CARBONDALE, ILL. (AP) -- A Southern Illinois University panel's findings that plagiarism can be unintentional could bolster the defense of SIU's president as he fights plagiarism claims.

Glenn Poshard is accused of plagiarizing parts of his 1974 master's thesis and 1984 doctoral dissertation at the Carbondale school.

Poshard has insisted he mistakenly may have left out some citations but didn't plagiarize.

An SIU panel created last year to scrutinize the university's plagiarism policy released a report this week that says plagiarism may be inadvertent or unintended. One reason is that the writer may be unfamiliar with citation protocols.

The panel's chairman says releasing the report while the flap over Poshard festers was purely coincidental. He says most of the report already was done by the time the allegations surfaced.

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