Cheating, plagiarism, and all other forms of academic fraud are serious and unacceptable violations of University policy, as specified in the Student Handbook. Widener University expects all students to be familiar with University policies on academic honesty, and Widener will not accept a claim of ignorance either of the policy itself or of what constitutes academic fraud as a valid defense against such a charge. Definition of Violations of the Standards of Academic Integrity Violations of the Standards of Academic Integrity constitute academic fraud. Additionally, each University program may have specific acts particular to a discipline that constitute academic fraud. Definition of Plagiarism One of the most common violations of the Standards for Academic Integrity is plagiarism.
Plagiarism can be intentional or unintentional.
However, since each student is responsible for knowing what constitutes plagiarism, unintentional plagiarism is as unacceptable as intentional plagiarism and commission of it will bring the same penalties. In many classes, faculty members will provide their own definitions of plagiarism. In classes where a definition is not provided, students are invited to follow the standards articulated in the following statement written by a professor at Widener University. Every part of the written work you hand in should be your own, unless credit is given by way of a specific footnote. Note that the important idea here is taking someone else's ideas.