Plagiarism

Department of Political Science policy on academic integrity

The Department of Political Science adheres closely to the University of Victoria' Policy on Academic Integrity, and seeks to help students meet the requirements of that policy and to deal fairly and strictly with violations of that policy. As most Political Science courses involve essay writing, plagiarism is a particular concern; students also must not submit the same paper (or substantially similar papers) to more than one course without the prior permission of the instructors of both courses. Students should familiarize themselves with the Policy on Academic Integrity, and should discuss any questions they have about the appropriate use of sources with their instructor.

Detailed information about appropriate use of sources and appropriate citation practices is available on the Library website and the Academic Integrity website maintained by UVic's Centre for Learning and Teaching [website should be up and running by February 2010]. Some instructors may use text-matching software to help deter plagiarism and, if necessary, detect plagiarism. University policy states that "Instructors who plan to use a plagiarism detection software program to detect plagiarism in essays, term papers and other assignments should include a statement to that effect in the course outline provided to students".

The key elements of University policy on Academic Integrity for undergraduate students in Political Science are as follows:

Academic integrity requires commitment to the values of honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility. It is expected that students, faculty members and staff at the University of Victoria, as members of an intellectual community, will adhere to these ethical values in all activities related to learning, teaching, research, and service. Any action that contravenes this standard, including misrepresentation, falsification or deception, undermines the intention and worth of scholarly work and violates the fundamental standards upheld in a fair and transparent fashion.

Violations of the policy on Academic Integrity can take a number of different forms, the most relevant of which for Political Science undergraduates are the following:

Plagiarism: A student commits plagiarism when s/he submits the work of another person as original work, gives inadequate attribution to an author or creator whose work is incorporated into the student's work, including failing to indicate clearly through accepted practices such as footnotes, internal references, and the crediting of all verbatim passages through indentations of longer passages or the use of quotation marks, the inclusion of another individual's work, and paraphrases material from a source without sufficient acknowledgment as described. Refer to the UVIC Calendar for complete information about Academic Integrity.

Multiple submission without prior permission: If a substantial part of an assignment submitted for one course is essentially the same as part or all of an assignment submitted for another course, this should result in a grade of zero for the assignment in one of the courses. If the same assignment is submitted for two courses, this should result in a grade of F for one of the courses. The penalty normally will be imposed in the second (i.e., later) course in which the assignment was submitted.

Falsifying materials subject to academic evaluation: falsifying materials subject to academic evaluation includes, but is not limited to: fraudulently manipulating laboratory processes, electronic data or research data in order to achieve desired results, using work prepared by someone else (commercially prepared essays), and submitting it as one's own work, citing a source from which material was not obtained, using a quoted reference from a non-original source while implying reference to the original source, and submitting false records, information data, in writing or orally.

Penalties for violations of the policy vary with the nature of the violation:

Multiple instances of inadequate attribution of sources should result in a grade of zero for the assignment. A largely or fully plagiarized assignment should result in a grade of F for the course.

Violations of the Policy on Academic Integrity are recorded on students' records, and any subsequent violations will trigger escalating penalties culminating in permanent suspension.