Plagiarism and Academic Integrity at UC Merced

“Academic integrity is a fundamental cornerstone of any academic community. In many ways, the perceptions about the quality of an institution and the value of its degrees are based on the belief that graduates earned their diploma honestly and that faculty certified that graduates have knowledge and skills learned through rigorous work guided by high standards of excellence.  Inherent in such an article of faith is a belief that a student’s work was honest and that each one did it [him/herself].”

“Fostering Academic Integrity at Rutgers.”  Center for Teaching Advancement and Assessment Research, Rutgers University, New Brunswick Campus. http://ctaar.rutgers.edu/integrity/faculty.html [link not working]

Academic dishonesty is:

• Any form of dishonesty perpetrated by a student or researcher in the course of customary academic endeavor; and
• Any offense committed against the integrity and good name of the institution within which the offense takes place.

In other words: Academic dishonesty has a specific geographic locus.

• Lying/deception
  • Claiming to have submitted work that you didn't submit
  • Making up a reason for missing a deadline
  • Lying to an instructor about the reason for a class absence
     
• Cheating
  • Sharing information with a classmate during an exam or in an exam situation
  • Copying someone else's work and submitting it as your own
  • Purchasing an essay, term paper, or other document from an online paper mill or other provider. This includes paying someone to write your paper or assigment
  • Collusion: conspiring with another student to cheat
     
• Fabrication
  • Making up information or research
  • Falsifying results on a test, survey, or study
     
• Sabotage
  • Destroying someone else's work to give yourself an advantage
  • Destroying resources so that someone else can't profit from them
     
• Plagiarism (read this guide for more)