Severity of an Unintentional Plagiarism IA

[dynami13]

Because then your story about how the IA was simply for a missed citation and not for the actual act of using somebody else's laboratory results would be believed.

As it stands right now, if I saw somebody's application that had an IA and I heard your story, I would either believe that you were lying or incredibly unlucky. In either case, it takes more investigating. Having the IA removed offers a part of that explanation. If I have hundreds of qualified applicants, why do I need to go the extra mile to figure out what actually happened?

I'll say this as well. Some of the attitudes you are seeing stem from the fact that students often come here with stories about their IA and what to do about them/how to spin them and oftentimes it turns out that they have withheld crucial pieces of information. There is a healthy skepticism that comes with the "I got a frivolous IA" story.

That makes sense! Thank you for your response. In that case I will definitely do whatever I can to get this expunged. My school also destroys records after a set period of time. Is this different from getting it expunged? I've definitely seen the threads of people downplaying their IA, and the last thing I want is to come off as though I'm trying to "spin" my story a certain way.

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[LizzyM]

Even if the IA is removed it will still have to be reported, correct? So what would be the advantage of working to get it removed?

The strategy should be to get the accusation thrown out -- to be reviewed and found to not have broken the school rules. Anyone can be accused of anything (like being charged with a crime) but if you are found not guilty of a crime, or not to have broken a school rule, there is no "action" to report. Once the school takes an action to punish you for breaking a rule, you are required to report it.

 

[KnightDoc]

The strategy should be to get the accusation thrown out -- to be reviewed and found to not have broken the school rules. Anyone can be accused of anything (like being charged with a crime) but if you are found not guilty of a crime, or not to have broken a school rule, there is no "action" to report. Once the school takes an action to punish you for breaking a rule, you are required to report it.

Yes, but I think the advice OP is questioning revolves around the questionable ethics of not reporting if it is expunged (removed), not dismissed, since the way he reported it here, it sounds like a done deal, not merely an accusation.

 

[LizzyM]

Yes, but I think the advice OP is questioning revolves around the questionable ethics of not reporting if it is expunged (removed), not dismissed, since the way he reported it here, it sounds like a done deal, not merely an accusation.

Correct, but if there is still time for an appeal, that could be the way to go. Also, for future students in trouble, do consider your right to an appeal versus taking plea bargain with no option to appeal the IA. That said, one of my kids was on an appeals board for IAs and it was very, very rare to find someone who hadn't done what they were reported to have done. (e.g. paragraphs of text from a pubication handed in as one's own work).

 

[Hzreio]

I frankly don't believe the explanation. I can't see a circumstance that failing to cite another student's measurements would have been an issue unless you did not volunteer the information, but the lab instructor found out some other way. How did the instructor find out that you were using someone else's measurements unless you stated that?

If you did say so ahead of time, incorrect citation isn't plaigiarism. Something else is involved or the professors are not going to have it stick. If you didn't say so a priori and the instructors found out afterwards, plaigiarism and cheating are different ways to look at it but still derogatory.

If the data points were the exact same that shows that someone copied someone

 

[KnightDoc]

Correct, but if there is still time for an appeal, that could be the way to go. Also, for future students in trouble, do consider your right to an appeal versus taking plea bargain with no option to appeal the IA. That said, one of my kids was on an appeals board for IAs and it was very, very rare to find someone who hadn't done what they were reported to have done. (e.g. paragraphs of text from a pubication handed in as one's own work).

Makes sense -- it's counterintuitive to think professors would have any interest in going to the trouble to make false accusations, or that schools would casually take part in railroading their own students, given the potential consequences. We don't know what we don't know with OP, but, it sounds serious based on how he says the school dealt with it.

 

[LindaAccepted]

I recently interviewed the former head of med school admissions at University of Arizona and asked about academic discipline. While he certainly acknowledged that academic infractions are serious " he also indicated that they are not always insurmountable. He recommended the following framework for addressing AIs: Reflection, Contrition, and Redemption. In his words:

" The reflection is you need to spend some time thinking about what it is you did wrong, why you did it, how you would act differently in the future. The contrition is after you’ve done that sort of self analysis, then you have to accept that you are the one who was responsible. And you have to make that very clear, right? And then the redemption is that you need to do something that sort of makes amends for what you did wrong. "

"Redemption" could be something like serving on a school ethics panel or studying and ultimately teaching ethics.

He also commented " Cheating is pretty serious. There’s going to have to be some pretty significant contrition and redemption to overcome a cheating charge. "

The bottom line is that you want to show the maturity to accept responsibility for your actions, the wisdom to acknowledge mistakes, and the determination to become a better person as a result and hopefully help others avoid similar mistakes.

The interview is on SDN at https://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/applying-to-med-school-during-covid-19.1416458/ .