Citation Style and Academic Integrity

Penn State defines academic integrity as "the pursuit of scholarly activity in an open, honest and responsible manner." Academic integrity includes "a commitment not to engage in or tolerate acts of falsification, misrepresentation, or deception." In particular, the University defines plagiarism as "the fabrication of information and citations; submitting other's work from professional journals, books, articles, and papers; submission of other students' papers, lab results or project reports and representing the work as one's own." Penalties for violations of academic integrity may include forfeited assignments, course failure, or disqualification from a degree or certificate program. More information is available by reading the academic integrity policy of Penn State's College of Earth and Mineral Sciences.

Academic Integrity and Citation Style Requirement

We expect that the text and graphics you submit as part of your assignments are original. We reserve the right to use the plagiarism detection service Turnitin.com to assure the originality of course assignments. You may build upon ideas, words and illustrations produced by others, but you must acknowledge such contributions formally. Unacknowledged contributions are considered to be plagiarized. This guide explains when and how you should acknowledge contributions of others to your own work.

This course requires you to use APA style, which you can learn more about by visiting APA Style. Purdue University's Online Writing Laboratory (OWL) is an excellent resource as well, and includes a sample paper.

Expectations for quizzes, discussion boards, and journals:

• Whenever you include text, a graphic, or an idea that is not your own, acknowledge the contribution in such a way that enables readers to find the original source. This can include footnotes, hyperlinks, and/or full citations. 

Expectations for papers (e.g. Final Project submissions) and presentations:

• Whenever you include text, a graphic, or an idea that is not your own, acknowledge the contribution in-text (known as an in-text citation) and in your reference list in such a way that enables readers to find the original source.
• Apply APA style to all of these submissions.

APA Style requires the use of in-text citations. You must use in-text citations in your Final Project assignments and Final Presentation! This means that you cite any information that you had to look up right after you use that information in the assignment AND you miust provide an int-text citation whenever you refer to a specific work (book, article, conversation, etc.). See this sample student paper from Purdue's Online Writint Laboratory (OWL) for an example of how to use in-text citations (and how to format the Reference section and so forth).

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Penn State also makes available to all faculty and students an iStudy Module entitled Academic Integrity, Plagiarism, and Copyright.

Contact the course librarian or the instructor if you have difficulties meeting the expectations outlined above.