Academic Honesty Policy

According to Rowan University policy, students committing any act of academic dishonesty may fail the assignment and/or fail the course, at the faculty member’s discretion. All violations of Academic Integrity meriting sanctions must be reported to the Provost’s office using the RAIV process. Serious cases will be brought to a hearing. In order to avoid plagiarism, students should provide appropriate documentation whenever quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing, or otherwise using the language or ideas of others. Multiple submission (handing in a paper written for one class to another class) is also a form of academic dishonesty and will be treated accordingly. 

Do not cut and paste. Revising another writer’s prose—even revising it substantially—is plagiarism unless you properly cite your original source.

Most English classes use turnitin.com, often via Canvas, for the submission of written work. Such programs give faculty a useful archive of your papers, which helps us be specific when you ask for letters of recommendation. No one else can access your work. Turnitin.com’s primary purpose is to check for plagiarism. The website does not make a determination itself; it simply shows correlations, allowing faculty to decide whether a violation is likely.

Special note concerning intellectual property: Most original works, whether your own, your classmates’, or your professors’, are considered the intellectual property of their creator. These works include papers, assignments, exams, course syllabi, lectures, powerpoints, notes, outlines, study guides, etc. Circulating such materials outside the community of a specific class is an intellectual property violation, and may also violate US copyright laws. If such materials are not your own creation, do not share them without the authors’ express permission. If such materials are your own—e.g., a paper or reading response—be very careful about distributing them. Note, especially, that uploading your coursework to online sites—even those purporting to be designed for “tutorial” purposes—is prohibited by Rowan’s Academic Integrity policy.

Students have rights as well as responsibilities; if you feel you have been unjustly accused of plagiarism, there is a mechanism for addressing your concerns in a hearing. See the Provost’s website and the Provost’s “Notice to Students about Academic Integrity” for more information.