Academic Honesty and Copyright Policy

Prerequisite or Eligibility Criteria

Participants are advised to adhere to any eligibility and prerequisite requirements of de Souza courses.  We consider a prerequisite to be a required component to successfully complete a course.  It is the participants’ responsibility to ensure that all prerequisites and academic requirements in the course for which they are registered are met before the course end date.

Unless the aforementioned conditions have been met or special permission has been granted to the participant by de Souza, he/she will not receive any credit for the course.  If participants do not drop the course in time, their tuition fee will not be refunded and a failure credit will appear on the transcript.

Academic Honesty Policy

Academic honesty is a fundamental value of intellectual integrity at de Souza Institute. Participants enrolled in de Souza Courses are considered to be responsible scholars. As such, participants are expected to be the original authors of all course work (including quizzes, tests, assignments) he/she submits, whether for a grade or not.

At the Institute, we consider cheating and plagiarism to be serious academic misconduct. Cheating includes giving or receiving assistance on an examination, quiz, or assignment in a way not specifically permitted by the facilitator and/or outlined in the course syllabus.  By seeking credit or recognition for the course work that is not his/her own, the participant engages in an act of academic dishonesty which is considered a serious offense. As such, participants are expected to adhere rigorously to the principles of intellectual honesty.

Plagiarism is a form of dishonesty in which another’s work is presented as one’s own. Plagiarism, in the form of copying others' work damages the intellectual integrity of the learning. It is also unfair to honest students who work hard on their assignments.  Sometimes students commit plagiarism because they are running short of time or it is simply tempting to copy a text when it is readily available, either via online search or from colleagues who completed the course in prior years. 

de Souza Institute takes Plagiarism seriously.  A student found guilty of violating plagiarizing policy will receive an automatic failure grade.  In order to help students avoid making such mistakes, we have provided the following description of what plagiarism means at de Souza Institute.

What is plagiarism and what is not?

• Plagiarism is a form of dishonesty in which another’s work is presented as one’s own.
• Clinical practice guidelines, hospital policies, or publication references can be used in the assignments and they are not considered plagiarism. 
• When citing others work, including guidelines, policies or publications, students must follow proper citation protocol which includes: direct quotes (quotations from the original work), indirect quotes (paraphrases of ideas presented in the original work), and clear indication of where the information is taken from.  
• Students can work with colleagues when preparing the assignment submission. However, the work has to be the submitting student’s original ideas and must be written independently.

Who will decide that academic dishonesty has occurred?

The course facilitator decides the sanction for academic dishonesty within his or her course.  In some courses, the submitted assignment(s) will be securely analyzed by a 3rd party plagiarism detection service, which helps determine whether plagiarism has occurred. To protect privacy, student submissions will only be used for plagiarism detection within de Souza Institute courses.

Consequences of Academic Dishonesty

Depending on the circumstances, penalties will vary.  The following statements highlight the consequences of plagiarism.

• All assignments identified as plagiarized will be given an automatic failing grade.
• The student will also fail the course and will no longer be able to continue in that offering.
• If a student feels that a decision has been made in error, the issue needs to be brought forward within 10 business days to their course facilitator who will review the case with the de Souza Institute review panel. All decisions are final.
• Students can re-take the course at a later time.

Copyright policy

We at de Souza Institute recognize and respect intellectual property rights and are committed to fulfilling our moral and legal obligations with respect to our use of journal articles and books.

No participant may reproduce any copyrighted work in print, video, or digital form developed by de Souza Institute. All content provided by the Institute is considered protected even if they do not carry the copyright symbol ©. 

de Souza Institute holds an Annual Copyright License from which enables de Souza participants to access to electronic journal articles and books. Participants can print journals and other copyrighted materials from the Virtual library while enrolled in a de Souza course. However, participants ARE NOT allowed to email or distribute any of the copyrighted materials; this includes other participants enrolled in a de Souza course.  All participants must access copyrighted material themselves through the de Souza Institute Virtual Library.

Participants may print and use resources such as charts and tables provided in their de Souza course(s) as long as the de Souza Logo and references are visible.

If any participant witnesses a potential copyright infringement, please bring the matter to the attention of the individual as well as to the de Souza Support at support@desouzainstitute.com.