Academic Integrity

Plagiarism, cheating, or resubmitting an old assignment without permission are all serious offenses. Read the following sources to obtain information about academic integrity at the University.

Learn about the UBC policy on plagiarism at www.vpacademic.ubc.ca/integrity This website provides links to additional plagiarism information sites, as well as information on TurnItIn, an online service used by UBC that checks papers for material from websites, previous submissions, and some published works.

An online guide to academic honesty can be found  at http://www.arts.ubc.ca/faculty-amp-staff/resources/academic-integrity.html. Follow the links in the side bar menu to look at information on topics such as “why students cheat” and “examples of how students cheat and what you can do to reduce academic dishonesty.”

A Plagiarism Resource can be found at http://learningcommons.ubc.ca/get-study-help/academic-integrity/. There are links here to UBC plagiarism policies and resources available within UBC and other outside resources. The following information is taken directly from the UBC Library Plagiarism Resource Centre for Students website:

What is plagiarism?

Plagiarism is using another person’s ideas without giving credit and is considered intellectual theft. If you submit or present the oral work of someone else you are guilty of plagiarism.

Plagiarism may be…

(1)            Accidental or Unintentional: You may not even know that you’re plagiarizing. Make sure you understand the difference between quoting and paraphrasing, as well as the proper way to cite material.

(2)            Blatant: The time you’re well aware of what you’re doing. Purposefully using someone else’s ideas or work without proper acknowledgement is plagiarism. This includes turning in borrowed or bought research papers as your own.

(3)            Self: It’s your own work so you should be able to do what you want with it, right? Wrong. Handing in the same term paper (or substantially the same term paper) for two courses without getting permission from your instructor is plagiarism.

Do professors really check for plagiarism?

YES! Instructors often keep copies of previous assignments for reference. In addition, UBC subscribes to TurnItIn.com, an online service that scans essay and term papers to check for material copied from websites or published from paper mills (such as cheater.com), published works, or previously submitted essays. http://www.library.ubc.ca/home/plagiarism/