Academic Integrity

ACADEMIC DISHONESTY AND PLAGIARISM STATEMENT

We follow zero tolerance policy towards academic dishonesty in the Sociology Department. It is, therefore, vital to understand what the definition of academic dishonesty involves, and how the students can avoid it. While this document introduces the students to elementary information regarding academic dishonesty and cheating, it also provides them with further resources to widen their understanding on the issue.  

Academic dishonesty comes in a variety of forms: cheating, facilitating cheating, fabrication, having unauthorized possession of examinations, copying from another student with or without their knowledge, sharing exam questions and answers with other students, collaboratively working on an assignment or in an exam when it is not allowed, submission of a substantial portion of the same paper for different classes without the authorization of instructors, and plagiarism.

Plagiarism (intihal in Turkish) is generally defined as adopting and utilizing other people’s ideas, words and approaches without proper acknowledgment. Since there are many ways in which people can create false impressions about the originality of their writings without even intending to do so, plagiarism is regarded as one of the most common form of academic dishonesty. It is also considered to be a very serious offence since it involves taking over others’ academic labor and intellectual creativity without their consent. 

Below are some examples of plagiarism, including but not limited to:

  • Having someone else write a paper or complete an assignment on your behalf.
  • Buying an essay from someone or from a research service and turning it in as your own work.
  • Copying verbatim or in part from another published, unpublished, or an electronic source without giving proper credit to the one from whom the work was copied.
  • Not documenting the source when paraphrasing.
  • Forgetting to put quotation marks to texts that are taken word by word.
  • Use of excessive quotations even when including proper citations to a point that there is no original work.
  • Having incomplete or incorrect references.

Sociologists like other scientists give proper credit to any idea or methods that are taken from other sources. To do otherwise, whether it is intentional or unintentional, is considered academic misconduct. Any idea that does not belong to the individual, with the exception of common knowledge, should be given proper credit and cited accordingly. 

The ability to paraphrase is the most essential quality to avoid plagiarism in any kind of academic work. A number of sources are available to help you decide if you have mastered the ability to paraphrase. You may resort to the following sources:

  • Boğaziçi University Online Writing Lab:

http://www.buowl.boun.edu.tr/students/favoidingplagiarism.htm.

  • Purdue, Online Writing Lab, Avoiding Plagiarism:

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/teacher_and_tutor_resources/preventing_plagiarism/avo          ding_plagiarism/index.html

  • Indiana University-Bloomington, School of Education, How to Recognize Plagiarism:

https://wts.indiana.edu/writing-guides/plagiarism.html

The ASA (American Sociological Association) Style Guide is one of the most convenient and widely-used resource for citing correctly and referencing properly. Here are some links to the documents where you can improve your citing skills on the basis of this guide. 

https://sociology.fas.harvard.edu/files/sociology/files/asastyleguide.pdf.

or

https://lib.trinity.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/ASA-Style-Citations-5th    ed_rev.pdf

or

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/asa_style/in_text_citation_references.html

As it is included in the Boğaziçi University’s Student Rights and Responsibility Statement (http://www.boun.edu.tr/tr-TR/Content/Genel/Ogrenci_Hak_ve_Sorumluluklari ), all students are expected to follow academic integrity principles. Students should also note that they will receive disciplinary punishment if they violate the academic integrity principles. According to the Yükseköğretim Kurumları Öğrenci Disiplin Yönetmeliği (https://www.mevzuat.gov.tr/mevzuat?MevzuatNo=16532&MevzuatTur=7&MevzuatTertip=5), the misdemeanors of plagiarism and cheating require one semester long academic suspension.