As a new year has started, I'm sure everyone has been given "the talk" about Academic Dishonesty, and whenever the issue comes up in class I look around and see the bright faces of students ready to start a new year turn sullen and grey as they share in the collective guilt brought on by a minority who are dishonest.

I've spoken to a number of professors over the years, and there seems to be a divide as to the attitude that should be taken when approaching this issue. Some have said that they think that it should go without saying that you shouldn't cheat, and that to have to review policies with students is both condescending, and disempowering. There are also a number of professors I have spoken to about this who are on the offensive, using all of the tools at their disposal to catch students whose academic dishonesty is a statistical inevitability.

Recently I was required to fill out an "Academic Integrity Quiz" which posed questions about what constitutes plagiarism and what constitutes fair citation of sources. I was particularly taken aback by a particular question asking "Why do you need to indicate your sources?" to which the multiple choice options were:

a) To give credibility to your statements.
b) To provide the reader with references.
c) To protect yourself from plagiarism.
d) all of the above.

Is this how far things have really come? Are students really supposed to view citation not as a way of giving credit where credit is due, but instead as a way to defend themselves retroactively against plagiarism charges?

One of the things that I like about our legal system is that we assume not guilty until guilt is proven. This important axiom seems to be lost in the academic world when dealing with academic crimes. Why is this? Am I alone in my frustration, or are there others out there who like me, are becoming increasingly confused by the attitudes taken towards the majority of us, who are honest and hardworking?

In solidarity with you all,

R

i can see how c is a legitimate response. Many times even things that seem to be 'common knowledge' are required to be sourced. Even if that isnt where you got the fact/idea (it was just something you know/remembered) you have to reference something.

I know a lot of students become very worried about being accused of plagarism even though they have no intent of plagarizing. Citations should be used for all of the above in my opinion. I think possibly the writer of the quiz merely placed more importance on that answer, and that it is poorly worded. I don't believe that the attitudes of most professors reflect that of the quiz creator. Plagiarism is a problem in university and they will, of course, check for it. That doesn't mean that they assume you aim to plagiarize, a lot of plagiarism is "accidental" and professors aim to correct this to create better scholars, as they would correct poor grammar.
There is also much debate about what is common knowledge and what is a personal opinion in English. In the grand scheme of things, most ideas have been previously discussed in some way or other and I think professors recognize that it is possible that the student came up with a similar idea without consulting other works. Plagarism is generally not targeted at similar, but at identical.
One of my history profs sits on the plagarism board and for my first essay, I forgot to include a citation. When I got my essay back, he merely suggested I had forgotten the citation, he didn't immediately fail me and throw me to the sharks.
Perhaps you could suggest to the quiz writer that the answer is misleading?
Sorry about the novel, I'm procrastinating haha.

I've only ever seen a plagiarism charge once, for something that one student lent her partner, because her partner said she wanted to compare their reports...and then copied the report and turned in an identical one without the first girl's knowledge. Since you're told not to give out your work specifically in order to protect against plagiarism, the first girl got a note on her record. No one outside the university will see the note, it's just there in case something happens again, they know there's a history there.

I think these cases are extremely common as far as students taking other students' work, but it doesn't often get caught.

In any case, you will tend to get pursued for plagiarism more in cases of word-for-word copying, as it's most straightforward and easiest to prove. So yeah...don't lend your work out.

For citations...as long as there is a genuine effort on the student's part, you won't get in trouble. Missing one or two, not the end of the world. If you...say...don't have a single source in your paper, that's a bit more serious.

Originally Posted by starfish

For citations...as long as there is a genuine effort on the student's part, you won't get in trouble. Missing one or two, not the end of the world. If you...say...don't have a single source in your paper, that's a bit more serious.

Not true.

For first year geography, my group was accused of academic dishonesty due to missing a citation or two which we overlooked. Everything else was cited in the report. The professor even mentioned how he knew it was a slip up and it was obviously not intentional due to the rest of the citations, but because technically we didn't cite, it was considered dishonest and we were all written up.

I'm very sure the professor is the exception when it comes to this but just saying.

Originally Posted by DarkReaper

Not true.

For first year geography, my group was accused of academic dishonesty due to missing a citation or two which we overlooked. Everything else was cited in the report. The professor even mentioned how he knew it was a slip up and it was obviously not intentional due to the rest of the citations, but because technically we didn't cite, it was considered dishonest and we were all written up.

I'm very sure the professor is the exception when it comes to this but just saying.

That's interesting. I'm pretty sure it could have been fought, because by definition, academic dishonesty has to be intentional. Making a mistake is not dishonestly. I guess it's hard to prove in that case though.