Don't hesitate...iThenticate!

This article originally appeared in the April issue of News @ Your Library

The University’s new plagiarism software for researchers is here! The Office of Academic Integrity, the Library, and IST are pleased to offer iThenticate as a tool for uWaterloo authors to check their own documents.

iThenticate is a plagiarism-detection tool designed to help researchers ensure the originality of their written work. Provided by the company that created Turnitin, iThenticate checks documents against the same databases as Turnitin, but with a focus on meeting the needs of researchers.

Faculty members, graduate students, and other uWaterloo authors will find iThenticate useful for checking articles, book chapters, grant proposals, and theses and dissertations. Key examples of when you might use this software include:

• Anytime you would like to double-check that you have sufficiently cited your sources
• Before submitting a manuscript for publication
• Before submitting a thesis or dissertation

To get started with iThenticate, you need to sign up for an account through IST (see below). Once you have an account, the iThenticate interface allows you to create folders, upload documents, and check them against any or all of these databases:

• CrossCheck – a database populated with journal articles, conference proceedings, books, etc. provided by a wide range of publishers including most large scholarly publishers
• iParadigm's internet crawler – archived back nearly a decade
• ProQuest Dissertations and Theses – a research database that includes theses and dissertations from more than 1,000 North American and European graduate schools
• Aggregators, databases, and other content providers – over 90 million online and offline subscription content and research titles from sources such as ABC-CLIO, Cengage Learning, EBSCOhost, Emerald Journals, Gale InfoTrac, One File, Pearson, McGraw-Hill, Wiley, PubMed/Medline, SAGE Reference.

 

To sign up for an iThenticate account, contact Sean Warren in IST by email or by calling ext. 36950. For more information about iThenticate, see the iThenticate FAQ or contact Christine Jewell in the Library at extension 35623 or by email.

For questions about academic integrity at the University of Waterloo, contact Amanda McKenzie of the Office of Academic Integrity by email or by calling ext. 38562.

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Co-op student used lab experience in the field

by Shannon Tigert, Co-operative Education and Career Action (CECA)

Sorina Chiorean (3A Bio-Chemistry) didn’t let her major narrow her choices when applying for her first co-op job.  Sorina was hired as a Research Technician at Environment Canada’s Burlington location, a position seemingly more suited to someone studying Aquatic Toxicology.  However, she had the enthusiasm for environmental protection to make this job a unique experience.

Sorina’s first work term was an ideal place to explore her passion for the environment, as she worked mainly with minnow fish in a laboratory, testing for toxicants.  She describes her workplace as “very friendly.  […] I got really lucky with my supervisors; they treated me as a member of the team.  They always considered my ideas and I was never afraid to approach them with an idea.  It was incredible.”  Sorina felt that she could voice her honest opinions.  She soon found out though, that no job is perfect!  She was working in the lab when one of the pipes going to an empty tank burst, leaving her soaked.  What could have been a disaster turned into a funny situation, when her supervisors walked in to find her soaking wet and more than a little dumbstruck.  “I got to wear these neon orange overalls all day because I didn’t have any other clothes! They were awful!”

Sorina monitored minnow’s eggs, which are more susceptible to toxicants, after they were placed in samples of water collected from potentially contaminated areas.  She was also allowed to create an independent experiment for her eventual work report involving researching characteristics of the embryonic developmental stages of minnows, something not thoroughly researched before.  She made sure that only healthy eggs were used for testing field samples, helping to eliminate biases from the toxicant tests. 

This responsibility gave Sorina invaluable real-world lab experience that ties in to what she has learned in school.  “[Co-op] really emphasizes what you learn in the classroom.  [The labs in school] don’t really seem to matter at the time, we get an unknown sample.  I’m going to get a mark for it and that’s it.  It’s a lot more rewarding to know what you’re learning can be applied.” 

She appreciates the work she’s done at Environment Canada, especially because of how important the results of the research are for the areas they’re testing.  “It’s very important for the people living around those areas.  Obviously people would like to know if the water they’re swimming in is contaminated.”   Sorina will be spending her third consecutive work term at Environment Canada during the Spring 2013 term. 

For the full version of this article, check out the Winter 2013 Inside sCo-op newsletter.

Last Week’s Question:  45 % of you guessed correctly! There are 5 co-op programs within the Applied Health Sciences Faculty (Health Studies, Kinesiology, Rec & Leisure studies, Recreation & Sport Business, Therapeutic Recreation).   Congratulations to this week’s winner Rebecca Little, Knowledge Integration Student

This Week’s Question: Sorina’s job at Environment Canada falls under the Federal Government Public Administration category of employers.  What percent of Waterloo’s total employers is represented by Federal Government Public Administration? Hint check out this infographic.  Take a guess and enter to win an umbrella!

 

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OND conference tomorrow

The 2013 Opportunities and New Directions conference takes place tomorrow, focused on the theme "Barriers and Breakthroughs: Accounts of Change in Teaching and Learning." This year's conference, the fifth of its kind, "will explore challenges and successes experienced in the classroom," writes Julie Timmermans. "A diverse selection of panels, presentations, posters, and workshops from across the disciplines will be featured."

The full conference program is available on the conference website.

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Midweek morsels

The Leadership Innovation Conference, a two-day invite-only event for business leaders, academics and policymakers wrapped up yesterday. The second day of the conference had a focus on quantum computing and young entrepreneurs. The highlight was a keynote address by BlackBerry co-founder Mike Lazaridis and an afternoon panel discussion entitled "Why Will Quantum Information Science Transform Society?" featuring Lazaridis, David Cory, Raymond Laflamme, Jon Gertner, and Neil Turok. Details about the event can found found on Storify and pictures are on the university's Facebook page.

According to the City of Waterloo's website and signs posted recently, Phillip Street will be undergoing some more reconstruction in the coming weeks. Phillip will be closed from University Avenue to Columbia Street on April 29 at 7:00 a.m. and remain closed until July 5 (hey, my birthday!) at 5:00 p.m. The City promises that access to local business and residents will be maintained during the construction, though access to the plazas will be available from University Ave. only. Suggested detours for those travelling northbound will be to take University to Albert and then Columbia, while southbound traffic will be routed from Columbia to Albert to University.

You may recall that Phillip Street was closed for a lengthy period starting last September while improvements were made.

 

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