Teaching & Learning
Academic Integrity
Library & Technology Services and Support for Academic Integrity
In the past, the Libraries have offered a twofold approach to the support of academic integrity:
- student education on how to avoid plagiarism through proper citation of sources
- faculty education on how to identify sources where plagiarism is suspected
LTS has continued this approach with the following services:
- including discussion of avoiding plagiarism in the online tutorial and quiz that all first year students must complete as part of the First year Library Instruction Program (FLIP)
- talking about the use of citations (what is a scholarly publication? what is the peer review process? why does it matter?) in the FLIP session held in the library, which all first year students must complete as part of their USW or USEM+.
- discussing citation and approved citation styles, as directed by faculty, in library instruction for upper-level courses that are library-intensive (require a research paper and a library research methods session), including links to appropriate resources in library course pages
- maintaining a webpage on Citing Your Sources, publicizing this page via email blasts to undergraduates at the key point in each semester when papers are being written ("crunch time")
- offering "Identifying Sources of Plagiarism," a handout for new faculty that is also mailed to all faculty each fall as part of the "Library & Technology Essentials for Faculty" newsletter (2005 version appended)
- meeting with faculty upon request to discuss strategies for identifying suspected cases of plagiarism
- offering workshops or instruction sessions upon request that focus specifically on the conceptual underpinnings of academic integrity and the mechanics of proper citation (e.g., for the TYP classes)
- supporting a campus license for EndNote citation software
- maintaining an EndNote guide for installation and use
- offering a series of workshops on how to use EndNote
Identifying Sources of Plagiarism
Brandeis University Library & Technology Services (LTS) shares the growing concern of those in higher education about the number of cases of plagiarism on campus. Incidents of cheating and plagiarism must be reported to the
Department of Student Development & Conduct. If a faculty member suspects that a student has made inappropriate use of a printed or online source, it is quite possible that the source can be found through the Brandeis Libraries. Faculty or administrators concerned about possible plagiarism should feel free to contact a librarian in the Main or Science Library for assistance:
Main Library: 781-736-4670
Science Library: 781-736-4728
or email.
Librarians can provide assistance in locating web or print resources that may be sources of plagiarized material. Such assistance would include searching for print and online material of a given type in LOUIS and in various online databases. Faculty can then examine these sources to determine if exact passages were used in a student's work. As a first step, faculty can search for specific phrases that may be plagiarized by using a web search engine such as Google. To search for an exact phrase, put the phrase in quotation marks.
We also recommend several excellent web sites on plagiarism awareness and prevention:
Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) at the University of Albany.
Cheating 101: Paper Mills and You
The Plagiarism Resource Site
Faculty should be aware that the Libraries maintain a strict policy which guards the privacy of each individual using our services. This means that we will not reveal circulation or reference query information to anyone.
If you have any further questions about this issue, please contact:
Dave Wedaman
Associate Director for Research & Instruction Services
