• Faculty Affairs Home
• Our Staff
• Recruitment & Hiring
• Retention, Tenure & Promotion
• Professional Development
• Center for Teaching and Faculty Development
• • About The Center
  • News and Updates
  • The Garden
  • Faculty Associates
  • Faculty Book Club
  • CTFD Media Library
  • New Faculty
  • Resources for Faculty
    • Faculty Resource Guide
    • Academic Integrity and Plagiarism
    • TurnItIn
    • Campus Safety
    • Development Opportunities
    • Effective Teaching Practices
    • Enhancing Classroom Participation
    • Faculty Development Across the World
    • Lecturer Faculty
  • Resources for Your Students
    • Student Learning Styles
    • Student Learning Support
    • Student Writing Support
  • Accessibility at SFSU
    • Accessibility Statement
    • Universal Design for Learning
  • Workshops and Events
    • CTFD Workshop Calendar
    • Upcoming CTFD Workshops
• Forms and Applications
• Resources for Chairs
• Other Resources
• Announcements
• Faculty Manual
• Contact us

Academic Integrity & Plagiarism

At SF State, we take academic integrity very seriously. Plagiarism is a form of cheating or fraud and can result in a student being expelled from the university. Several departments at SF State have information online to help you prevent plagiarism and deal with it when it occurs. Click on any of the resources below, visit our information on writing support or copyright and fair use, or come in to talk with us. We're happy to help.

SF State Policies and Information

• SFSU Faculty Affairs
  Information from The SF State Faculty Manual on plagiarism at SF State and faculty responsibilities. Suggestions to prevent plagiarism on exams.
• College of Humanities
  SF State's College of Humanities publishes procedures and guidelines for reporting plagiarism.

Understanding and Preventing Plagiarism

These Websites provide information on instructional support you can provide your students to help them avoid plagiarism:
• Defining Plagiarism
  Indiana University's Writing Tutorial Services provides a clear definition and explanation of what plagiarism is and why it is important.
• Avoiding Plagiarism and Inappropriate Paraphrasing
  The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Writing Center has a useful handout on definitions and steps to avoiding plagiarism.
• Mastering the Art of Scolarship
  UC Davis' Student Judicial Affairs.

Student Learning Support

Two student learning resources from CTFD have a writing focus. Visit our Student Learning Support page to find out how to integrate these online tutorials into your curriculum.
• The Citation Challenge: Demystifying APA and MLA
• Using Someone Else's Words: Quote, Summarize and Paraphrase Your Way to Success

Recognizing and Reporting Plagiarism

• Recognizing Plagiarism
  Indiana University's Writing Tutorial Services provides examples and explanations on how to recognize unacceptable and acceptable paraphrases.
• Examples of Plagiarism
  Examples developed by Princeton University with comments and explanations of why each constitutes plagiarism.
• Detecting Plagiarism
  University of Alberta Libraries list indicators of possible plagiarism and links to track down suspect papers.
• Plagiarism Detection Services
  This useful list of resources was compiled for instructors from the University of Michigan.
• TurnItIn.Com Training
  Helpful training videos and instructional material for the plagiarism checking service TurnItIn.Com.

Copyright and Fair Use

At the Center for Teaching and Faculty Development we do our best to help teachers navigate the waters of copyright and fair use. These links may help you make your own determination about the legality of the materials you use. If you have further questions, contact us: .

• Copyright Quiz: How savvy are you about what constitutes Fair Use? - Answer these 20 questions and compare your answers with the pros from Tech Learning.
• Copyright Management Center - View Indiana University - Purdue University's site for detailed information on fair use for teaching and research.
• Copyright Crash Course - Check out this site from University of Texas for a crash course in copyright!
• 10 Big Myths about Copyright Explained - This essay by Brad Templeton, "...an attempt to answer common myths about copyright seen on the net and cover issues related is to copyright and USENET/Internet publication."
• Copyright and Fair Use - Learn about legal and illegal use of copyrighted materials. This includes overview of current copyright laws provided by Stanford University Libraries.
• Checklist for Fair Use - Fair use or not? Use this checklist as a guide regarding fair use of copyrighted materials.
• VIDEO from SFSU AV/ITV Center: Am I a Crook: Copyright Isses on the Internet - In this 1998 PBS video seminar host Shelli Lockhart discusses how copyright affects distance learning. Issues considered include infringement risks, educational fair use and the Internet, and both institutional and individual liabilities when copyright occurs in distance education settings.
• Copyright Office Study on Distance Education - The Library of Congress Copyright Office posts copies of all public notices, written comments, and other material relevant to the distance education study on this web page as it becomes available.
• Teacher's Guide to Fair Use and Copyright - Written by a teacher, for teachers, this site considers classroom use specifically.