Contents
Catalog Links

Violations of Academic Integrity

Breaches of academic integrity include, but are not limited to, the following:

  1. Cheating—this includes copying, or claiming as one’s own, the work of another student with or without his or her knowledge, and with or without subsequent revision; and the use of any unauthorized notes, crib sheets, or other written or electronic aids in exams or quizzes. Cheating includes ghost writing, submitting under the name of one author written work that was done by another author.
  2. Plagiarism—inadequately acknowledging intellectual debts, either intentionally or unintentionally, in written work. This includes failure to document facts, ideas, wording, or organization taken from a source. It includes what some people call “mosaic plagiarism” which involves paraphrasing too closely to the original wording, that is, providing documentation of the source but either not using quotation marks to indicate borrowing of the author’s wording, or altering the source’s wording but not its sentence structure. It also includes failure to acknowledge informal debts for helpful suggestions— acknowledgement such as professional scholars often make in a footnote or a prefatory statement (e.g., “I am gratefully indebted to Rita Johnson for suggesting this overall direction of inquiry”). The basic principle governing documentation is that anything— facts, ideas, wording, or organization—that is not common knowledge and is not original to the author should be documented. In doubtful cases, providing too much documentation is better than providing too little.
  3. Unauthorized collaboration—any academic work on a specific assignment by more than one student without the prior approval of the instructor. Acceptable collaboration varies widely from professor to professor and from one assignment to another. Students must take responsibility to determine whether or not a collaborative effort is appropriate.
  4. Fabrication—knowingly presenting false information in oral, written or artistic work, such as faked data in lab reports, falsified bibliographic citations, etc. It includes misrepresentation of academic records or credentials.
  5. Unauthorized multiple submission—this includes simultaneous submission of the same piece of work in two courses without the prior approval of both instructors, as well as turning in any assignment for which one has already received credit, without the prior approval of the later instructor. The instructor receiving the later submission should have the opportunity to confer with the earlier instructor about the assignment and to determine whether the multiple submissions are appropriate.
  6. Abuse of academic materials—destroying, losing, defacing or damaging intellectual resources that belong to someone else. Examples include defacing library materials; introducing viruses to college computers or erasing operational files from them; and abusing instructional tools, equipment, or materials.
  7. Electronic dishonesty—this goes beyond plagiarism or fabrication from electronic sources. It includes inappropriate access to network files, accounts, or resources; knowingly spreading viruses; disabling computer hardware or software; software piracy; etc.
  8. Unauthorized alteration or forgery of documents and records—this includes such things as forging an advisor’s signature or altering the information to which the signature is appended, altering an exam response and then requesting a review of the grade, or altering academic records.
  9. Facilitation of academic dishonesty—knowingly helping someone else commit an act of academic dishonesty. This includes knowing of an instance of academic dishonesty and not disclosing it.
  10. Failure to secure IRB and/or IACUC approval for human and animal research—research projects involving human participants and animal subjects are required by federal law to undergo review and approval by the Institutional Research Board (for human participants, including questionnaire surveys) and the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (for animal subjects).

It is the responsibility of all members of the Maryville College community—students, faculty, staff, and administration—to familiarize themselves with the violations defined above. Students should understand that they have a special responsibility to the community to uphold the standard of conduct for themselves and for their classmates. This includes a responsibility to help ensure that breaches of academic integrity do not remain undiscovered. Faculty must accept the unique responsibility that they have for clearly defining, in course syllabi and assignments, the parameters of legitimate collaboration and any other areas in which the boundaries of academic integrity may be unclear. The administration has a responsibility to assist in the fair and timely implementation of standards and sanctions.