Copyright and plagiarism -teaching ethics to tomorrow's
citizens
Carol Simpson, Ed.D.
University of North Texas
This program includes copyright protected material used under the
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Relax
Let’s talk
An ethical basis

We live our lives ethically.

As children, mother establishes right and wrong
Ethics from mom
-- Anita Renfroe, Total Momsense
An ethical basis

We live our lives ethically.


As children, mother establishes right and wrong
Not moral or immoral
 Not legal or illegal
 “Ethical” takes into account the greater good,
and the integrity of the profession or the job
Why is ethics important
in a school context?
 71%
of students don’t think through
consequences and plan ahead
 65% don’t respect values of people from
other races and cultures
 76% don’t believe their teachers really
care about them.
The Search Institute
Whose ethics?
 Religious
ethics
 Personal ethics
 Situational ethics
 Professional ethics
What is the climate re: ethics?
 Students
complain that pressure for
grades force them to cheat
 Teachers complain that pressure for
standardized test results or college
acceptances force them to cut ethical
corners
 Faculty may feel they are only the
enforcers
What is affected by ethics?
 Plagiarism


Students: cutting/pasting into homework
Faculty: taking work from workbooks,
professional books, etc.
 Copyright


Students: adapting art into posters
Faculty: making copies of a cartoon for each
teacher’s mailbox
 Cheating
The more competitive the
school, the more cheating
goes on
The brighter the
students, the more they
can get away with
plagiarism.
Dr. Joy McGregor
Plagiarism




to steal and pass off (the ideas or words
of another) as one's own
to use (another's production) without
crediting the source
to commit literary theft
to present as new and original an idea or
product derived from an existing source.
- Plagiarism.org (quoting Merriam-Webster Online)
A Plagiarism Statement
Plagiarism is copying: retyping, cutting and pasting, or
paraphrasing. All students in this course are warned as
follows:
 Do not quote or paraphrase published sources, including
assigned readings and Web-based sources, without
explicit reference to the original work. Credit the source
using appropriate citation style according to the required
academic style manual.
 Do not insert parts of class lectures, online modules, or
tutorials, including examples, into your own work.
 Do not insert parts of previous students' work into your
own work. The previous students have given written
permission for their work to be displayed for illustrative
purposes only.
Plagiarism Statement, cont.





Do not insert parts of current students' work into your
own work. That student trusts you to respect his/her
intellectual product.
Do not use portions of your own work without citation. If
the work was previously submitted for credit in another
class, you must have written permission from the teacher
of that class and the instructor in this class to use the
material.
You are expected to study and learn from the materials
provided, then to use your own words in your
assignments, or clearly credit sources using appropriate
citation style.
It is wrong to blindly copy another person's intellectual
content or syntax. It is particularly shortsighted--and
glaringly obvious--when a student copies another
student's errors.
You do not have to police every word you write, just be
aware of your sources. It is not necessary to credit
sources for definitions of basic concepts that are general
knowledge in the field, but it is wise to reword them.
Why do students plagiarize?
 Nervousness
and insecurity
 Ignorance about proper citation
 Deliberate effort to deceive
-- Plagiarism.com
Many types of plagiarism






turning in someone else's work as your own
copying words or ideas from someone else without
giving credit
failing to put a quotation in quotation marks
giving incorrect information about the source of a
quotation
changing words but copying the sentence structure of a
source without giving credit (also called “tracking”)
copying so many words or ideas from a source that it
makes up the majority of your work, whether you give
credit or not
- Plagiarism.org
Turning in someone else's work
 How



to identify
Just doesn’t sound right
Use web search engine to locate unique
phrases that may be out of character
Use a plagiarism detector
 What

to do
This is cheating. Consult student code of
conduct
Copying words or ideas without
giving credit
 How




to identify
Teacher expertise
Check Works Cited/Bibliography against
paper
Use web search engine to locate unique
phrases that may be out of character
Use a plagiarism detector
 What

to do
Assess cause
Failing to identify quotations
 How



to identify
Just doesn’t sound like student work
Use web search engine to locate unique
phrases that may be out of character
Use a plagiarism detector
 What

to do
Assess cause
• Ignorance?
• Deliberate?
Incorrect information about a
quotation
 How

to identify
Most difficult task
• There is student attempt to attribute

Plagiarism detector
 What

to do?
Assess cause
• Ignorance?
• Deliberate?
Tracking
 How

to identify
Plagiarism detector
 What

to do
Identify cause
• Ignorance?
• Deliberate?

Caution
• Detector error
Avoiding tracking
Anything taken directly (or only loosely
paraphrased) from literature or a website
must be within quotation marks. Changing
a word or two does not remove the
requirement to put information in quotation
marks. For example:
"Product XYZ demonstrate(s) the ...
concept of [advanced] nuclear
physics."
A source makes up the majority of
the assignment
 Copyright

issues
Is the use within the fair use guidelines/fair
use four factor test?
 Pedagogical

issues
What was the purpose of the assignment?
Should there be some original analysis or
synthesis?
Addressing Plagiarism
 Students




“plagiarism-proof” assignments
Demand documentation
Verify documentation (via Turnitin.com or
DocCop.com <short sections only>)
Check at multiple stages in the process
 Faculty


Model documentation
Acknowledge sources (on web pages,
handouts, etc.)
Good documentation or not?
Original
Student work
Joe Blow was a happy
man, who often
walked down the road
whistling and singing.
“Joe Blow was a happy
man, who often
walked down the road
whistling and singing.”
(Scrivener, 2006)
Sentences in the book
Joe Blow: His Life
and Times by Jay
Scrivener
GOOD!
Full quote is in quotation marks,
followed by citation to Joe Blow:
His Life and Times.
Good documentation or not?
Original
Student work
Joe Blow was a
happy man, who
often walked
down the road
whistling and
singing.
According to Scrivener,
Blow “often walked
down the road
whistling and
singing.”99
GOOD!
Partial quote is inside quotation
marks, followed by citation. Partial
quote is not misleading.
Good Documentation or Not?
Original
Student work
Joe Blow was a happy
man, who often
walked down the road
whistling and singing.
Joe Blow was a happy
man, who often
walked down the road
whistling and singing.
NOT
It is plagiarism to quote an
author’s exact words or to
paraphrase them closely without
both quotation marks and proper
citation.
Good Documentation or Not?
Original
Student work
Joe Blow was a happy
man, who often
walked down the road
whistling and singing.
Joe Blow was a happy
man, who often
walked down the road
whistling and
singing.99
NOT
These are Scrivener’s exact words. It is
plagiarism to use them without
indicating explicitly that it is a quote (by
using quotation marks or block
quotation for longer passages) EVEN if
you give credit to the author.
Good Documentation or Not?
Original
Student work
Joe Blow was a happy
man, who often
walked down the road
whistling and singing.
Joe Blow seemed like
“a happy man,” the
kind who enjoyed
“whistling and
singing.”99
GOOD!
Two partial quotes are each inside
quotation marks; nonquoted
material is outside quotation
marks. Citation follows the
sentence.
Good Documentation or Not?
Original
Student work
Joe Blow was a happy
man, who often
walked down the road
whistling and singing.
Joe Blow was a happy
man and often walked
down the road singing
and whistling.
NOT
Although the words are not exactly the
author’s, they are very similar. (The words
“singing” and “whistling” are simply
reversed.) Either use exact quote or
paraphrase in ways that are clearly
different from the author’s wording.
Good Documentation or Not?
Original
Student work
Joe Blow was a happy
man, who often
walked down the road
whistling and singing.
Joe appeared happy
and enjoyed whistling
and singing to
himself.99
GOOD!
This paraphrase is fine. It’s not too
close to Scrivener’s original
wording. The citation
acknowledges the source.
Good Documentation or Not?
Original
Student work
Joe Blow was a happy
man, who often
walked down the road
whistling and singing.
Joe Blow was a happy
man.
NOT!
2)
Two problems here:
1) It is an exact quote so it should be
quoted and cited.
Even if the quote were modified slightly,
Scrivener should still be cited because
it is his personal judgment (and not a
simple fact) that Joe Blow is happy.
How did you do?
Examples quoted from:
Charles Lipson, Doing honest work in
college, Univ. of Chicago Press, 2004.
Copyright
 Students
have wide latitude (more than
teachers)
 May overlap plagiarism
 Each situation is highly fact-specific, so
use caution.
Addressing copyright issues
 Students



CAN make a copy of an article, chapter, etc.
for personal use
CAN use material under multimedia
guidelines in PowerPoint, etc.
* see documents on www.carolsimpson.com
 Faculty


Can make single copy for use in teaching
Acknowledge source
Cheating – who does it?

74% of students cheat
 Students in private religious schools are


more likely to cheat (78%),
more likely to lie to teachers (86% v. 81%)

Students in athletics more likely to cheat (78% v
73%)
 Gender, student leadership, and personal
religious convictions made no difference
 BUT 93% disagreed with the statement, “My
parents would rather I cheat than get bad
grades.”
Josephson Institute of Ethics - 2002
How they cheat and
how to defeat them
devices – know how they work
 Web sites – know which ones
 Computer network – make students take
tests in computer lab
 Documentation – do research online
 Software solutions
 Electronic
Addressing cheating issues

Students




Student code of conduct
“Vicarious” penalties
Control cheating technologies
Faculty




Investigate the amount of pressure on students
Emphasize process over product
What models are there?
Don’t “go along with the joke” re: cheating
businessmen, politicians, etc.
Code of Conduct Development
 Explains
school culture
 Gives explicit guidance for individual
behavior
 Clarifies roles and responsibilities of
school, student, staff
-- NoodleTools
Contents of a Code of Conduct
 Philosophy
or Statement of Principles
 Ownership of problem
 Define concepts
 Identify behaviors addressed
 Detail discipline response
 Detail educational program
-- NoodleTools
Integrating ethics
Start with these resources:
Joyce Valenza’s ethics page at
http://www.sdst.org/shs/library/infolitles.html#Ethics
 Doug Johnson’s book: Learning Right From Wrong
in the Digital Age (Linworth)
 David Warlick’s 2¢ Worth:
http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/2006/08/23/
getting-right-down-to-it/
 Lathrop & Foss: Student Cheating and Plagiarism
in the Internet Era (LU)

There are really only two
important points when it
comes to ethics. The first is a
standard to follow. The
second is the will to follow it.
-- John Maxwell
“Ours is a world of nuclear
giants and ethical infants” –
Omar Bradley
Professional Ethics
Walking the Talk
Codes of ethics
 Hippocratic
writings and Hippocratic oath –
Medicine


Model for many professions
One of the oldest professional codes
 Rules
of conduct for military officers
existed earlier, but they were frequently
ignored.


Roman
Japanese Samauri
The adoption of a code is significant
for the professionalization of an
occupational group, because it is
one of the external hallmarks
testifying to the claim that the group
recognizes an obligation to society
that transcends mere economic
self-interest.
– Heinz Luegenbiehl
Code of ethics for nonprofit and
philanthropic organizations

Statement of values









Commitment to public good
Accountability to the public
Commitment beyond the law
Respect for worth and dignity of individuals
Inclusiveness and social justice
Respect for pluralism and diversity
Transparency, integrity, and honesty
Responsible stewardship of resources
Commitment to excellence and maintaining the
public trust.
What is in a code of ethics?
 Purpose


To regulate or to inspire
To guide or to mandate
 Tied


to organization’s values
Section of aspirations
Section of rules or principles
 Enforcement
 Ordered
importance
Ethics in school librarianship
 Governed

by three organizations
Current national standards co-authored by
ALA/AASL and AECT, but ISTE is emerging
as a driving force.
 Each
organization has its own code of
ethics, and each has different perspectives
of the field
Activity
You have three Codes of Ethics:
ALA
AECT
ISTE
Compare the three Codes to see where
there is overlap and where one represents
a unique perspective.
Time for activity: 10 minutes
Ethical scenarios
Look at the following ethical scenarios and see
which of the ethical codes may come into play.
Make notes as each one plays.
Note: these are educators and students, not
actors. Thanks to the administration and staff of
Mesquite High School for allowing these clips.
Scenario 1
What ethical
conflicts do
you see here?
What is the
appropriate
choice,
ethically?
Who should make
that choice?
Scenario 2
What is the ethical
dilemma here?
What portions of
the codes are
addressed?
Who should take
responsibility?
What other ethical
conflicts do you
see?
Scenario 3
What ethical
conflicts do you
see here?
Are there multiple
codes of ethics
affected here?
Which should take
precedence?
Scenario 4
What ethical
conflicts do you
see here?
Whose problem is it,
and whose ethics
are involved?
Should the resolution
be specific or
global?
Reading about ethics is about as
likely to improve one’s behavior
as reading about sports is to
make one an athlete.
-- Mason Cooley
Maxwell’s take
Asking the question, “How would I like to be
treated in this situation?” is an integrity
guideline for ANY situation.
The answer is: The Golden Rule
-- John Maxwell, There’s no such thing as
business ethics
In literature, as in ethics,
there is danger, as well as
glory, in being subtle.
-- Charles Baudelaire
Take a test
 Apply
the Golden Rule to the following
scenarios. Some may be very subtle.
 Jot down your assessment, and see if you
can find a statement in one of the codes of
ethics to support your stance.
The most powerful lessons about
ethics and morality do not come
from school discussions or
classes in character building.
They come from family life where
people treat one another with
respect, consideration, and love.
-- Neil Kurshan
Test item #1
How does the
Golden Rule
apply?
What aspects of
the ALA,
AECT or ISTE
Codes of
Ethics apply
here?
Test item #2

How does the
Golden Rule
apply?
 What aspects
of the ALA,
ISTE, and
AECT Codes of
Ethics apply
here?
The golden mean in ethics,
as in physics, is the centre of
the system and that about
which all revolve…
-- Henry David Thoreau
Test item #3

How does the
Golden Rule
apply?
 What aspects
of the ALA,
ISTE, and
AECT Codes
of Ethics apply
here?
Test item #4

How does
the Golden
Rule apply?
 What
aspects of
the ALA,
ISTE, and
AECT Codes
of Ethics
apply here?
Ethics is not definable, is not
implementable, because it is
not conscious; it involves not
only our thinking, but also our
feeling.
-- Valdemar W. Setzer
Test item #5

How does
the Golden
Rule apply?
 What
aspects of
the ALA,
ISTE, and
AECT
Codes of
Ethics apply
here?
Test item #6

How does the
Golden Rule
apply?
 What aspects
of the ALA,
ISTE, and
AECT Codes
of Ethics apply
here?
Ethics is about how we meet
the challenge of doing the
right thing when that will cost
more than we want to pay.
– The Josephson Institute of Ethics
Test item #7

How does the
Golden Rule
apply?
 What aspects
of the ALA,
ISTE, and
AECT Codes
of Ethics apply
here?
Test item #8

How does
the Golden
Rule apply?
 What
aspects of
the ALA,
ISTE, and
AECT
Codes of
Ethics apply
here?
Even concepts of right and
wrong, good or bad, good or bad
morals and ethics are only
opinions, for what may be good
in one case may be a disaster in
another.
-- Sidney Madwed
What issues did you find?
 Student

Golden rule? ALA – IV; AECT – 3-8
 Library

intern
Golden rule? ALA – VIII; AECT - ???
 R-rated

movies
Golden rule? ALA – II; AECT – 1-5
 Future

work on Web
librarian
Golden rule? ALA – VIII; AECT - ???
What issues did you find?
 Teacher

inquiring about student
Golden rule? ALA – III; AECT – 1-2, 1-4
 Cataloging

Golden rule? ALA – I; AECT – 1-5??
 Student

inquiry re: coverups
Golden rule? ALA – I; AECT – 1-1
 Prayer

shortcuts
list
Golden rule? ALA – VII; AECT – 2-1
How did you do?
“Ethics entails action; it is not just a topic
to mull or debate.”
The Golden Rule can be applied to many
of the scenarios, but sometimes the
Code of Ethics is more specific.
Does the Code of Ethics follow the
Golden Rule?
How close are we? ALA:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Easy to use resources, access to what I feel
I need, accurate information
My beliefs are represented, along with all
others
My privacy is respected
My property rights are respected
My health and welfare are respected
No one takes advantage of me
No one forces their beliefs on me
New professionals are encouraged
How close are we? AECT - 1:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
I can learn what I want, how I want
My opinions are respected, along with those
of others
I can participate in all available programs
My privacy is protected
Materials are selected with care
My well-being is protected
My self-worth is valued
How close are we? AECT – 2:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Opinions are not forced on me
I am given truthful information
No one takes financial advantage
No one will cheat me
My health and the welfare of the planet
are considered.
How close are we? AECT – 3:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
We respect our colleagues
We avoid unfair competition
I will not be cheated by my association.
I will learn all I can, and share what I know.
I will tell the truth and give credit for what
others do
Only those qualified will assist me
I will be advised of possible legal problems
I will behave ethically.
Where do we go from here?
“To know what is right and not do it is the
worst cowardice.” -- Confucius
 Decisions, not conditions, determine your
ethics
 Wrong decisions leave scars
 The more people involved, the more
pressure for conformity
 Inaction is also a decision
-- John C. Maxwell
The bottom line
 No
one can make you be ethical
 Your ethics (or lack of it) shapes your
person (and your profession) by providing
an image by which others see you (and
your colleagues)
 People are watching what you do
 You represent a unique point of view
What can you do?
 Model
ethics
 Talk about ethics
 Repeat organizational stories that promote
ethical behavior
 Note ethical behavior on performance
evaluations
 Address the topic often, formally and
informally. Demystify it.
Recommendations

Read the Codes of Ethics
 Assess what they mean for your professional
practice and student conduct
 Anticipate activities that are likely to
challenge the precepts and plan ahead for a
response.


Role play with others until the words feel right
Understand that your beliefs/ethics may not
always be popular, but they deserve hearing
and respect.
Questions?
Email: carol@carolsimpson.com