Plagiarism policy

King Saud bin AbdulAziz University for Health Sciences University Pre-Professional Program

Academic Integrity Committee Plagiarism Policy I.

Statement of Philosophy A. King Saud bin AbdulAziz University for Health Sciences strives to create an environment in which academic and scholarly integrity is maintained at the highest standards. As such, students are expected to adhere to these standards and avoid any misconduct that may be in violation of them. This means that students should be honest with regard to their coursework and avoid plagiarism, cheating and other forms of academic dishonesty.

Academic dishonesty in any form is considered a serious offense from professional, ethical and religious perspectives.

II.

Definition of Plagiarism A. Plagiarism involves the unauthorized use of someone else's work or ideas and representation of them as one's own original work. Work or ideas may be found in any number of sources (e.g. written text, visual text, spoken text, multimedia products, etc). Any time a student uses another person's words or ideas without giving them appropriate credit, it is considered plagiarism.

B. The following are considered specific acts of plagiarism (Rockler-Gladen, 2006): 1. Putting one's name on someone else's paper. Examples of this include college essay plagiarism websites and using term papers from a friend.

2. Putting one's name on someone else's phrases. It isn't necessary to steal a complete paper to be considered plagiarism. Using just a few sentences or paragraphs from a book or website is plagiarism if the original author is not credited for the work.

3. Putting one's name on something that is paraphrased. A paraphrase is a rewording of a phrase, sentence, or paragraph that essentially means the same as the original. Paraphrases of someone else's work need to be cited just as a direct quote would. Although the words are changed, it is still someone else's idea and they should be given due recognition. Failure to do this is considered plagiarism.

Academic Integrity Committee Plagiarism Policy November 2011

4. "Recycling" old material. Slightly modifying the contents of one assignment to meet the requirements of another assignment is considered to be plagiarism.

5. Failure to put a quote in quotations marks, or providing incorrect information about where a source came from. Although these may seem to be simple errors they are still counted as plagiarism.

6. Translating material on a translation website (e.g. Google) and then not providing a reference for the translation. This is considered to be plagiarism since the work of translating was not the student's own. A reference for the site from which the translation was obtained should be provided.

III.

Consequences of Plagiarism A. First Offense (Applicable to all Semesters): 1. The student will be given a verbal warning from the course instructor, as well as a brief reminder of the definition, seriousness, and consequences of plagiarism. The student will be required to repeat the assignment. A report will be made to the Academic Integrity Committee. The offense will not be documented in the student's record.

B. Second Offense (Applicable to Semester Two and above): 1. The student’s work will automatically be assigned a score of ‘0’ on the assignment, and he/she will be referred to the Chairperson of the respective department for further reprimand. A report will be made to the Academic Integrity Committee and the offense will be documented in the student's record.

C. Third Offense or Higher (Applicable to Semester Two and above): 1. If the student commits a third offense (or higher), either in the same course or in a subsequent course, he/she will automatically be assigned a score of ‘0’ on the assignment. The student will be given a written warning and referred to the Associate Dean (for males) or Assistant Dean (for females) of the University Pre-Professional Program for further reprimand. A report will be made to the Academic Integrity committee and the offense will be documented in the student's record.

IV.

Plagiarism Appeals Committee A. Upon the second (or more) plagiarism offense, the student will have recourse

Academic Integrity Committee Plagiarism Policy November 2011

to convene a committee to appeal the assigned grade of ‘0’ for the work if he/she feels he/she has not plagiarized. This request must be made in writing and submitted to the Chairperson of the Academic Integrity Committee within one week of the incident.

B. The committee will be comprised of the Chairperson of the Academic Integrity Committee and three other instructors. Two of the committee members will be selected from the Academic Integrity Committee and one from outside of the committee. At least one of the instructors on the Appeals Committee should be a writing instructor. None of the instructors should be teaching the student at the time of the offense. In the event that the Chairperson is the instructor of the student, another committee member will be assigned to chair the committee.

C. The purpose of this committee will be to make an objective decision as to whether or not the student has actually produced plagiarized work and to apply the consequences if appropriate. Information regarding the plagiarism, the plagiarism policy, and the appeals committee will be provided to students during the orientation process.

Prepared by the Academic Integrity Committee: Chairperson: Dr. Aisha (Laureen) Hamdan, Assistant Professor, Clinical Psychology Members: Dr. Jeelan Moghraby, Assistant Professor Dr. Rabih Al-Kaysi, Assistant Professor, Chemistry Ms. Amy Golden, English Language Teacher Ms. Carrie Aldrich, English Language Lecturer Mr. Benjamin Niedbalski, English Language Lecturer Mr. Sulaiman Jenkins, English Language Lecturer Bruce Doig, English Language Lecturer With the supervision and assistance of: Dr. Abdulmohsen Alkushi Associate Dean University Pre-Professional Program King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences References Rockler-Gladen, N. (2006). A definition of plagiarism.

Accessed from http://www.suite101.com/content/a-definition-for-plagiarism-a10232 on January 19, 2011.

Academic Integrity Committee Plagiarism Policy November 2011

Academic Integrity Committee Plagiarism Policy November 2011