Categories and Definitions Explaining What Constitutes Academic Dishonesty

Cheating on Quizzes, Tests, and Examinations

Individual or group activity for the purpose of dishonestly obtaining and/or distributing testable information prior to, during, or after an examination. Examples of dishonest activities include, but are not limited to, the following:

  1. Looking at an examination paper or answer sheet of another student.
  2. Obtaining, prior to the administration of a test, unauthorized information regarding the test.
  3. Possessing or distributing a test prior to its administration.
  4. Using any unauthorized materials or equipment during an examination.
  5. Cooperating or aiding in any of the above.

Plagiarism

Any attempt to represent the words or ideas of another (whether published or unpublished) as one’s own. Examples of such activities include, but are not limited to, the following:

  1. Using the words of a published source in a written assignment without appropriate documentation.
  2. Presenting as one’s own the ideas and/or arguments from another source, including an Internet source.
  3. Using ChatGPT or other AI composition software to impersonate individual assignments.

Alteration of Academic Records

Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  1. Changing documentation in the Records Office (by computer or any other means).
  2. Changing entries in an instructor’s grade book.
  3. Changing an answer to an already-graded academic exercise in order to falsely negotiate for a higher grade.

Reusing Work Done for Another Course

Work produced for one course cannot be used to satisfy an assignment in another course. If work in one course is used to inform part of an assignment in another course (e.g., building on previous research), the student must cite his or her work in the same way as any other source.

Sabotage

Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  1. Stealing, destroying, or altering another’s academic work.
  2. Hiding, misshelving, mutilating, or otherwise abusing library materials to keep others from using them.

Substitution

Using a proxy, or acting as proxy in an academic exercise. Examples of substitution include, but are not limited to, the following:

  1. Taking an examination for another student.
  2. Doing homework assignments for another student.