Plagiarism: Understanding Plagiarism

Source: The following policy and definitions are maintained by Chapman University's Academic Integrity Committee (AIC) and taken from the current Undergraduate and Graduate Catalogs.

From the Academic Integrity Principle:

Chapman University is a community of scholars that emphasizes the mutual responsibility of all members to seek knowledge honestly and in good faith. Students are responsible for doing their own work, and academic dishonesty of any kind will be subject to sanction by the instructor/administrator and referral to the University’s Academic Integrity Committee, which may impose additional sanctions up to and including expulsion.

The AIC defines plagiarism as:

Representing the words, research findings or ideas of another person as your own in any academic exercise. [At their discretion, faculty may submit student work to plagiarism-detection software, such as Turnitin for review without prior notice to students.]

• Copying word for word without proper attribution.

• Paraphrasing without proper attribution.

• Using phrases from another source embedded into original material without proper attribution.

• Copying of intellectual property without proper attribution.

The AIC defines plagiarism in research as: 

• Taking credit for someone else’s work and ideas, stealing others’ results or methods, copying the writing of others without acknowledgment or otherwise taking credit falsely.

• Taking or releasing the data of others which were given in the expectation of confidentiality, e.g., appropriating ideas from submitted grant or contract proposals, or manuscripts for publication when one is a reviewer for granting agencies or journals.

You can find more information on academic integrity at Chapman University here: