PLAGIARISM:
Plagiarism is the intentional and unattributed theft of others' words, ideas or
work. Its purpose is to misrepresent others' intellectual property as the plagiarist's own
work. Plagiarism is undertaken with the intent to misrepresent the work as one's own and
to deceive the recipient(s) of that work. Plagiarism is the most egregious form of
cheating. An instructor making the charge of plagiarism has the burden of proof by clear
and convincing evidence. Because of the severity of the accusation and potential
consequences, no accusation of plagiarism shall be made without proof or compelling
evidence.
Any accusation of plagiarism must be supported by the original or a copy of the
plagiarized document(s) and/or other compelling evidence.
- A student’s inability to explain key concepts or vocabulary in the paper,
- lack of knowledge regarding the research or sources cited,
- an admission of guilt by the student, or co-conspirator,
All shall be considered compelling evidence and acceptable grounds for an accusation of
plagiarism to proceed.
Examples of plagiarism include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Using someone else's words ideas, or work without attribution, i.e.,
quotation marks, parenthetical citation, and/or an entry on the Works
Cited page;
- Cutting and pasting/copying text from any source whatsoever without
attribution;
- Buying papers and representing the product as one’s own work, whether
citations exist within the work or not;
- Buying papers and representing their products as one’s own work, even if
portions of the work have been changed or material has been added to it;
- Paraphrasing someone else's work without attribution;
- Submitting another person's work as one’s own, i.e. using work done by
another student; and/or
- Receiving inappropriate help, i.e. having someone else write large and
unattributed portions of the submitted work.
The intention of the University of Mount Olive is not to unjustly accuse students of
plagiarism. Therefore, it is important to understand what plagiarism is not. Plagiarism is
not
- a mistake in citation or citation format,
- use of a citation system different from the stated course requirements,
- an incomplete citation,
- an incorrectly done citation,
- making mechanical/formatting errors.
The key concept of plagiarism is the intent to deceive. Total omission of all
identifying aspects of another work including (1) missing quote marks, (2) lack of
parenthetical citation, and (3) omission from the works cited page defines intent to
deceive and constitutes adequate grounds for plagiarism at the graduate level.
Without the demonstrable intent to deceive, the issue of plagiarism does not exist.