlike the scenario with Pedro and
Napoleon, Will and Grace are
getting only half of the practice
writing code that the instructor
intended.
Furthermore, half of the assignments
submitted by Will actually show
what’s in Grace’s head, and viceversa.
The verdict: Will and Grace used each
other’s work inappropriately.
Penalties
Codes of professional ethics
are most useful when ALL
members of the
community agree to
follow them voluntarily,
because it creates a
climate of trust within the
community.
Communities where
members trust each other
run more efficiently, and
are more pleasant to take
part in.
Microsoft Office Online
Voluntary compliance creates a
climate of trust
Microsoft Office Online
But if ALL members
won’t voluntarily abide
by the rules,
community resources
must be protected by
enforcing the rules.
Enforcing the rules
involves sanctions,
penalties or
restrictions.
UMBC penalties
At UMBC the university gives EACH INSTRUCTOR the
responsibility of enforcing the academic conduct policy,
and deciding on a penalty for each incident of academic
misconduct they encounter in the classes they teach.
If you violate the academic conduct policy, your professor is
also obligated to report the incident to the university in
the form of a “Notice of Academic Misconduct.”
For a complete explanation of UMBC policy, consult the UMBC Academic
Handbook, or www.umbc.edu/integrity
Do the right thing- for your own sake,
for the sake of others
We ask you to pledge to follow those rules
so authors of ideas will know you respect
their contribution
We ask you to pledge to follow those rules
so that your grades are accurate, fair
evaluations of what you have learned
We ask you to pledge to follow those rules
so that your classes can be conducted in a
climate of trust
We want our students to be
successful in their chosen
careers after they leave
college.
Success in the workforce will
require that you achieve while
operating within the ethical
guidelines of your profession.
This requires strategic skills. It
requires knowing your own
strengths and limitations, and
figuring out ways to
compensate.
Learning to succeed academically
while staying within the bounds of
the university’s ethical rules will
help you hone those skills.
Microsoft Office Online
Do the right thing- for your future
What’s next?
This concludes the Academic Integrity
tutorial. Follow the instructions from your
course instructor to complete the
accompanying quiz.
Resources
Citation style guides
(including Council of Science Editors)
http://aok.lib.umbc.edu/reference/BI/styleguides.php3
UMBC Policies on Academic Integrity
www.umbc.edu/integrity
 UMBC Kuhn Library webpage on plagiarism:
http://aok.lib.umbc.edu/reference/plagiarism.php3
References
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Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man, OMIM (TM). Johns Hopkins University,
Baltimore, MD. MIM Number: 222100: 12/8/2003: . URL:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/omim/. Accessed 1/10/2004.
Anonymous. Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Homepage. URL:
http://www.jdrf.org/index.cfm. Accessed 1/10/2004.
Anonymous. “Phenylketonuria”. Genes and Disease. URL:
http://www.ncbi.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi?call=bv.View..ShowSection&rid=gnd.
Accessed 1/10/2004.
Greenya, John. Silent Justice: The Clarence Thomas Story. NJ: Barricade Books,
Inc., 2001.
Patricia Denver and LaTasha Tucker. “Plagiarism: What it is and how to Avoid It.” in
Lark Claassen, ed., Symbiosis. Boston: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2003.
Student Judicial Affairs, University of California, Davis. October 1999. Avoiding
Plagiarism: Mastering the Art of Scholarship. http://sja.ucdavis.edu/avoid.htm.
Accessed October 2003.
Hacker D. A Writer’s Reference. London: St. Martin’s Press; 1995.
HD Lujan, et al. (1996) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 93, 7628-7633.
Sokolove, P.G and G. Marbach-Ad. 1999. Benefits of out-of-class group study for
improving student performance on exams: A comparison of outcomes in activelearning and traditional college biology classes. Journal on Excellence in College
Teaching, 10(3): 49-67.
About this tutorial
This tutorial was written by Dr. Lark Claassen, a
faculty member in the UMBC Department of
Biological Sciences.
UMBC faculty members may freely adapt this
tutorial and the associated quiz for use in their
classes without further permissions.
Distribution outside the UMBC community and use
for non-educational purposes is not permitted at
this time.