FPSY6002 Walden Week 5 Academic Integrity & Plagiarism Discussion

Week 5: Guarding the Integrity of the Profession: Academic Integrity and Plagiarism

Introduction

As a student, you work hard each week to complete Discussions and Assignments that show your high personal standards and academic ability. Most, if not all, of your Discussion posts or Assignments will make you proud of the work you did. How would you feel if someone used your work and took credit for it?

Academic integrity is one of those terms that can really create some anxiety for graduate students. It is important to understand that this type of “integrity” is focused on protecting the integrity—the wholeness—of the profession and its literature. Simply put, it is making sure that you “respect and acknowledge the research and ideas of others” in your work (Walden University, 2013a, para. 9). Learning how to credit the owner/creator of other work is a skill that is learned and used in every Assignment and Discussion post throughout your graduate career.

As you review the Learning Resources this week, you will learn about the high standards that Walden University and the psychological profession set when it comes to academic integrity, scholarly writing, and properly crediting the source of information. You will be expected to maintain these standards as well; this week’s lesson will provide you with information to do that.

Through the Learning Resources and Discussions, you will learn how to recognize and avoid plagiarism, even unintentional plagiarism. You will also learn how to interpret a Turnitin Originality Report and what to do if your report indicates possible plagiarism.

It is a complicated topic and not limited to the idea of “stealing” someone’s work. There are some very specific rules and ways of writing that protect the integrity of the literature and learning, and practicing these skills is critical for graduate students in psychology. Learning Objectives

You will:Evaluate scenarios for plagiarism Analyze strategies to avoid plagiarism Analyze the purpose of Turnitin Similarity Indexes in maintaining academic integrity