"Plagiarism: using the ideas, data, or language of another without specific or proper acknowledgement."
--University of Pennsylvania Code of Academic Integrity
"It shall constitute a violation of [the Code of Student Conduct and Responsibility] for any student enrolled in the Law School purposefully, knowingly, or recklessly to engage in . . . [t]he submission of plagiarized work in an academic pursuit including any use of another's work without attribution, whether such use be verbatim or merely conceptual or structural."
--University of Pennsylvania Law School, Code of Student Conduct and Responsibility
XII. Punishment and Publication
A. For each act of misconduct in violation of the Code of Student Conduct and Responsibility, a student may be punished by any regulation of the offending student’s connection with the University. Possible punishments include, but are not limited to warning, reprimand, probation, exclusion from one or more specified Law School activities, deprivation of credit, suspension or expulsion. Punishment shall be determined by a majority vote of the Committee.
. . .
C. Upon a finding of guilt, the Committee may order that any part of the proceedings, including the judgment and opinion, be entered in the student’s official Law School file. Further, in accordance with applicable law, the judgment and opinion may be disseminated to bar examiners and employers. A statement summarizing the nature of the misconduct and its punishment shall be published upon final judgment without identifying the accused student, except where, for good cause stated in a report to the Committee on Student Conduct and Responsibility, the Dean or Dean’s representative decides to delay said publication. If the finding is “not guilty,” no record shall be made in the official file of the student of the charge or the proceedings related to it.
--University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, Code of Student Conduct and Responsibility
The University of Pennsylvania values academic integrity and can impose serious consequences for violations of the Code of Student Conduct and Responsibility, including plagiarism.
Therefore, it is important to ensure that you use proper attribution to sources in all your writing. This includes instances where you pull language directly from a source in the form of a quotation, but it also includes paraphrasing and other instances where someone else's work provided the foundational ideas or information that you relied on to formulate your own text.
When in doubt, it is always better to include citations. If you have questions or concerns about plagiarism or making attribution, please contact a librarian.
Recommendations to help avoid plagiarism: