_______________________Quick Reference Guide

Academic Integrity
“Academic Integrity: Academic integrity is the pursuit of scholarly activity in an
open, honest and responsible manner. Academic integrity includes a commitment
not to engage in or tolerate acts of falsification, misrepresentation or deception.
Such acts of dishonesty violate the fundamental ethical principles. . .”1

Academic Integrity
• Class assignments must be the original work of the student submitting it.
• Collaboration with others on any assignment must be pre-approved by instructors.
• Plagiarism in any form is not acceptable.
• Violation of the copyright law is not acceptable.

Plagiarism
Plagiarism is presenting someone else's ideas as your own. Plagiarism is a form of cheating
and may result in disciplinary action. Plagiarism may occur accidentally. The following
resources are available to help students understand plagiarism and to help them avoid it:

Understanding responsibilities when citing sources:

www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/citingsources

Helping students avoid plagiarism:

www.learnnc.org/bestweb/iubwritingpamph
www.learnnc.org/bestweb/libresearch-duke

Understanding Plagiarism
• Giving Credit for Common Knowledge – Some students may read an idea and think it is
“common knowledge,” and therefore there is no need to give credit to the source. If the item
is a fact, for example the distance from Boston to New York, the sources does not have to be
cited. However, if the fact includes context or phrases that are someone else’s interpretation
of those facts, the source must be cited. For more information, see the Not-So-Common
Knowledge document from Princeton University available at:
http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pub/integrity/pages/notcommon.html

1
"Penn State Office of Judicial Affairs." Penn State University. 31/10/2007. Penn State
University. 13 Mar 2009 <http://www.sa.psu.edu/ja/TermstoKnow.shtml>.

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• Paraphrasing and Reordering Words – Some students believe that if they use information
from a reference resource, they may change around the words and not need to credit the
source. However, when other people’s original thoughts are paraphrased, they must be cited.

Copyright
Poems, images, photos, stories, and publications are the property of the copyright holder. They
are “owned” just like a computer, car, or home can be owned. This kind of property is called
intellectual property. Copyright law is designed to protect intellectual property. As stated in the
section on plagiarism, violation of this law is often unintentional, but it is still considered a form
of cheating.

As soon as ideas are written down, added to a Web page, or published in a book, they are
protected by copyright law. According to the U. S. Copyright Office, copyright protection begins
as soon as the original work is “fixed in a tangible medium of expression.” There is no
requirement that items be marked with a copyright symbol or go through a complex copyright
registration process. Copyright law limits publishing, copying, adapting, or transmitting
copyrighted materials.

Using portions of other people’s intellectual property is permissible under the Fair Use
Guidelines of the U.S. Copyright law (for more information, see the paragraph below). If
copying something from any copyrighted source in a project or paper, seek permission from the
source and cite the source as stated in the Plagiarism section.

Fair Use Guidelines

Fair Use Guidelines are suggestions developed to help educators and students make the most of
the materials used in a classroom situation. Using these guidelines, students may include
materials from copyrighted sources if the use is non-profit and the audience is limited to the class
participants and teacher. Fair Use Guidelines do not exempt students from citing sources, but it
does help students legally include copyrighted materials in their classroom assignments.

For more information about copyright, see the University of North Carolina Guide to Copyright
available at: http://www.lib.unc.edu/instruct/copyright/index.html

Using a Style Guide

Use a style guide to make sure citations are done correctly. Check with your teachers to confirm
which style they require. The following style guides should be available at your school media
center.

• APA Style: www.apastyle.org/

• MLA Style: www.mla.org/
• Chicago Manual of Style: www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/cmosfaq/cmosfaq.html

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