Plagiarism

Plagiarism is when an author represents someone else's intellectual property as his or her own work. Authors are most commonly at risk of plagiarizing when they fail to adequately cite the original source material from which they took words and ideas. Plagiarism can occur in many forms and can range from a lack of citations to incorrect paraphrasing or actual direct copy and pasting of a source's phrasing into another author's own paper.

To avoid plagiarism, Walden students should follow the rules the American Psychological Association (APA) has set forth. APA asks that authors follow formatting and frequency guidelines to cite all sources that they have used in a paper. Citing sources helps authors in three ways:

  • Gives credit to sources authors are quoting and paraphrasing;
  • Tells the reader when authors are using sources to support ideas; and
  • Directs the reader to the reference list and the full publication information for sources.

Avoiding plagiarism by properly citing sources helps both the author and the reader. Without citations, the reader:

  • Will not know what sources the author is using;
  • Will think all of the paper consists of only the author's ideas;
  • Will think that the author is not basing his or her ideas on research, but on opinion; and
  • Will not follow how the author learned information in the paper.

If you think about the benefits properly citing sources gives the author and the reader, it makes sense that scholars would want to be as conscientious about citing as possible.  Citing sources maintains the author's integrity, creates credibility for the author, shows the author is engaging in scholarship, and avoids plagiarism.

Walden University Policy on Plagiarism and Academic Dishonesty

These policies are taken from Walden University's (2010) Code of Conduct:

Statements made and documents supplied by Walden applicants and students must be complete and accurate. The university will not tolerate any misrepresentation by a student or applicant of past or current academic programs, degrees, or professional accomplishments. If unexplained discrepancies appear between statements or documents provided to Walden and information obtained otherwise, except in the case of misspellings and other such inadvertencies, applicants may be rejected for admission and enrolled students may be dismissed.
As such, no student shall claim credit for another's work or accomplishments or use another's ideas in a written paper or presentation without appropriate attribution through citations and references. The consequences of plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty can include nonacceptance of work submitted, a grade of "NC" (No Credit) or "F" (Unsatisfactory) for the course in which the violation occurs, written reprimands posted to the student's file, and suspension or dismissal from the University.

Writing Center Policies Regarding Plagiarism

The Walden Writing Center is committed to assisting students learn and utilize effective source citation practices and paraphrasing skills.

If you submit a paper to the Walden writing tutors for review, your tutor may run a check if he or she suspects plagiarized material.  If plagiarism is confirmed, your tutor will ask you to review resources on academic integrity and will require you to submit a Turnitin report when you make your next appoitment.

Because of the importance of academic integrity in final capstone studies and given that the dissertation editors have limited contact with students drafting their proposals, the editors reserve the right to copy your committee chair on messages regarding plagiarism findings so the chair can guide you in making revisions to avoid academic integrity violations in future drafts.

Standards for Written Assignments

Walden University expects the submitted work of students to reflect the standards of the scholarly community, adhere to American Psychological Association (APA) format guidelines, and be written in fair and accurate language.

The guidelines for the APA are published in the following reference manual:

American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the

     American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC:

     Author.

Academic Integrity Course

SBSF 8100/8101 Skills for Academic Integrity (1 cr./1 sem. cr.)

This 3-week course is intended for students who want to develop a better understanding of how to read, summarize, quote, and paraphrase texts following APA guidelines.

See your academic advisor for more information and to enroll!