| The Department of French and Francophone Studies Policy on Academic Honesty The departmental document reads as follows: The success of any academic discipline whose members are engaged in the search for knowledge depends ultimately on the trustworthiness of each person involved. Since the communication of knowledge usually relies on the written word, the intellectual honesty and integrity of the writer must be beyond doubt. It is assumed that the ideas, insights, wording, and phrasing of any scholarly communication are original with the author unless they are attributed to another, or unless the information is common knowledge. Reliable scholars, therefore, are careful to acknowledge the sources of all the ideas, statements, or apt phrases they have borrowed, in order to distinguish them from their own contributions. Deliberate failure to do so is a form of academic dishonesty commonly known as plagiarism. Because plagiarism strikes at the very heart of scholarship, students who engage in it are subject to academic sanctions such as the removal from a course in which the act of dishonesty was committed. A particularly serious instance may even result in dismissal from the University. In a case where academic dishonesty is alleged, the instructor, the student, and the Department Head will confer. If disposition cannot be made at this point (charge of dishonesty sustained or withdrawn), the Department Head will appoint a five-member departmental committee to review the charge and make pertinent recommendations. In any such case, the student has the right to counsel from any member of the academic community and the right to appeal to the appropriate College or Graduate School board. Sometimes it is not clear to students exactly what constitutes legitimate borrowing and what constitutes illicit usage or plagiarism. The examples presented in the following pages will help to distinguish between the two. Previous: Computer Equipment | Next: Sources in Scholarly Writing |
Heather McCoy hjm10@psu.edu |
Bénédicte Monicat bxm6@psu.edu |
Barbara E. Bullock beb2@psu.edu |