Infringements of academic integrity are among the most serious offenses that students can commit. Any contravention may result in consequences at both the course and institutional levels. Procedures, rulings, and penalties for violations of academic integrity may depend on specific circumstances, such as the student's grade level, educational background, prior violation of academic integrity attempts made to cite or acknowledge sources, and the amount and type of work at issue.
Breaches of principles and practices of academic integrity fall into two subcategories: (1) plagiarism and misuse of sources and (2) cheating.
Plagiarism and Misuse of Sources
Plagiarism is the use of material(s) without proper attribution of someone else's words, ideas, or other work as if it were one's own. Failure to properly indicate and acknowledge others' work can lead a reader, listener, or viewer to think that information, research, ideas, words, images, data, artistic and creative elements, or other work are the student's efforts when they are not. Plagiarism significantly deviates from accepted standards in the academic community and misrepresents self to others into thinking the work is the student's own.
Misuse of sources, like plagiarism, reflects a failure to credit others' work appropriately but involves errors, mistakes, incomplete or inadequate attempts, and other errors in the citation, quotation, and attribution that would not seriously mislead others into thinking the work is the student's own. Plagiarism and misuse of sources carry different penalties, as described in Leighton University's Academic Integrity Policy.
The obligation to give credit for material that would not meet the criteria as common knowledge applies to almost all types of assignments and conditions, not just papers, and not only to finished work but also tendered drafts. Work in which students must recognize sources and the contributions of others includes but is not limited to both works in progress and final versions of the following:
- Websites and pages, webcasts, and other multimedia work.
- Talks speeches and other oral presentations, whether audio or video.
- Presentation slides, Visual aids, or other media tools.
- Artistic, oratories, musical, and other creative work.
- Lab sheets and reports
- Thesis chapters, proposals, papers, literature reviews, abstracts, reviews, annotated bibliographies, and other writing
- Exams, including in-class and take-home exams.
Cheating
Cheating includes violating recognized norms for academic inquiry or specific norms instituted by faculty for particular assignments or using other methods to gain unearned academic advantage. Examples of cheating include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Unauthorized collaboration.
- Use materials not permitted during the administration of an exam, in the writing of a paper, or in completing other in clas or out-of-class assignments.
- Receive assistance from someone else other than the course instructor beyond what is permitted.
- Manufacturing or falsifying data.
- Submitting previously submitted work in another course to satisfy the requirements of two different courses without getting permission from the instructor of the second course or permission from both instructors if the same work is submitted in two courses during a single semester.
- Knowingly assist with any kind to another person who is attempting to cheat or plagiarize.