Plagiarism and Academic Integrity

Cheating – Attempting to use or using unauthorized material or information as study aids in any academic exercise. Visually or verbally receiving or giving information during tests, quizzes, examinations, when not specifically allowed by the instructor, is a form of unauthorized assistance and is defined as cheating.

Counterfeit work – Includes work submitted as one’s own that was created, researched, or produced, in whole or in part, by someone else. Turning in a report of another’s research, submitting a paper researched or written by someone else, having someone else take a test, and submitting joint projects as solely one’s own, are all forms of counterfeit work and are unacceptable.

Falsification of academic records – Knowingly and improperly changing grades on transcripts, grade sheets, electronic data sheets, related documents, academic reports, tests and projects is an act violating academic integrity.

Falsification of data or creation of false data – Falsification or fabrication of data in research or experimental procedures is considered an act of violation of academic integrity.

Plagiarism – Includes presenting as one’s work the work of someone else without properly acknowledging the source (in work, for example, for specific class assignments or for submissions to campus publications). Plagiarism is theft: using the words and ideas of another person as if they were one’s own. Exact copying should be enclosed in quotation marks and be appropriately documented in footnotes or endnotes that indicate the source of the quotation. Paraphrasing, when the basic sentence structure, phraseology, and unique language remain the same, is also plagiarism. When in doubt about these matters, it is the student’s responsibility to seek guidance from the instructor of the course prior to submitting material for course credit.

Theft – Communicating all or any part of tests or answer sheets, specifically prepared for a given course and as yet not used or publicly released by the instructor of a course, and theft of completed tests constitute violations of academic integrity.

Unauthorized reuse of work – Submitting the same work to more than one class without consent of the instructors involved constitutes a violation of academic integrity.

Taken from the 2019-2020 edition of The Cord, The St. Francis College Student Handbook & Academic Planner.