Plagiarism Information from the Entomology and Nematology Department
Plagiarism is a serious problem in academia today, especially with the ease of obtaining information from the World Wide Web. Plagiarism is defined as representing the words or ideas of another person as one’s own, without attribution to the source. All words and ideas must be attributed to a source unless they are considered common knowledge (i.e., widely known by many people and found in many different sources). There are many kinds of plagiarism, as you will read on the Guide to Plagiarism website referenced below.
Plagiarism is unethical, unacceptable in science, and prohibited by the UF Student Honor Code (http://www.dso.ufl.edu/sccr/honorcodes/honorcode.php). The consequences for plagiarism while at the University of Florida range from receiving a grade of zero for the plagiarized assignment or a failing grade for the course, to, for repeated offenses, expulsion from the university. Plagiarism after graduate training calls into question one’s scientific integrity and can lead to banning of publication in journals and the loss of jobs/careers.
In some countries, it is an acceptable practice to write in a manner that faculty members at the University of Florida consider to be plagiarism. Students studying in our university and with plans to publish their research in the English language need to know what plagiarism is and how to avoid it.
Students who plagiarize will be caught and consequences will be applied. Many faculty in our department check all written assignments using an anti-plagiarism software called Turnitin® (http://www.at.ufl.edu/~turnitin/about.html). You may wish to customize this section and put in your plans to use Turnitin and your consequences for plagiarism.
For further information and examples of plagiarism, I strongly suggest that you please read the George Smathers’ Library Guide to Plagiarism at http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/msl/services/tutorials/plagiarism/student_intro.html
Please understand that our purpose in bringing to your attention the matter of plagiarism is to help train you to be ethical scientists, not to impugn your character.