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Plagiarism

Entry into graduate school signifies the beginning of a student’s professional training, and part of this training involves learning recognize and steer clear of professional misconduct. While appropriate professional conduct extends to many aspects of your future career, this web page focuses on the proper use of citations in written work and the avoidance of plagiarism.

Definition

Plagiarism is defined as "the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work." (Source: dictionary.com) As straight-forward as this may sound, it has been our experience that students are often uncertain about what constitutes plagiarism. Furthermore, although the University of Washington has clear guidelines about this, students – and faculty – are generally poorly informed about how instances of suspected plagiarism should be handled.

The University of Washington has an excellent web page that delineates what behaviors are considered to be plagiarism:

  1. Using another writer's words without proper citation.
  2. Using another writer's ideas without proper citation.
  3. Citing your source but reproducing the exact words of a printed source without quotation marks.
    • Borrowing the structure of another author's phrases or sentences without crediting the author from whom it came.
  4. Borrowing all or part of another student's paper or using someone else's outline to write your own paper.
  5. Using a paper writing "service" or having a friend write the paper for you.
  6. In computer programming classes, borrowing computer code from another student and presenting it as your own.

Source:  http://depts.washington.edu/grading/issue1/honesty.htm

Resources on detecting and avoiding plagiarism

There are hundreds of excellent resources available on the Web on detecting and avoiding plagiarism.

The Community-Oriented Public Health Practice program has produced a handout called "Documentation: The Art of Correctly Citing the Work of Others and, thus, Avoiding Plagiarism."

Three useful UW websites are:

Academic Honesty: Cheating and Plagiarism
http://depts.washington.edu/grading/issue1/honesty.htm

Selected Web Resources on Academic Plagiarism
http://www.lib.washington.edu/help/guides/plagiarism/webresources.html

Health Services Student Development Resource on Plagiarism
http://courses.washington.edu/hsstudev/studev/plagiarism.htm

Another good resource is Duke University’s plagiarism website:

Citing Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism
http://library.duke.edu/research/plagiarism/index.html

Warning Signs & Prevention
http://library.duke.edu/research/plagiarism/warning/index.html

Resources on proper use of citations

The best way to avoid plagiarism is to know when and how to properly cite sources that you use in written work. Again, there are many helpful guides, including:

Citation & Writing Guides (UW)
http://www.lib.washington.edu/research/wri.html

What & How to Cite (Duke University)
http://library.duke.edu/research/plagiarism/cite/index.html

Consequences of suspected or proven plagiarism

The SPHCM Procedures for Suspected Academic Misconduct can be found at the following link:

http://sphcm.washington.edu/gateway/plagiarism_procedures.asp

The University of Washington describes the possible consequences for a student when plagiarism is demonstrated. These include:

  1. Disciplinary warning
  2. Reprimand
  3. Disciplinary probation
  4. Suspension
  5. Dismissal

Source: http://depts.washington.edu/grading/issue1/honesty.htm#suspected