POLICIES

This page is divided into several sections. You can read it sequentially by scrolling down the length of the document or by clicking on any of the links below to “jump” to a specific section.

• Assignments
• Deferred Grades
• Academic Integrity
• Citation and Reference Style
• Accommodating Disabilities
• Use of Trade Names
• Netiquette
• Additional Course Policies

Assignments

Be sure to include the following information in all of the assignments that you submit:

• Course name and number
• Your student ID number, and
• Your name

Please keep a copy of all your work. We cannot assume responsibility for lost items.

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Deferred Grades

If you are prevented from completing this course within the prescribed amount of time, it is possible to have the grade for that course deferred with the concurrence of the instructor. To seek a deferred grade, you must submit a request in writing (by e-mail or surface mail) to the instructor describing the reason(s) for the request. It is up to your instructor to determine whether or not you will be permitted to receive a deferred grade. If for any reason the course work for the deferred grade is not complete by the assigned time, a grade of "F" will be automatically entered on your transcript.

For a refund schedule, please see the World Campus Student Services Web site.

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Academic Integrity

Penn State's Department of Geography awards certificates of achievement in GIS to individuals who successfully complete a sequence of four courses. It almost goes without saying that "successful completion" involves doing one's own work. Unfortunately, there have been rare instances in which individuals have attempted to pass off other students' assignments as their own. To minimize such incidents, we make it a habit of stating our academic integrity policy up front.

Penn State defines academic integrity as "the pursuit of scholarly project in an open, honest and responsible manner." Academic integrity includes "a commitment not to engage in or tolerate acts of falsification, misrepresentation, or deception." In particular, the University defines plagiarism as "the fabrication of information and citations; submitting other's work from professional journals, books, articles, and papers; submission of other student's papers, lab results or project reports and representing the work as one's own." Penalties for violations of academic integrity may include course failure and disqualification from the certificate program.

The academic integrity policy of Penn State's College of Earth and Mineral Sciences (which includes the Department of Geography) is published at http://www.ems.psu.edu/students/integrity/tables.html.

In addition, you will find Penn State's "A Statement on Plagiarism and Academic Dishonesty" (http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/cyberplag/cyberplagstudent.html) to be a valuable resource. That site includes helpful "Examples to Avoid."

To ensure the originality of student work we submit all project assignments to Turnitin.com and carefully analyze the results. Projects found to be in violation of academic integrity guidelines will be handled in a manner consistent with the policies noted above.

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Citation and Reference Style

We expect that the text and graphics you submit as part of your assignments are original. You may build upon ideas, words and illustrations produced by others, but you must acknowledge such contributions formally. Unacknowledged contributions are considered to be plagiarized. This policy specifies when and how you should acknowledge contributions of others to your own work.

Citations and references will appear in three different parts of the project reports and other assignments you submit as a student in this program:

1. Text citations
2. Graphics citations
3. References

Different disciplines adopt different standards for citations and references. Moreover, almost every professional publication enforces its own variation on the standard styles. The most widely used styles include:

• APA - Used in psychology, education, and other social sciences.
• MLA - Used in literature, arts, and humanities.
• AMA - Used in medicine, health, and biological sciences.
• Turabian - Designed for college students to use with all subjects.
• Chicago - Used with all subjects in non-academic publications like books, magazines, and newspapers.

The following Web site, published by Long Island University, provides a good overview of each style:

http://www.liunet.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workshop/citation.htm

Geography journals and books tend to use variations on the APA style. While we do not insist that our students adopt any particular style, we do expect two things:

1. Whenever you include text, a graphic, or an idea that is not your own, acknowledge the contribution in such a way that enables readers to find the original source; and
2. Consistently apply one style of citations and references throughout all your assignments.

A. Text Citations

We recommend parenthetical citations that include author(s) name(s) and year of publication.

Quotations: Page numbers should also be included when direct quotations are cited. Complete references corresponding to each citation should appear in the reference list at the end of every assignment report.

Paraphrasing: Most often you will cite ideas rather than quotations. Your ability to paraphrase and build upon the work of others constitutes more convincing evidence of your professional and intellectual development than your ability to assemble series of quotations. The Student Judicial Services office at the University of Texas has published the following excellent explanation of proper paraphasing (note the extended quotation is set apart as a "block quote"):

Like a direct quotation, a paraphrase is the use of another's ideas to enhance one's own work. For this reason, a paraphrase, just like a quotation, must be cited. In a paraphrase, however, the author rewrites in his or her own words the ideas taken from the source. Therefore, a paraphrase is not set within quotation marks. So, while the ideas may be borrowed, the borrower's writing must be entirely original; merely changing a few words or rearranging words or sentences is not paraphrasing. Even if properly cited, a paraphrase that is too similar to the writing of the original is plagiarized.

Good writers often signal paraphrases through clauses such as "Werner Sollors, in Beyond Ethnicity, argues that..." Such constructions avoid excessive reliance on quotations, which can clog writing, and demonstrate that the writer has thoroughly digested the source author's argument. A full citation, of course, is still required. When done properly, a paraphrase is usually much more concise than the original and always has a different sentence structure and word choice. Yet no matter how different from the original, a paraphrase must always be cited, because its content is not original to the author of the paraphrase (Student Judicial Services Center, University of Texas, no date).

B. Graphics Citations

In the same way that you may quote and acknowledge limited passages of published text, you may also include illustrations created by others in your assignments. However, works produced by others included in your assignments without acknowledgement are considered to be plagiarized. What constitutes proper acknowledgement for graphics? That depends on the affiliation of the author(s).

Public domain graphics: Any illustration produced by an employee of an agency of the U.S. government is said to be in the "public domain"--meaning that it is not subject to copyright, and can be reused without permission. Students should acknowledge such works, however, with the names or affiliations of the authors and the publication date, as shown in Example 1 below. Full citations should follow in the reference list at the end of your report.

Copyrighted graphics: Any illustration not produced by an employee of an agency of the U.S. government is protected by copyright law. In general, copyrighted illustrations should only be used with authors' written permission. A provision of copyright law called "fair use" permits reuse of copyrighted illustrations for strictly educational purposes, however. (You can learn more about fair use at http://fairuse.stanford.edu). In the context of this program, you may reuse copyrighted illustrations without permission provided that you include in your caption a parenthetical citation with the names or affiliations of the authors and the publication date. Additionally, you must acknowledge the authors' copyright, and state that you have used the illustration for educational purposes only. Full citations should follow in the reference list at the end of your report.

C. References

At the end of your report, you must list the full bibliographic citations of the works you have used. References should include the following:

• Author(s) name(s)
• Publication date
• Publication title
• Editors (if publication appears in an edited collection)
• Edition title and number (if applicable)
• URL (if applicable)
• Date accessed (for Web publications)
• City, State and Name of publisher (if applicable)
• Page number (for quotations from printed sources)

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Accommodating Disabilities

Penn State encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the physical access provided, please contact the World Campus in advance of your participation or visit.

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Use of Trade Names

Where trade names are used, no discrimination is intended and no endorsement by the World Campus, Outreach and Cooperative Extension, the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, or The Pennsylvania State University is implied.

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Netiquette

The term "Netiquette" refers to the etiquette guidelines for electronic communications, such as e-mail and bulletin board postings. Netiquette covers not only rules to maintain civility in discussions, but also special guidelines unique to the electronic nature of forum messages. Please review the section on "Netiquette" in our World Campus student orientation, "WC 101," for specific guidelines.

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Additional Course Policies

For information about additional policies regarding items such as

• Penn State Access Accounts;
• course tuition, fees, and refund schedules; and
• drops and withdrawals

Please see the World Campus Student Services web site.

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