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Academic Integrity

What is Academic Integrity?

The purpose of academic integrity is to guarantee the knowledge pools of each academic field are not contaminated by incorrect or unsubstantiated information. In other words, all written work must be accurate, original work. National University (NU) students and faculty must carefully ensure their writing is distinct from the writing of others. Every day—every discussion post, every assignment, every dissertation document must be thoroughly supported from scholars who have gone before, or who are currently active in the field, along with meaningful original work, all the while assuring accuracy with the selection of and application of referenced and original information. In sum, NU is committed to supporting students and faculty in understanding and applying standards of academic integrity by: 

  • Using an industry-recognized text matching service to screen student assignments (Turnitin).
  • Publishing policy standards in the NU Catalog.
  • Providing materials about academic integrity in NCUOne.
  • Providing additional tools through the Academic Success Center (ASC) on APA standards.

Why does it Matter?

NU is committed to maintaining a community with exceptional ethical standards of professional and academic conduct. Community members of the University are expected to conduct themselves professionally and refrain from acts of misconduct including, but not limited to, dishonesty, cheating, and plagiarism. Substantiated violations of plagiarism may result in disciplinary sanctions, up to and including expulsion from the University.

What is Plagiarism?

The University considers it a serious violation of academic integrity to – intentionally or unintentionally – present the thoughts or ideas of another as your own. The key to academic integrity originates in the writer’s choices on how to divide their voice from the voices of others. The combination of an individual’s style, perspective, and tone of writing is partly what makes your voice stand apart from others. The other important part is ensuring all supporting material within your writing is accurate and correctly substantiated. The American Association of University Professors defines plagiarism as, “Taking over the ideas, methods, or written words of another, without acknowledgment and with the intention that they be taken as the work of the deceiver.”

Often the words “copying” and “borrowing” of someone else’s original ideas are associated with plagiarism; unfortunately, terms such as these cover up the seriousness of the offense.

According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, 2 to plagiarize means:

  • To steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own.
  • To use (another's production) without crediting the source.
  • To commit literary theft.
  • To present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source.

So, how well do you know plagiarism? Here’s a 10-question quiz to find out: http://en.writecheck.com/plagiarism-quiz

The Two Types of Plagiarism

There are two types of plagiarism: Intentional and unintentional. Intentional plagiarism is defined as using someone else’s words or ideas and passing them off as your own. Unintentional plagiarism is the accidental appropriation of the work of others due to a lack of understanding of how to document.

National University considers it a serious violation of academic integrity to plagiarize one’s work, even unintentionally. The key to academic integrity originates in the writer’s choices on how to divide his or her voice from the voices of others. Intentional plagiarism can be defined as appropriating the words or ideas of someone else and passing them off as your own.

Intentional plagiarism can include:

  • Copying entire documents and presenting them as your own.
  • Cutting and pasting from the work of others without properly citing the source.
  • Purchasing a pre-written paper.
  • Stringing together quotes and/or ideas of others without connecting their work to your own original work.
  • Submitting work from a previous course for a current course work assignment.

Unintentional plagiarism is the accidental appropriation of the work of others due to a lack of understanding of documentation conventions. However, this misuse of sources is still considered a violation of academic integrity. NU’s response to such violations may range from requiring a student to rewrite a paper to permanently dismissing a student from the University.

Unintentional plagiarism can include: 

  • Failure to cite a source that is not common knowledge.
  • Failure to quote or block the author’s exact words.
  • Failure to put a paraphrase in your own words.
  • Failure to put a summary in your own words.
  • Failure to be loyal to a source.

To monitor for potential plagiarism, the University submits student assignments through the institution’s third-party text matching service (Turnitin).

The academic integrity policy applies to all course assignments submitted by a student to a faculty member.

The Plagiarism Spectrum: Tagging Ten Types of Unoriginal Work

Based on a worldwide survey of nearly 900 secondary and higher education faculty, Turnitin has identified ten types of plagiarism, referred to as The Plagiarism Spectrum. Each type has been given an easy-to-remember moniker to help students and faculty better identify and discuss the ramifications of plagiarism in student writing. Additionally, each type has been ranked by severity (#1-10) and scored by a frequency of appearance (1=lease, 10=most). See https://www.turnitin.com/static/plagiarism-spectrum/ for more information.

Compliance and Enforcement

Confirmed violations of the academic integrity policy range from requiring a student to rewrite a paper to permanently dismissing a student from the institution.

As per the NU Catalog, students dismissed due to a violation of the Student Code of Conduct, the University's Academic Integrity policy, or due to any other legal or ethical matters, do not qualify for readmission to the University.

Resources

Academic Success Center (ASC)

 

What is an Academic Integrity Violation (AIV)?

Faculty members submit an AIV when they find evidence of plagiarism (intentional or unintentional) in a student’s work. Typically, issues are discovered through the Turnitin Similarity Report. Each school has an AIV committee that will review the case and decide on next steps. The committee will look at different factors to determine the severity of the case. You should receive a decision and next steps from the school within two or three business days.

How do students know if they have received an AIV?

Students receive an email that they have received an AIV. Students have the option to respond to the AIV within 24 hours.

What should I do if I get the email alerting me I have received an AIV?

1. Take a moment to step back and avoid an emotional response. It is understandable to be upset when receiving an AIV but it is important to remember the following:

  • Your instructor has nothing against you personally; your instructor is simply saying that your assignment presents evidence of plagiarism, and he or she is obligated to turn the evidence over to your school.
  • Many cases of plagiarism are unintentional and an AIV can be treated as a learning moment.
  • Students are often given an opportunity to revise and resubmit their work.

2. Respond to the AIV within 24 hours if you have information that will assist the committee with their review.

3. Continue working in the course while you are waiting for a decision. Your school will likely extend the course if the AIV comes on the last assignment to give you time to redo it, if that is its decision.

4. The decision from the school will outline next steps. Whatever you do, make sure to take it as a learning moment.

5. Meet with your instructor to discuss the assignment so that he or she can explain the problem and how to avoid it in the future. 6. Use the resources in the Academic Success Center (ASC) to work on your skills.

Resources

Academic Success Center (ASC)

Plagiarism

What Is Plagiarism?

  • Using the words, ideas, or images without giving credit to the author or creator of the content. Doing this implies that what you are presenting is your original work. 
  • Deliberate or unintentional, plagiarism violates ethical standards in scholarship (see APA Ethics Code Standard 8.11, Plagiarism).

Categories of Plagiarism

  • Intentional plagiarism: Presenting someone else’s words or ideas as your own. 
  • Unintentional plagiarism: The accidental use of another work often due to using incorrect citations or not understanding how to properly cite the information.

Common Types of Plagiarism

Direct Plagiarism: Copying someone else's work word for word and claiming it as your own.

Mosaic Plagiarism: Often referred to as "patchwriting" and occurs when the writer changes words or phrases within a passage but leaves the overall content the same without using quotes. This type of plagiarism might contain a proper citation but is too close to the original words or structure.

Self-Plagiarism: This occurs when a student uses all or part of previously submitted work without permission from their faculty. Using the same paper in multiple classes may violate the academic integrity policy of the university. Students who wish to build from previously submitted work should first discuss their ideas with their faculty. 

After receiving permission to use previously submitted work, please be sure to cite and reference the information so that readers are aware. 

  • In-Text Citation Example:

    •  As discussed in my previous work (Smith, 2020) I found ...

  • Reference Examples: 

    • Blackwell, E., & Conrod, P. J. (2003). A five-dimensional measure of drinking motives [Unpublished manuscript]. Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia. 

    • Elkington, A. (2016). Large-scale project development: 2016 analysis [Unpublished manuscript].

Reusing One’s Own Words

Each assignment turned in at NU must be original, which means not reusing prior text that you have written. However, there are a few exceptions where using prior work is acceptable. Students must cite the original work even if you are doing so as part of one of these exceptions: 

  1. Previously attempted courses: When you retake a course, you can submit work from the prior attempt to the new course. If you are happy with the original grade you received, then you can reuse it. However, NU policy states that “Students must notify their faculty that they previously attempted the course and are re-using prior work,” so tell your instructor that you are reusing work from the prior course. The University also encourages students to revise any work submitted to prior courses because revising and improving work is an important part of the scholarly process, and something you will be doing if you go on to write a dissertation, so it’s good practice.
  2. Research methods courses: If the student in a research methods course is continuing research from a prior research methods course, the student can submit that prior research as part of their work in the current course. As always, the student must notify their faculty member that they are using prior work and cite it.
  3. Dissertation and Comprehensive Examination courses: For comp courses, those marked CMP and used to pass into the dissertation stage, and for the dissertation, students may reuse prior material. Again, students must cite the prior material in the new submissions.
  4. When instructed to do so by their faculty member: Faculty can allow students to submit prior work at the instructor’s discretion. If you wish to submit prior work to a course, you can always ask the instructor for permission to do so. Of course, the instructor is not obligated to allow the resubmission, and there must be a good reason for doing so if it is outside of the above cases.

 

Content generated by artificial intelligence (AI) reflects someone else's ideas, even if that "someone" is a computer program. Any time an individual uses someone else's ideas in their writing, the writer needs to give credit to the appropriate source. That means, students should cite work that is generated by a generative AI program. Failure to cite an AI source could result in academic integrity violations and subsequent consequences.

At this time, the various publication styles (i.e., APA, MLA, or AMA) are beginning to address citing generative AI sources. This page will be updated as needed to reflect current guidance. Here are some examples of how to cite text obtained from a generative AI tool in various publication formats:

Chicago Style - cite as a numbered footnote or endnote

1. Text generated by ChatGPT, March 7, 2023, OpenAI, https://chat.openai.com/chat.

Author: name of the AI tool
Date: date of generation
Publisher: name of the company that made the tool
Location: general URL to access the AI tool

MLA - attribution belongs on the Works Cited page - adapt as needed

“Describe the symbolism of the mockingjay in the book The Hunger Games by Susan Collins” prompt. ChatGPT, 13 Feb. version, OpenAI, 17 Mar. 2023, chat.openai.com/chat.

Author: there will be no author
Source Title: description of what was generated or the prompt that was used
Container Title: name of the AI tool
Version: include any specific version information available for the tool
Publisher: the name of the company that made the tool
Date: date of generation
Location: general URL to access the AI tool

APA - cited in text and included in the reference list

Reference List: OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat

Author: name of the company that created the tool
Date: year of the version used
Title: name of the AI tool used to generate the response (version used) [brief description of the type of model]
Source: general URL to access the AI tool

In-Text Citation: OpenAI (2023) or (OpenAI, 2023)

Please note that generative AI programs are not scholarly sources. In addition to providing potentially inaccurate information, the responses are not peer-reviewed, nor do they undergo any review process. Therefore, students should conduct their own research, using scholarly sources, to verify any information obtained from AI-generated text.