"The appropriation of another person's ideas, processes, results or words without giving appropriate credit" 42CFR Section 93.103
Plagiarism occurs when we do not attribute our intellectual debts to others. It is not restricted to writing but can occur in music, computer code, art, and scientific work.
To avoid plagiarism, proper credit must be given whenever we use:
Another person's idea, opinion or theory
Any facts, statistics, graphs, drawings, or other information that is not common knowledge
Quotations of another person's actual spoken or written words
Paraphrase of another person's spoken or written words
When in doubt, we should err on the side of over-documentation.
A. Adopt a positive attitude about citation. Using citations shows that we know the literature and recognize the contributions of others upon which we are building new knowledge.
Make sure our work has a thesis or main idea that is our own and organize the cited source material from others around that point.
B. Put in quotations everything that comes directly from another text, and cite the source.
C. Paraphrase, but be sure we are not just rearranging or replacing a few words, and cite the source.
D. Recognize that common knowledge is factual information. We do not need to cite sources for facts that can be found in numerous places and are known by many people, but we must reference or ideas that interpret facts. We also should reference debatable facts.
For example, we do not need a citation for the sentence:
Richard Nixon was elected president in 1968.
We do need a citation for the sentence:
During the Stalin years, casualties due to famine have been estimated at more than 6 million people.
For examples of how to incorporate source material into your writing, you may consult the examples available from the University of Indiana's Writing Tutorial Services website (http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/plagiarism.shtml).
Following are UW Regulation addresses pertaining to Academic Dishonesty: (http://uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/a&s/Appeals_Dishonesty/guidelines_Dishonesty.htm)
Code of Student Conduct -- UW Regulation 8-30 https://www.uwyo.edu/generalcounselsupport/clean%20uw%20regulations/UW%20Reg%208-30.pdf
UW Regulation 6-802, adopted 10/17/08 Board of Trustees meeting -- Procedures and Authorized University Actions in Cases of Academic Dishonesty https://www.uwyo.edu/generalcounselsupport/clean%20uw%20regulations/UW%20Reg%206-802.pdf
UW Regulation 8-229, Revision 2; adopted 7/17/08 Board of Trustees meeting-- Authority of University Officers Regarding Administration of University Requirements https://www.uwyo.edu/generalcounselsupport/clean%20uw%20regulations/UW%20Reg%208-229.pdf
Information Circular "Use of "X" grade in cases of suspected academic dishonesty" http://uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/legal/infocirc/1978-1.htm
For appeals "Principles of Student Life: Rights and Responsibilities" http://uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/legal/Uniregs/ur029.htm
UW is required to have a policy for responding to allegations of research misconduct that conforms to federal regulation. This policy includes the possibility of administrative actions should a person be found guilty of research misconduct, which includes fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism.
These actions include: