Academic Honesty & Plagiarism Policy

Policies Concerning Academic Honesty:

Policy on Academic Misconduct: As a Middle Georgia State University student and as a student in this class, you are responsible for reading, understanding, and abiding by the MGA Student Code of Conduct. The Student Code of Conduct is included in the MGA Student Handbook and is available online at http://www.mga.edu/student-affairs/docs/MGA_Student_Handbook.pdf. It is the responsibility of each student to know and understand established rules of conduct. Lack of awareness is not recognized as a legitimate reason for failure to comply (Student Handbook, 2019-2020). 

Each student should approach academic endeavors, relationships, and personal responsibilities with a strong commitment to personal integrity and interpersonal civility. The standard policy for academic misconduct (e.g., plagiarism) is a zero for the assignment. In addition, if the occurrence is continuous (more than one occurrence) or blatant (e.g. cheating) the student will receive a failing grade for the course.  

Plagiarism:

 The term “plagiarism” includes, but is not limited to, the use, by paraphrase or direct quotation, of the published or unpublished work of another person without full and clear acknowledgement. It also includes the unacknowledged use of materials prepared by another person or agency engaged in the selling of term papers or other academic materials. Plagiarism will be treated as academic misconduct under the student Code of Conduct. A plagiarism prevention service is used in evaluation of written work submitted for this course. As directed by the instructor, students are expected to submit or have their assignments submitted through the service in order to meet requirements for this course. The papers will be retained by the service for the sole purpose of checking for plagiarized content in future student submissions.

All assignments submitted should be the original work created solely by the individual being graded in the class and cannot have been submitted in previous or concurrent coursework. Handing in work that is not solely your own, copied from another document, or submitted to another class will be considered plagiarism. To avoid plagiarism, make it your habit to cite the source within your text using the appropriate APA guidelines. An initial offense of plagiarism will result in an F for that assignment; a second offense will result in an F for the course and a referral to the student conduct committee for academic judgment.

Copyright Statement:  The materials provided by the instructor in this course are for the use of the students enrolled in the course.  Copyrighted course materials may not be further disseminated.