Graduate Student Library Guide

Knowing about Concordia's Academic Integrity Policy before you write papers, take tests, or work in groups will help you be successful without worrying about plagiarism or accidentally cheating.  On this page of this library guide, you will learn ways to maintain academic integrity at Concordia.

While it will be important to read and understand the entire Academic Integrity policy, the policy generally covers these main points:

"Academic misconduct is defined as any activity that compromises the academic integrity of the college or undermines the educational process. Academic misconduct includes but is not limited to:

• cheating: using a resource other than one’s own work to answer questions;
• plagiarism: misrepresenting another’s ideas as one’s own or not giving credit to the creator of a work;
• falsification: submitting falsified or fabricated information;
• facilitating others’ violations: knowingly permitting or facilitating the dishonesty of others;
• impeding: placing barriers in the way of others’ academic pursuits."

What is meant by "cite your work"?

Citing is the process of giving credit to the original authors of the idea, the work of art, the piece of music, etc. In the United States, the standard of academic honesty is that each person credits the original authors for any idea that the person did not come up with alone and on their own.

• To give credit shows honor and respect to the original author for the work the author has done.
• To give credit shows where your work as a student happens within the larger scholarly conversation about the topic.
• To give credit means that others who read your work can follow the path of the scholarship back through time to see how the idea has developed and to see what new perspectives you may add to the topic.

Usually, citing takes place in your footnotes or in-text citations, your Works Cited page, your Bibliography, or in another formal listing of all of the sources you used in a paper, a poster, a video, a digital work like a webpage or timeline, etc. Most citation systems require both the in-text citations or notes and the list of sources at the end of the work.

In case you would like to practice the skill of using sources in alignment with the Academic Integrity policy, this library guide has an option for that (see the bottom of the page for the Plagiarism Tutorial).