Academic Integrity and Research

Academic integrity is important at all colleges and universities, including VCC. It is also important in the workplace. This page will introduce you to VCC's policies on educational integrity, plagiarism and citation/research help available.

Photo by Jaeyoung Geoffrey Kang on Unsplash

Academic integrity includes: 

  • Doing your own assignments, writing your own papers, and properly citing your resources. 
  • Taking an exam without help from your textbooks or friends.  

You are responsible for knowing VCC's policies, including: 

Not following academic integrity has consequences, which may include: 

  • Having to redo the assignmentoften for a lower grade 
  • Failing the assignment 
  • Failing the course. 

Please ask your instructor if you would like help understanding academic integrity.

Plagiarism is using someone else's words or ideas and claiming them as your own. Avoid this by writing proper citations (also called references). For more information: 

  • ProQuest Research Companion  
    Learn about academic integrity, and how to avoid plagiarism by properly citing information. Use your VCC student ID number and password to log in to this tutorial. 

Understand what plagiarism is and how to prevent it. 

Citation guides provide detailed information about how to show your readers where you found your information. You must include citations if you summarize, paraphrase, or quote information: 

 

VCC Library subscribes to online resources to help you complete your work. You will be prompted to log in with your VCC student ID number and password. 

 

VCC Library offers a huge range of online resources including research articles, eBooks, online videos, design databases, anatomical images, and heavy equipment/automotive databases. Find a library guide on your subject and start exploring what is available: 

VCC Library is open limited hours Monday-Thursday for pick-up and drop-off of material. Check for updates to library takeout services. 

Get help accessing and using quality information and resources for your assignments, including research support and assistance with citation styles and avoiding plagiarism: