Greenfield Community College

Library Services for Faculty

Academic honesty

GCC librarians have developed a 45-minute, interactive instruction module on the subject of Academic honesty. To schedule an instruction session on this topic or any other, see Information literacy & research instruction. See below for other resources on academic honesty and plagiarism.

What is Plagiarism?
"Plagiarism is an act of copyright infringement and is tantamount to stealing. When using a source, regardless of its medium (i.e. paper, microfilm, online, art work, musical works, dramatic works, film, etc.), and not giving credit to the creator (i.e. not properly citing the source) you are committing plagiarism."-from the Plagiarism Web Page at the University of South Dakota (http://www.usd.edu/~cfowles/plag.html)

Many discussions of academic dishonesty differentiate between two types of plagiarism: accidental and intentional. The first occurs when students are unaware of the need to credit the necessary sources. The second type occurs when students are aware that they are "cheating" but choose to take the risk in the hopes that they will not get caught or that the penalties will be minimal.  

The GCC Student Handbook states:

"Academic honesty is a basic and absolute expectation of the faculty and staff at Greenfield Community College. The college upholds the definition of plagiarism published by the Modern Language Association: 'To use another person's ideas or expressions in your writing without acknowledging the source.' . . . In the case of an incident, these offenses should be first reported to the Dean of Academic Affairs or his/her designee for jurisdiction."

The handbook lists the steps that the college will follow in resolving a case of suspected plagiarism, including the use of sanctions.

Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism  http://www.ilstu.edu/~ddhesse/wpa/positions/WPAplagiarism.pdf
This is a best practices statement from the Council of Writing Program Administrators and includes a definition, causes, responsibilities, and suggested practices.

Avoiding Plagiarism--Advice for Students
(see student handout on plagiarism, including these sites, at: http://www.gcc.mass.edu/library/pathfinders/PlagiarismPath.htm)

• http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_plagiar (Purdue U.) Explains how to avoid plagiarism by following guidelines when taking notes, paraphrasing sources, directly quoting sources, etc.  Features a chart showing instances when documentation is or is not needed.

• http://www.hamilton.edu/academics/resource/wc/usingsources.html (Hamilton College)
  Discusses when to use quotation marks, when to use paraphrases (with correct and incorrect examples), and more.

• http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/wts/plagiarism.html (Indiana U.)
  Offers examples of acceptable and unacceptable paraphrases, discusses what common knowledge is.

• http://www.education.indiana.edu/~frick/plagiarism/item1.html (Indiana U.)
  Provides an online quiz with examples involving textual and illustrative materials.

• http://library2.fairfield.edu/instruction/ramona/plagicourt.html (Fairfield U.)
  Presents an interactive website and quiz.

• http://www.lib.uconn.edu/LILT/plagiarism.htm (U. of Connecticut)
  Short interactive tutorial on plagiarism.

• http://www.umanitoba.ca/student/advocacy/academic_honesty_quiz.shtml (U. of Manitoba)
  Academic honesty quiz with answer link at the bottom of the webpage.

Preventing Intentional Plagiarism

• http://www.virtualsalt.com/antiplag.htm
  Advice from educator Robert Harris on effective ways to prevent plagiarism.

• http://fno.org/may98/cov98may.html  (From Now On: The Educational Technology Journal)
  Gives many techniques for designing assignments that are difficult to plagiarize.

• http://www.ilstu.edu/~ddhesse/wpa/positions/WPAplagiarism.pdf (Council of Writing Program Administrators)
  Presents a variety of ways for faculty to redesign their assignments and course structure in order to deter plagiarism.

• http://www.wesleyan.edu/libr/turnitin/#acad (Wesleyan U.)
  Explains why students cheat and how they justify it; offers techniques to prevent intentional plagiarism.

• http://www.library.ualberta.ca/guides/plagiarism/preventing/index.cfm (U. of Alberta)
  Provides techniques to use in class, on the syllabus, and in assignment designs.

• http://newark.rutgers.edu/~ehrlich/plagiarism598.html (Rutgers U.)
  Offers suggestions such as having students give an oral presentation on their proposed topic and requiring them to provide a reference trail at the school's library.

• http://csmweb2.emcweb.com/durable/1997/10/27/feat/learning.3.html (Christian Science Monitor)
  Suggests requiring "interim writing products" during the writing process (a thesis statement, an opening paragraph, an outline, a first draft).

• http://www.millikin.edu/staley/plagiarism.html  (Millikin U.)
  See especially the "Search Strategy Checklist" for students, provided in "Reminders of Tips that Discourage Plagiarism."

Detecting Plagiarism

• http://www.asee.org/prism/december/html/student_plagiarism_in_an_onlin.htm (ASEE Prism Magazine)
  By an instructor at Georgetown University; lists signs including missing footnotes, change in context, false references, and more.

• http://www.library.ualberta.ca/guides/plagiarism/detecting/index.cfm (U. of Alberta)
  Lists many telltale signs of plagiarism and describes ways to track down evidence about a suspect paper.

• http://www.google.com
  Some professors have found this search engine effective in finding the source of material plagiarized on the web, particularly if the student paper contains one or more distinctive phrases.

On plagiarism detection tools and guide to papermills

In recent years, numerous companies have developed software allowing educators to search parts of the Internet for any writings that closely resemble a student's paper. (To test an entire paper, professors must require students to provide their papers on disk or by e-mail.) Most companies will allow professors to try out their services a few times for free. Although these websites can be successful in quickly tracking down instances of plagiarism, they are not a perfect solution to the plagiarism problem.

One shortcoming of the tools is that they are not able to search large amounts of the Internet-the "invisible Web." For example, plagiarism involving scholarly articles found in GCC Library's Online Databases (including EBSCOhost and InfoTrac) would not be caught with these tools.

Some academics are also concerned about the ethics, and even the legality, of making students' papers available to these private companies. In 2002, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported that a prominent plagiarism detection tool, Turnitin.com, had come under fire because it copies submitted student papers for its database. Concerns over copyright and privacy led UC Berkeley to decide not to subscribe to that service. ("Plagiarism-Detection Tool Creates Legal Quandary," by Andrea L. Foster, Chronicle of Higher Education Vol. 48, no. 36, 5/17/02). 

In addition, some verification sites may be less than scrupulous. The University of Alberta's website suggests that a few could actually be taking submitted papers and reselling them at papermills. Therefore, professors who choose to use these tools will want to avoid those that are not run by respected academics or organizations, and may wish to submit only a few carefully selected sentences from the student's paper rather than the entire paper. (http://www.library.ualberta.ca/guides/plagiarism/detecting/index.cfm U. of Alberta)

An overview of various plagiarism detection sites is provided by librarian Sharon Stoerger at http://www.web-miner.com/plagiarism. 

The following are examples of online plagiarism detection tools: 

http://turnitin.com
Calling itself "the world's leading plagiarism prevention system," this site contains praise from Library Journal. It was created by scholars at UC Berkeley, and is run by former educators, researchers, and business people. Professors can receive one month free with 5 tests of papers. As with the sites below, it does not test against full-text databases including EBSCOhost and Infotrak.

http://plagiarism.com/
Glatt Plagiarism Program was created by an American professor, who continues to run it.

http://www.canexus.com/eve/
This site provides a tool called Eve2.

http://www.wordchecksystems.com/
Wordcheck was given a low rating in 2001 by a British team evaluating plagiarism detection tools.

http://plagiarism.phys.virginia.edu/links.html
Information from the U. of Virginia about a possible connection between Plagiserve and paper mills.

Papermills--sites that sell or provide free student papers 

Professors may find it useful to familiarize themselves with websites from which students can obtain papers and to let their students know that they are aware of these sites. Some professors routinely dissect papers from paper mills in their classes.

http://www.coastal.edu/library/mills2.htm (Coastal Carolina U.)
Provides a listing and information about over 250 Internet papermills. 

http://www.bgsu.edu/colleges/library/infosrv/lue/sites.html#clues (Bowling Green State U.)
Provides a list of online sites that sell or provide free research papers.

Prepared by Linda Wentworth, Weekend Librarian, 4/03