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Plagiarism & Citation

What it means to use only credible, reliable and authoritative sources in your work.

Academic Integrity

Adhering to academic integrity standards will help you become an ethical professional and grow as a person of integrity in all aspects of life. Academic integrity protects your reputation as well as ours. Read the NBCC Policy of Academic Integrity here.

New Brunswick Community College is committed to promoting and ensuring the academic integrity of student learning. Academic honesty and integrity are fundamental expectations of learners; as they assume responsibility for their learning and behaviour especially in the submission of work for academic evaluation. Instructors are responsible for clearly communicating course requirements and their expectations on academic honesty and integrity, and students are responsible for learning and adhering to expectations and requirements.

Definitions

Academic Integrity - the requirement for all College students, employees and applicants to conduct themselves in an honest, trustworthy manner in all aspects of their academic career.
Academic Dishonesty - an intentional, reckless, careless or improper act for the purpose of obtaining, for oneself, or a third party, academic advantage, credential, admission or credit by deception or fraudulent means.
Academic Misconduct - a breach of the Academic Integrity Policy (See Appendix A for Examples of Academic Misconduct - page 4).
Evaluation and Assessment - any teaching and learning activity in which the student is required to engage as part of the course of study and the objective is to measure learning. Examples include, but are not limited to: quizzes, tests, exams, assignments and projects.
Industrial Property - includes inventions (patents), trademarks, industrial designs and geographic indications of source.
Intellectual Property - creations of the mind including inventions, literary and artistic works, symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce.
Plagiarism - presentation or submission of work or data (published or unpublished in any form), done in whole or in part by other persons, without citation or credit, as the student’s own work i.e., a group project, book, journal, electronic media, etc. (See Appendix A for examples of plagiarism - page 4 & 5).
Student - a person who has attended a course.
Enrollment - a student active in a Program offering and enrolled in at least one course offering during the time period measured.

Why you Cite your Sources

  • To allow your instructor to verify your sources and you show you have used credible sources
  • To give the author credit for their work and keep you from plagiarizing

Did you know?

All materials you consulted need to be cited in your paper, not just books and articles. Images, presentations, podcasts, encyclopedias, audio recordings, etc. should all be cited. 

Academic Integrity is an important aspect of academic education, scholarship and achievement. It requires that members of the College community be meticulously honest in all activities relating to their academic activities at NBCC. Conduct falling short of this standard may amount to academic misconduct and be subject to sanctions under this policy:

  • Educational standards and expectations on academic integrity shall be clearly defined and provided to students.
  • Suspected breaches of academic integrity and honesty will result in an assessment of the student’s action with reasonable and progressive disciplinary action where a breach is confirmed.

Responsibilities of the College

  • Ensure that students are aware of their responsibilities regarding academic integrity
  • Advise students of the consequences for breaches of academic integrity
  • Ensure that breaches of academic integrity are dealt with in a reasonable and progressive manner
  • Provide reasonable measures to ensure that opportunities for academic misconduct are minimized
  • Provide training for College staff that defines the scope of practice in relation to academic integrity

Responsibilities of the student

  • Obtain clarification from NBCC staff when questions about whether their own or another’s actions constitute or have the potential to constitute academic misconduct
  • Cooperate with staff during investigations of academic misconduct c) report all violations they encounter to the attention of the proper authorities

NBCC examples of academic misconduct include, but are not limited to the following:

  • Copying the work of another person for any evaluation and/or assessment.
  • Permitting or assisting another student to copy work for any evaluation and/or assessment.
  • Taking a test or participating in any evaluation and/or assessment for and in the place of another student.
  • Having another student take a test or participate in any evaluation and/or assessment on your behalf.
  • Obtaining a copy of or answers to an evaluation and/or assessment in an unauthorized way. For example, from a student who has taken the evaluation and/or assessment.
  • Providing evaluation and/or assessment questions or answers to a student in advance of the evaluation and/or assessment, except where permission has been provided by the appropriate NBCC employee.
  • Giving answers to a student in advance of an evaluation and/or assessment for the purpose of providing that student with an unfair advantage.
  • Doing work for another student or having another student do one’s own work.
  • Falsifying evaluation and/or assessment documents and/or results for the purpose of having a change of grade.
  • Falsifying anything on an evaluation and/or assessment.
  • Dishonesty, lying.
  • Damaging the work of another student.
  • Interfering with the right of other students to pursue their studies.
  • Failing to follow instructions related to evaluation and/or assessment processes (start/stop times, etc.).
  • Attempting to influence a person to alter a grade through inappropriate means.
  • Forgery, alteration or unauthorized possession of College documents or electronic resources.
  • Using or consulting any unauthorized source or materials during an evaluation and/or assessment.
  • Using one’s own work for more than one class without disclosure and/or permission.
  • Collaborating on work that is assigned to be done independently.
  • Offering work for sale with the expectation that other students will use it to meet academic requirements on behalf of themselves or a third party.
  • Impersonating another student or employee for any purpose relating to the completion of course requirements.
  • Requesting special consideration based on false statements for the purpose of obtaining an advantage in relation to the completion of course requirements.
  • Submitting any falsified or altered documents either for the purpose of gaining access or admission to any NBCC course or program, or in completion of any course requirements.
  • Interfering with another student’s ability to access resources.
  • Using an electronic device (mobile phone, laptop, etc.) during an assessment without prior approval from the instructor.

Examples of plagiarism include but are not limited to:

  • Submitting written work in whole or in part by another person as if it were one’s own
  • Downloading material from the internet, then quoting or paraphrasing itin whole or in part, without properly acknowledging the original source
  • Using any graphics or artistic content, or parts thereof that you did not create (such as pictures, diagrams, charts, tables, graphs or videos) in any assessed course element (written or oral) without properly acknowledging the source
  • Using any parts of any artistic work, literary work and/or dramatic work created by another person and submitting it as one’s own without properly citing the reference
  • Paraphrasing (using someone else's ideas but putting them in one’s own words), or summarizing part of another writer's work without properly acknowledging the source
  • Restating a catchy phrase or slogan directly from another writer without properly acknowledging the source
  • Using someone else's line of thought, argument, arrangement, supporting evidence, or conclusions without properly acknowledging the source
  • Copying another student's work and submitting the work as if it were one’s own
  • Submitting substantially identical work after group collaboration on an assignment that will be assessed individually
  • Helping or supporting anyone in their efforts at academic dishonesty, plagiarism, etc.