Academic Honesty and Ethical Principles
INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE PROGRAMS
ACADEMIC HONESTY AND ETHICAL PRINCIPLES
İstanbul Bilgi University respects and adheres to academic honesty and ethical norms at the highest level.
Academic integrity refers to taking credit for only the research and accomplishments one deserves and acting in honor in using, presenting, and analyzing data, facts, and findings. This requires the thesis to be original scientific research regardless of the level of the program.
Most common forms of academic integrity violations in theses, reports and papers include but not limited to:
a) Plagiarism: Intentionally or unintentionally using another person’s ideas, findings and/or arguments as if one’s own.
Note that even if the student paraphrases other people’s ideas, findings, and arguments, it is still considered as plagiarism if it is not properly cited within the text and added as bibliographical material to the references section.
Plagiarism may be unintentional in some situations. Students should review the effective ways of avoiding unintentional plagiarism from several resources available online.
The Institute upholds a zero-tolerance policy against plagiarism, intentional or unintentional. To safeguard against plagiarism, the Institute requires every thesis to be subjected to an online originality or similarity check via tools such as Turnitin or any other tool that the Institute requires. Beyond automated similarity checks, the supervisor(s), members of the thesis defense jury, second readers in the case of projects, members of thesis progress monitoring committees in the case of PhD dissertations, administrative employees of the Institute, Institute Executive Board members or any other concerned party may report any case of plagiarism that they come across.
A Turnitin report displays unjustified similarities with both published and unpublished works and other student papers. Similarity rates specified in the plagiarism software program report should not exceed 20% excluding the bibliography. The similarity rate from a single source in the match list given in the Turnitin report should not exceed 1%, but this rate can go up to 5% if the program director deems it appropriate. Similarity levels beyond the designated rates according to the university’s regulations will be considered as plagiarism and is subject to disciplinary action.
Check the similarity reports regularly. The system allows you to revise your submission up to 3 times on the same day.
It is expected that Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) tools are used in accordance with ethical codes, that their use is properly disclosed, and that it is appropriately cited if necessary. For points to consider in the use of GAI, the 'Ethical Guide on the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence in Scientific Research and Publication Activities’ by the Council of Higher Education and/or other ethical codes and guidelines appropriate to the scientific field in which the thesis is written can be consulted. The Turnitin system also checks for AI use. Violation and breach of the codes of academic integrity is subject to disciplinary action under the Rules and Regulations Governing Student Disciplinary Actions of the Council of Higher Education and İstanbul Bilgi University.
b) Self-plagiarism: Including one’s own previous paper, homework or project done previously for another reason, whole or in part without acknowledging in the thesis of its nature and without getting the approval of the thesis supervisor in advance.
c) Fabrication and falsification of facts, data and findings: Presenting facts, data and findings that do not exist or falsifying the correct original versions
d) Submitting fraudulent documents: Submitting fraudulent documents to the Institute and the Council of Higher Education in addition to the thesis.
e) Impersonation: Impersonating someone or having someone impersonate the author to write the thesis, in whole or in part, regardless of the action being paid or unpaid.
Violation and breach of the codes of academic integrity is subject to disciplinary action under the Rules and Regulations Governing Student Disciplinary Actions of the Council of Higher Education and İstanbul Bilgi University.
Ethics Board Approval
Ethic Board Approval is required for ALL theses covering any research with human participants or focuses on humans. Applications to Ethics Board are assessed in terms of health, security, human rights, legislation, general principles of the law and ethics.
Students must acquire Ethics Board Approval before doing research related to thesis. If the thesis content does not require ethics approval, it should be acquired with the approval of the thesis supervisor.
Information on acquiring Ethics Board Application and the relevant form is available at this address.