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Professionalism
SENS Guidelines
SEAS web sites for departments, labs, centers, and individual faculty are expected to adhere to a basic level of professionalism that reflects the status of SEAS and UB, including consideration of the following:
- Copyright: Developers and authors of SEAS web sites are expected to comply with U.S. copyright law and the policies of the University at Buffalo.
- Plagiarism: SEAS web sites are not to contain plagiarized material. Complaints to SEAS about plagiarized material on a web site will be taken seriously.
- Appropriateness: Developers of SEAS web sites should be aware of the appropriateness of the material they post, and avoid posting any material that is outside the boundaries of good taste and/or the law.
Questions you might have
Copyright
PLEASE NOTE:
The questions and answers below are not legal advice, and should not be taken as such. If you have more specific copyright questions, please refer them to UB's Copyright Infringement Agent, ub-dmca-designated-agent@buffalo.edu
What is copyright?
U.S. copyright laws protect the creators of content from having their work taken and used by others without their permission. Generally speaking, you may not reproduce, distribute, display, or create a derivative work of copyrighted material without the copyright owner's permission.
How do I get permission?
If you find something on the web (an article or an image, for example), the copyright owner has often included specific guidelines regarding use, or at least contact information. Many copyright owners are thrilled that you want to use their work and have no problem with your using it in class or on your web site, but you should get it in writing, and also attribute their work to them after you've got permission. If the material you want to use is in a book, you can often find copyright information on the publisher's web site.
For a step-by-step guide to requesting permission to use copyrighted material, see http://www.copyright.iupui.edu/permsec.htm.
What is "fair use"? Isn't it true that copyright doesn't apply to classroom teaching?
It would be nice to be able to put down a set of hard and fast rules and tell you that they constitute fair use. Unfortunately, such rules don't exist. In general, fair use means that for the purposes of teaching and research, you have a little more latitude in using copyrighted material; however, in the long run, if you get sued over it, there's no telling whether the court will consider what you're doing "fair use." Here's an excellent article on fair use in higher education: http://www.copyright.iupui.edu/highered.htm.
Plagiarism
What is plagiarism?
Plagiarism is copying someone else's work and claiming it as your own.
I'm faculty. I don't need to be warned against plagiarizing, but how do I keep people from plagiarizing work that I post on my web site?
Don't post it on your web site.
No, seriously, it's very difficult to keep people from plagiarizing your work. Here are some considerations, though:
- Use an authenticated web site that only your class has access to.
- UBlearns is excellent for this; only students who are enrolled in your class as of about a day ago can get to your course material. Of course, there's nothing to keep them from copying it and handing it out to others who aren't in the class. That's not terribly likely, but it has happened.
- You can also set up a password-protected directory in your personal space or your course web space and give out passwords to your students. Here are instructions for doing that on the SENS servers.
- Make sure that your own copyright information and contact information is prominently displayed with your work. While this won't keep someone who doesn't care that they're plagiarizing from stealing your work, it could help honest people ask you for permission.
- Some faculty have experimented with turning text in graphics to keep it from being available to search engines or easy to cut and paste. While this might deter cut-and-paste plagiarists, it might also deter visually impaired students who need to increase the text size on your web page or use an auditory screen reader. In the interest of accessibility, we do not encourage this method.
