Ethical Policies

ACADEMIC HONESTY

Academic honesty is essential for true scholastic growth. Students are expected to do their own work and cite sources where appropriate (SFBRHS Student Handbook, p. 6). According to Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary plagiarism is the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one’s own original work.

To assist with determining if a work has been plagiarized, students may be asked to submit their work to Turnitin.com for assessment.

COPYRIGHT

In addition to citing sources it is also important to recognize and follow the laws regarding copyrighted materials. The Internet makes it very easy to copy information. The downside to this is that almost everything published on the Internet is copyrighted. Check out the cautions below. There is also a new trend regarding copyright called Creative Commons licensing. There are several levels of freedom allowed with this type of licensing. It is the user's responsibility to check the level of freedom granted with the materials they wish to copy. Check out the powerpoint links below for more information.

WHAT IS COPYRIGHTED?

Copyright law protects any expression recorded in any tangible form, published or unpublished, in any medium, with a few exceptions (see list below). Copyright protection is automatic and a copyright notice is not necessary. Unpublished works are copyrighted regardless of the date they were created.

WHAT CANNOT BE COPYRIGHTED?

Works in the public domain:

Ideas
Facts
Words, names, slogans, or other short phrases also cannot be copyrighted. However, slogans, for example, can be protected by trademark law
Blank forms
Government works, such as judicial opinions, public ordinances and administrative rulings
Works created by federal government employees as part of their official responsibility
Works for which copyright wasn't obtained or copyright has expired (extremely rare!)

STUDENT GUIDELINES FOR COPYING MATERIALS:

Individuals may make a single copy of written material or an article from the Internet within limits for their personal use. The general limits are single chapters of a book, a short story, essay or poem, a graphic or picture, or an article from a periodical, journal or newspaper.

If you wish to copy more than that, a reasonable effort to contact the author, publisher or copyright owner needs to be made to ensure that the work is not available through commercial sources at a fair price. Document your efforts and if you can't obtain what you need commercially, you may copy only what you need for use. If you do find a commercial source, then you can copy the original material that you have access to, as long as you destroy it when your original arrives.

Copying material for multimedia presentations, have other guidelines. Please see Fair Use Guidelines for Multimedia Presentations for further information.

Caution in Downloading Material from the Internet (6.1 from Fair Use Guidelines for Multimedia Presentations).

The Sharing Creative Commons powerpoint presentation has more information for students and faculty about Creative Commons licensing. If you are looking for more information on the different levels of licenses from the most restrictive to the most accommodating, check out the Meet the Licenses webpage sponsored by Creative Commons.org.

TEACHERS -- COPYING FOR DISTRIBUTION TO STUDENTS

In order for the use of copyrighted materials to be fair there are four requirements to meet: brevity, spontaneity, cumulative effect, and terms of copying.

Brevity means 250 words for a poem, 2,500 words for a complete prose article or 1000 words from a longer work, one illustration per book or periodical.

Spontaneity means there isn't reasonable time to get permission before using the item for maximum educational effect. This means you can use it once. If you wish to use it again you would have time to gain permission.

Cumulative effect means that you use it for one course, or use one short poem, article, story or essay and no more than two excerpts per author per term, or no more than three excerpts from a collective work or periodical (other than current newspapers), or no more than nine instances of multiple copying per course per term.

The terms of copying to satisfy are no more than one copy per student, no profit if copying costs are charged to the student, a copyright notice from the original must be included in each copy, the copies may not be used to create or replace anthologies, compilations or collective works whether the copies are made in batches or separately. Consumables such as workbooks, standardized tests, or test answer sheets must never be copied, since it is the business of the copyright owner to supply them for consumption.

If you have time to gain permission from the copyright holder, and do not, or if you don't meet the other three requirements, you are infringing on copyright.