Plagiarism and text recycling have recently received considerable media attention and public scrutiny, particularly with the advent of increasingly sophisticated plagiarism detection tools. Many publishers and funding agencies already routinely employ such tools in their evaluation of manuscripts, proposals and reports.
This reflects the fact that plagiarism is considered a form of research misconduct by federal funding agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF), and by scientific/scholarly publishers. Indeed, funding agencies can enact significant penalties when plagiarism is uncovered—including requiring the return of awards / funding, and barring of the submission of new proposals (among other sanctions).
Plagiarism is also a violation of academic honesty, and each University school maintains its own policies and procedures regarding plagiarism violations. Refer to the Faculty Handbook, page 64 for more details.
The University of Rochester offers and encourages investigators to utilize iThenticate, a plagiarism-detection tool, to screen written material for originality prior to publication.
Please see the Office of Research and Project Administration (ORPA) to request an iThenticate account and access training resources.
The NSF provides a number of resources for researchers, including best practices and guidelines, and misconceptions relating to text recycling.
Plagiarism and text recycling are considered scientific misconduct. The University of Rochester’s Policy on Research Misconduct outlines the steps to be taken in instances of allegations of scientific misconduct.
Should you have any questions or concerns with respect to the University’s policy and process, you are encouraged to contact the relevant Dean’s office.
The Senior Associate Dean for Basic Research serves as the research integrity officer for the School of Medicine and Dentistry. Contact them at Paula_Vertino@URMC.Rochester.edu.
The Dean for Research serves as the research integrity officer for Arts, Sciences & Engineering. Contact them at John.Tarduno@rochester.edu.