FARGO - A North Dakota State University committee has cleared a history professor of plagiarism allegations.

The three-member panel concluded that "bogus citations" in a book written by Claire Strom weren't intentional and didn't violate the university's academic misconduct policy.

The four-page report released on Thursday found that Strom, an assistant history professor, used proper attribution for her sources, "using the standard common to most historical journals and books."

Suzzanne Kelley, a graduate history student at NDSU, accused Strom of 25 instances of "bogus citations" in attributing sources for her book, "Profiting from the Plains: The Great Northern Railway and Corporate Development of the American West," published in 2003.

In October, NDSU administrators asked for an external review of Kelley's allegations from John Wunder, a University of Nebraska history professor.

In his review, Wunder found 14 improper citations. He also concluded that five examples of borrowing phrases without proper quotation or attribution qualified as plagiarism according to the standards of the American Historical Association.

"This is not a case of plagiarism that uses another's work without attribution," Wunder wrote in his review. "Attribution is given, but it is oftentimes false attribution."

The NDSU reviewers disagreed with Wunder. Panel members were Michael Garrison, professor of management, marketing and finance; Marcia McMullen, professor of plant pathology; and Dale Redmer, professor of animal and range sciences.

The review panel emphasized that NDSU's academic misconduct policy doesn't include "honest error."

"There is absolutely no evidence that Dr. Strom had the necessary intent to pass off another author's work as her own," the NDSU reviewers wrote.