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Online Resources
Guide to Online Plagiarism Sources
(The reviewers did not feel comfortable giving any of the following websites three stars. Ideally, a three-star website would combine high content quality and ease of use with specific information regarding law schools and legal citation.)
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~sources/index.html
content quality: high target audience: undergraduate students ease of use: high last updated: November 5, 2001 author/source: Dartmouth College
Very nice website. A lot of information about what plagiarism is, how to avoid it, and why to avoid it. Explains different citation styles and includes a comprehensive FAQ section. Website provides lots of examples for ways to cite different sources properly. Visually attractive site and easy to use.
http://library2.fairfield.edu/instruction/ramona/plugin.html
content quality: medium target audience: all students ease of use: high last updated: Oct. 22, 2003 author/source Fairfield University Dimenna-Nyselius Library
Online tutorial for students to learn about plagiarism and how to avoid it. Includes information on the definition of plagiarism, note taking tips, how to paraphrase, and three main citation styles (MLA, APA, Chicago Manual of Style). Organized into different sections that can be studied at different times. Concludes with a multiple-choice quiz to test students’ knowledge.
http://www.ehhs.cmich.edu/~mspears/plagiarism.html
content quality: medium target audience: undergraduate students ease of use: high last updated: March 12, 2002 author/source: Michael L. Spears, Central Michigan University
Guide for students (with some information targeted at teachers) on how to recognize plagiarism and avoid it. Includes explanations of penalties. Also provides links to other cites about plagiarism (many of which are on this review).
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/print/research/r_plagiar.html
content quality: high target audience: undergraduate students ease of use: medium last updated: n/a author/source: Purdue University Online Writing Lab
Handout designed for class distribution. Explains the various conflicting principles of American academic writing that can confuse students and prompt them to plagiarize, sometimes purposefully and sometimes accidentally. Explains when and how to credit authority for ideas. Concludes with a series of exercises to test the student’s ability to understand proper attribution.
www.virtualsalt.com/antiplag.htm
content quality: high target audience: undergraduate professors ease of use: medium last updated: March 7, 2002 author/source: Robert Harris, former English professor
Contains key strategies for understanding and preventing plagiarism. Also provides specific pointers for spotting plagiarism and for finding the original online source material. Easy to read format. No table of contents, index, internal cross-references, etc.
www.law.gwu.edu/resources/citing.asp
content quality: medium target audience: GWU law students ease of use: medium last updated: summer 2002 author/source: GWU Law School Committee on Academic Integrity
Fifteen-page PDF document requiring Adobe Acrobat Reader. Good table of contents and organization. Designed specifically for GWU law students, but can be generalized to other law students. Examples of plagiarism in the law school context. FAQ section. Special information regarding international students and foreign language sources. Well done, but fairly basic information.
www.hamilton.edu/academics/resource/wc/usingsources.html?CFID=490580&CFTOKEN=25406521
content quality: medium target audience: undergraduate students ease of use: medium last updated: March 2003 author/source: Hamilton College Writing Center
Brief explanation of citations and different citation styles. Provides strategies of integrating source materials correctly. Gives examples of proper paraphrasing. Caution: Instructs students that they do not need to provide citations for common knowledge or for knowledge that the reader can locate easily.
www.fno.org/may98/cov98may.html
content quality: medium target audience: all teaching professionals ease of use: medium last updated: Vol.7, No. 8, May 1998 author/source: Jamie McKenzie, From Now On webzine
Online article, “Seven Antidotes to Prevent Highway Robbery in an Electronic Age.” Instructional articles for teachers to curb potential plagiarism. Seven “antidotes” covering the entire research project from information gathering to the final product.
http://www.zoology.ubc.ca/bpg/plagiarism.htm
content quality: medium target audience: undergraduate science students ease of use: medium last updated: n/a author/source: University of British Columbia
Online brochure for UBC science students. Includes definitions of plagiarism, ways to avoid it, and examples of proper citation. This website is notable for its definitions of different kinds of plagiarism: complete plagiarism, near-complete plagiarism, patchwork plagiarism, lazy plagiarism, and self-plagiarism. This is a helpful way to explain plagiarism to students to expand their own understanding.
www.wiu.edu/users/mfbhl/wiu/plagiarism.htm
content quality: medium target audience: undergraduate professors ease of use: medium last updated: Jan. 29, 2002 author/source: Bruce Leland, Western Illinois University
Online article. Alerts college professors to online websites, which make term papers available to students. Provides links to several of the sites, and all links are current. Gives tips on how teachers can better tailor assignments and instructions to discourage plagiarism. Provides links to other online articles regarding plagiarism.
http://www.plagiarism.phys.virginia.edu/
content quality: medium target audience: high school teachers and college professors ease of use: high last updated: Nov. 4, 2002 author/source: Lou Bloomfield, Professor of Physics, Univ. of Virginia
Unique website with forums for teachers and professors to exchange ideas and suggestions for detecting and preventing plagiarism. Also offers free downloadable software designed to check documents for suspected plagiarism. Lists links to other websites dealing with plagiarism and real examples of alleged plagiarism.
http://sja.ucdavis.edu/avoid.htm
content quality: medium target audience: undergraduate students ease of use: low last updated: Oct. 25, 2001 author/source: UC Davis Student Judicial Affairs
Online resource for undergraduate students to learn about proper attribution and ways to protect against plagiarism. Provides guidelines for preventing plagiarism and gives examples of correct and incorrect uses of quotations and paraphrases. Defines plagiarism and informs students why they should be concerned about ethical scholarship. Very poorly organized.
http://www.cetus.org/fairindex.html
content quality: medium target audience: university professors and adminitrators ease of use: high last updated: April 25, 1996 author/source: CETUS (Consortium for Educational
Technology for University of New York
This website is designed to educate univeristy professors and administrators about copyright ownership and fair use. It also contains links to other resources intended to give users a full understanding about copyright laws.
http://www.library.ucsb.edu/guides/copyright.html
content quality: high target audience: professors ease of use: high last updated: n/a author/source: UC Santa Barbara Libraries
Explains copyright law and fair use exceptions for professors to use copyrighted resources in the classroom. Not applicable to anti-plagiarism instruction.
content quality: medium target audience: students, professors, librarians ease of use: high last updated: copyrighted 2003 author/source: Stanford Univ. Libraries & Academic Info. Resources
Explains difference between works available in the public domain and works that are copyrighted. Includes primary resources on current legislation and federal and international copyright law. Includes special information for librarians from the American Assoc. of Law Libraries and the American Library Association among others. Can sign up for Stanford’s free monthly newsletter providing readers with updates in copyright law. Great website, but not relevant to plagiarism problems.
http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/public-d.htm
content quality: low target audience: undergraduate and law students ease of use: high last updated: November 4, 2003 author/source: Lolly Gasaway, University of North Carolina
Very short webpage explaining the length of copyright protection and when works pass into the public domain. Great website for students studying intellectual property and copyright duration. Otherwise, better information can be found in other places.
http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/copypol2.htm
content quality: low target audience: undergraduate and graduate professors ease of use: high last updated: November 14, 2002 author/source: University of Texas System
Explains the guidelines for fair use of copyrighted materials in the classroom. Lots of great information about defenses for distributing copyrighted documents, but not helpful in understanding or preventing plagiarism.
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/index.html
content quality: low target audience: teachers, educational bookstores, librarians ease of use: high last updated: 2003 author/source: Andrew Harnack & Eugene
Kleppinger, Bedford/St.
Excerpts from a reference book about using internet sources. Chapters 5-8 are available on the website. The chapters available online cover four different kinds of citation styles for internet sources: MLA, APA, Chicago Style, and CBE. Other portions of the book not available online cover ethics, “netiquette,” evaluating internet sources, etc. Book is available for purchase on website. No price listed.
www.indiana.edu/~wts/wts/plagiarism.html
content quality: medium target audience: undergraduate students and professors ease of use: medium last updated: n/a author/source: Writing Tutorial Services, Indiana University
Information supplementing the Indiana University Student Code of Rights, Responsibilities, and Conduct. Recommendations for students on how to avoid plagiarism. Also provides hints for recognizing accidental plagiarism.
http://www.library.yale.edu/~okerson/copyproj.html
content quality: poor target audience: professors ease of use: medium last updated: Sept. 11, 2000 author/source: Yale University Libraries
Links and resources for professors to understand what classroom sources may be under copyright protection or in the public domain. Not very helpful as an anti-plagiarism resource.
Other Helpful Resources
Marilyn V. Yarbrough, A Nation Under Lost Lawyers: The Legal Profession at the Close of the Twentieth Century, 100 Dick. L. Rev. 677 (1996).
Very insightful article. The author examines the mixed messages that law professors and other members of the legal community, like judges, unwittingly convey to students regarding plagiarism. It is a very short article but a must read for law professors and administrators! Napolitano v. Princeton University, 453 A.2d 263 (1982)
The plaintiff’s undergraduate degree was withheld for a year as a penalty for plagiarism. She sued the university for alleged due process violations. The student lost. The case is important because the court said that the offense of plagiarism requires “deliberate use of an outside source without proper acknowledgement.” Princeton had defined outside sources as any work, published or unpublished, by any person other than the student. The court also indicated that there cannot be a rigid application of the law of contracts to students’ disciplinary proceedings at private universities. Courts have traditionally recognized the independence of a university in dealing with the academic failures, transgressions, or problems of a student.
Chris Klein, Catholic Church-Affiliated School Resists Old Testament Discipline, 19 Natl L. J. 24 (1997).
A cautionary tale: when four out of fifteen students in one professor’s class at St. Thomas University School of Law were charged wit |
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