Academic Dishonesty
At UJ, we operate in an atmosphere of mutual trust between and among instructors and students. Sometimes this trust is violated through the intentional or accidental misrepresentation of facts, ideas, or data by members of the academic community. Such misrepresentations are violations of the Academic Integrity Policy. There are three main types of violations: cheating, inappropriate collaboration, and plagiarism.
Cheating involves the misrepresentation of knowledge or experience. For example, if students use unauthorized materials during an examination (for instance, by looking at other students’ exams, obtaining the questions in advance, and so on) they are falsely representing themselves as having recalled material or reasoned correctly, when, in fact, they did not. If students fake the data in a laboratory experiment, they are falsely suggesting that they acquired information in accordance with prescribed procedures.
Inappropriate collaboration involves presenting academic work as one’s independent effort when it includes significant elements of the work of others. When important ideas or actual phrasings in an academic work belong to an unnamed colleague, misrepresentation has occurred. It is dishonest for one student to write some or all of another student’s paper or presentation. It is equally wrong for one student to develop key ideas for a project that is represented as the work of another. Inappropriate collaboration is a violation for which both or all parties will be held accountable.
Plagiarism involves both theft and cheating. When someone appropriates, for use in formal course work, the wording, phrasing, or ideas of another, an either accidentally or intentionally fails to acknowledge the debt, it is considered theft. Plagiarism is also cheating in that one is creating a false impression about one’s own intelligence, ability, and achievement. If students are unsure about what constitutes plagiarism, they should seek help from their instructors, the Writing Center, and refer to appropriate handbooks.