Academic Integrity

Plagiarism defined at TWU: Plagiarism occurs when a student obtains portions or elements of someone else’s work, including materials prepared by another person or agency, and presents those ideas or words as her or his own academic work. The intentional or unintentional use by paraphrase or direct quotation of the published work of another person without full and clear acknowledgement shall constitute plagiarism.

Turnitin: The University has a web-based antiplagiarism software service, Turnitin, which may be used by students or their instructors to compare the text of writing assignments to an extensive electronic database.

Antiplagiarism technology should be used as a teaching tool. Antiplagiarism technology is merely a tool. The tool alone does not determine whether a paper has been plagiarized. Conversely, students cannot use antiplagiarism tools to prove they have not plagiarized. Instead, that judgment must be made by the individual faculty member.

Use of antiplagiarism tools is optional, but if they are used, they must be used according to the policies and guidelines set forth in this document. Instructors must discuss plagiarism and academic integrity with students at the beginning of each course.

If students do not consent to having their original work archived in the antiplagiarism tool databases, individual faculty members may use alternative assignments or use other, more traditional, methods for detecting plagiarism.

Student work submitted to Turnitin by an instructor will use an alias for the student name, and delete any personally-identifiable information.

If faculty members suspect that a paper has been plagiarized, the procedures outlined in the Student Handbook must be followed.

The statement found in the TWU Course Syllabus Template must appear on a course syllabus if an antiplagiarism tool is used in the course.

Page last updated 2:56 PM, August 3, 2022