Plagiarism is the presentation, whether intentional or unintentional, of another's work as if it were one's original work. Proper and complete citation and reference, in accordance with the APA style guidelines is required of all student work. Specific examples of plagiarism include:
- Cutting and pasting or re-entering information from another's work into a document, speech, or discussion forum without correct citation or attribution;
- Information attributed to a source other than the original;
- Material authored by someone else submitted as original work;
- Information properly cited but paraphrasing is not substantively different from the original source; or
- Infrequent or missing citations.
Students may inadvertently plagiarize by not paraphrasing effectively, by assuming that information or terms are common knowledge when they are not, by not realizing that all words and works on the internet are copyrighted (whether or not a copyright symbol appears), by taking poor notes and forgetting that a line was copied verbatim, or by other oversights. Occasionally, plagiarism is simply the lazy way out or a student may be completely ignorant of what constitutes plagiarism.
Turning in previously prepared work -- in part or in whole -- is considered self-plagiarism and is unacceptable. In instances where it may be appropriate to include prior work, a student must obtain permission from the instructor to include the prior work.
Please see the CGHS Plagiarism Policy and the CGHS Statement on the Use of AI Tools.
Procedure for review
- CGHS and ATSU use Turnitin as a tool to help flag academic integrity concerns. Turnitin is a plagiarism checker tool used in all courses. It is designed to be used constructively, to alert students and instructors to possible instances of not only plagiarism, but also AI-generated work. Please note that a Turnitin report indicating a suspected issue does not always correlate with academic dishonesty. Every case needs to be fully investigated before any allegations of academic integrity violations are made. If academic dishonesty or plagiarism is suspected, the instructor should carefully review all aspects of the student's work. Other evidence that might support a claim of plagiarism could include sources that don't match citations, sources that are invalid or contrived, and formulaic writing that resembles AI-generated work.
- Instructors should review all Turnitin reports, paying close attention to those reports scoring 20% or higher. Note; a score of greater than 20% does not necessarily constitute academic dishonesty, nor does a score less than 20% necessarily indicate academic honesty. As stated above, further investigation may be needed.
- If an academic integrity violation is suspected and supported with additional evidence, the instructor should immediately notify the program chair.
- Program chairs track all cases of academic integrity violations (and suspected violations) in the CGHS database IRMA.
Warning
- A warning may be issued only once during a student's academic program and should be treated as a "teachable moment."
- If plagiarism is suspected and "validated" with a Turnitin report, the instructor should contact the Program Chair of the program in which the student is enrolled and email the Turnitin report to the Program Chair.
- The Program Chair will review the Turnitin report and, if it is determined that plagiarism has occurred, the student will be contacted via email with a warning and instructions to work with their instructor to correct the problem. The Program Chair will note the warning in the student's record in IRMA.
First Offense
- If plagiarism is suspected and "validated" with a Turnitin report and a thorough review/investigation, the instructor contacts the Program Chair of the program in which the student is enrolled and emails the Turnitin report to that Program Chair.
- The Program Chair reviews the Turnitin report and other evidence. If it is determined to be an official first offense, refers the student to the University Writing Center using the established protocol:
- First offense letter is sent by U.S. mail to student
- First offense letter is attached to email
- Student's instructor is copied on email
- Student's AA is copied on email
- Dean and Associate Dean of Academics are blind-copied on email
- UWC is copied on email
- Instructor puts a grade of 0 in the Grades for the assignment.
- Student is provided the plagiarism tutorial/intervention by the UWC. Student may resubmit the assignment according to established guidelines, but will receive a 20% grade deduction for the plagiarism in addition to any other grade deductions.
- If student fails to resubmit a paper, the grade of 0 for the assignment remains.
Second Offense
- If plagiarism is suspected and "validated" with a Turnitin report and a thorough review/investigation, the instructor contacts the Program Chair of the program in which the student is enrolled and emails the Turnitin report to that Program Chair.
- Program Chair reviews the Turnitin report and other evidence. If it is determined to be a second offense, the student receives a letter outlining the outcome of the offense (removal from the course).
- Student is removed from the course involved and awarded a grade of F (as deemed by the Program Chair).
Third Offense
- If plagiarism is suspected and "validated" with a Turnitin report and a thorough review/investigation, the instructor contacts the Program Chair of the program in which the student is enrolled and emails the Turnitin report to that Program Chair.
- Program Chair reviews Turnitin report and additional evidence.
- Program Chair and Associate Dean for Academics decide if the student should be withdrawn from the program. If withdrawal is determined to be the appropriate course of action, the following notifications are sent:
- Third offense letter is sent to the student via U.S. mail (certified)
- Third offense letter attached to email
- Student's instructor is copied on email
- Student's AA is copied on email
- Dean and Associate Dean of Academics are blind-copied on email.
- If the student wishes to appeal the program withdrawal decision, they may do so by following the appeals process outlined in the ATSU University Catalog.
- Any of the sanctions listed above are appealable by the student. If the student wishes to appeal, instruct them to follow the appeals process in the ATSU University Catalog.
Any of the sanctions listed above are appealable by the student. If the student wishes to appeal, instruct him or her to follow the appeals process located in the ATSU University Catalog.
What you can do
The instructor's role is to be alert to issues of academic dishonesty. If an instructor confirms a plagiarism offense, he or she will assign a grade of "0" for the assignment and notify the Program Chair. The Program Chair will contact the student with information regarding the offense and information regarding if and how the assignment may be rewritten and re-evaluated. At this point, the grade may be changed. Instructors will work closely with the Program Chairs during this process.
Instructors may choose to use the Welcome announcement to remind students of the seriousness of academic dishonesty and refer them to the policy contained in the CGHS Student Resources (which is linked from every course).
Instructors should remain vigilant for changes in writing style, tone, vocabulary, and so forth. Again, notify your Program Chair in these instances and share the suspicious paper (and possibly other examples of the student's work). The instructor and Program Chair can then develop a collaborative plan of action. It is important to keep the Program Chair informed, as they may discern a broader pattern of behavior that a single instructor cannot. Whether you believe an instance of plagiarism is inadvertent or intentional, you should address all instances of plagiarism immediately.
Remember that the Turnitin service cannot detect plagiarism -- it only reports matches of student text to text found within the Turnitin databases. Once Turnitin has checked the submitted document against the databases, a report of the findings will be available with that assignment. Turnitin is not able to check for proper citation. If material matches, Turnitin alerts you to this matching text and you can then check for proper citation, common phrasing, and other matches that may not be significant.
