Academic dishonesty is a serious offense and is therefore
subject to an appropriate disciplinary action. Violations will be reviewed by a
hearing body in accordance with the procedure stated in the Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences Student
Rights, Responsibilities, and Disciplinary Procedures policy. This body, known as the Student Affairs Committee, will assess the nature and severity of the
violation(s) and then recommend appropriate action to the dean of the Rutgers
School of Public Health.
Definitions
Some ways in which academic honesty can be violated are
discussed below. The comments and examples within each section provide
explanations and illustrative material, but do not necessarily exhaust the
scope of these violations.
1. Stealing: Stealing is defined here as taking
something without right or permission, usually in a surreptitious way, e.g., to
take another student's personal belongings, or to take equipment from a university building for personal use.
2. Fabrication: Fabrication is the falsification or invention of any
information or citation in an academic exercise. Invented information may not
be used in any laboratory experiment or other academic exercise without
authorization from the instructor. It is improper, for example, to analyze one
sample in an experiment and covertly invent data based on that single
experiment for several more required analyses. The student must also
acknowledge reliance upon the actual source from which cited information was
obtained. A writer should not, for example, reproduce a quotation from a book
review and indicate that the quotation was obtained from the book itself.
3. Plagiarism: Plagiarism is the representation of the works or ideas of
another as one's own in any academic exercise. To avoid plagiarism, every
direct quotation must be identified by quotation marks or by appropriate
indentation and must be promptly cited in the text or in a footnote.
Acknowledgement is required when material from another source stored in print,
electronic, or other medium is paraphrased or summarized in whole or in part in
one's own words. To acknowledge a paraphrase properly, one might state: "to
paraphrase Plato's comment..." and conclude with a footnote identifying the
exact reference. A footnote acknowledging only a direct quoted statement does
not suffice to notify the reader of any preceding or succeeding paraphrased
material. Information that is common knowledge, such as names of leaders of
prominent nations, basic scientific laws, etc., need not be footnoted; however,
all facts or information obtained in reading or research that are not common
knowledge among students in the course must be acknowledged. In addition to
materials specifically cited in the text, only materials that contribute to
one's general understanding of the subject may be acknowledged in the
bibliography. Plagiarism can, in some cases, be a subtle issue. Any questions
about what constitutes plagiarism should be discussed with the faculty member.
4. Denying Others Access to Information or Material: It is a violation of academic
integrity to deny others access to scholarly resources or to deliberately
impede the progress of another student or scholar. Examples of offenses of this
type include giving other students false or misleading information; making
library material unavailable to others by stealing or defacing books or
journals or by deliberately misplacing or destroying reserve materials; or
altering computer files that belong to another.
5. Cheating: Cheating is the use of inappropriate and unacknowledged
materials, information, or study aids in any academic exercise. The use of
books, notes, calculators, and conversation with others is restricted or
forbidden in certain academic exercises. Their use in these cases constitutes
cheating. Similarly, students must not request others (including commercial
term paper companies) to conduct research or prepare any work for them, nor may
they submit identical work or portions thereof for credit or honors more than
once without prior approval of the instructor.
Offenses and Sanctions
The violations and suggested disciplinary actions cited below
are merely illustrations of situations and are not to be considered
all-inclusive. The description of these violations and sanctions is by no means
binding. The dean will always make the final decision on any violation, which
may or may not adhere to the guidelines set forth below. In all cases brought
before the hearing body, there is the possibility that the charge(s) will be
dismissed and no further action will be taken. Since adherence to a code of
conduct can be seen as a function of socialization into the group whose norms
are reflected in such a code, culpability may be assessed differentially for
those with more and less experience as members of the academic community; thus,
violations of academic integrity by advanced graduate students will presumably
be penalized more severely than violations by first semester students. Examples
are cited below for each level of violation. These examples, too, are
illustrations and are not to be considered all-inclusive.
A. Level One Violations
Level one violations may occur because of inexperience or lack
of knowledge of principles of academic integrity on the part of persons
committing the violation. These violations are likely to involve a small
fraction of the total coursework, are not extensive, and/or occur on a minor
assignment.
Examples:
- Working
with another student on a laboratory or other homework assignment when such
work is prohibited.
- Failure
to footnote or give proper acknowledgement in an extremely limited section of
an assignment.
Recommended Sanctions: Sanctions for level one violations
are listed below; one of these may be chosen in each case:
- Required
attendance in a noncredit workshop or seminar on ethics or related subjects.
- An
assigned paper or research project on a relevant topic.
- A
make-up assignment at a more difficult level than the original assignment.
- A
recommendation to the instructor that no credit be given for the original
assignment.
Records: Records of students who commit level one offenses will
be kept on file until graduation, at which point they will be removed.
B. Level Two Violations
Level two violations are characterized by dishonesty of a more
serious character or which affects a more significant aspect or portion of the
coursework.
Examples:
- Quoting
directly or paraphrasing, to a moderate extent, without acknowledging the
source.
- Submitting
the same work or major portions thereof to satisfy the requirements of more
than one course without permission from the instructors.
- Using
data or interpretive material for a laboratory report without acknowledging the
sources or the collaborators.
Recommended Sanctions: The recommended sanction for level
two violations is academic dishonesty probation. In cases of academic
dishonesty involving out-of-class assignments, the panel may recommend a
failing grade for the assignment involved and the grade in the course will be
determined in the normal manner. However, cheating on a take-home final
examination would normally carry a recommended penalty that the faculty member
fail the student in the course, as well as academic dishonesty probation. The
student will remain on probation for the remainder of the semester in which the
violation occurs; should the violation occur after the10th week of a
semester, the sanction will be in force during the semester of enrollment
before the awarding of the degree. The transcript will carry a notation of a disciplinary
offense for a period not to exceed one semester. Notation of "academic
dishonesty probation" will be placed on the student's transcript and will
remain for the period in which the sanction is in force.
Records: Records of students who commit
level two offenses will be kept on file until graduation or until a date
specified in the sanction.
C. Level Three Violations
Level three violations are those that go beyond level one or
two. Level three violations include dishonesty that affects a major or
essential portion of work done to meet course requirements or that involves premeditation,
or that is preceded by one or more violations at levels one and two.
Examples:
- Copying
on hourlies or final examinations.
- Plagiarizing
major portions of a written assignment.
- Acting
to facilitate copying during an exam.
- Using
prohibited materials, e.g., books, notes, or calculators during an examination.
- Conspiring
before an exam to develop methods of exchanging information and implementation thereof.
- Altering
examinations for the purposes of regrading.
- Acquiring
or distributing an examination from unauthorized sources prior to the
examination.
- Presenting
the work of another as one's own.
- Using
purchased term papers or other materials.
- Removing
posted or reserved material, or preventing other students from having access to
it.
- Fabricating
data by inventing or deliberately altering material (this includes citing sources that are not, in fact, sources of borrowed material).
- Using
unethical or improper means of acquiring data.
Recommended Sanctions: The sanction typically to be sought
for all level three violations or repeated violations of level one and two
offenses is a minimum of a one semester suspension from the university.
Records: Notation of "academic disciplinary
suspension" will be placed on a student's transcript and remain for the
designated period.
D. Level Four Violations
Level four violations represent the most serious breaches of
academic integrity.
Examples:
- All
academic infractions committed after return from suspension for a previous
honesty violation.
- Infractions
of academic honesty in ways similar to criminal activity (such as forging of a
grade form, stealing an examination from a professor or from a university office or buying an examination, or falsifying a transcript to secure entry
into the university or to change the record of work done at the university).
- Having
a substitute take an examination or taking an examination for someone else.
- Fabrication
of evidence, falsification of data, quoting directly or paraphrasing without
acknowledging the source, and/or presenting the ideas of another as one's own
in a senior thesis, within a master's thesis or doctoral dissertation, in scholarly
articles submitted to referred journals, or in other work represented as one's
own as a graduate student.
- Sabotaging
another student's work through actions designed to prevent the student from
successfully completing an assignment.
- Willful
violation of a canon of the ethical code of the profession for which a graduate
student is preparing shall be considered a "heinous act" under the University
Student Disciplinary Hearing Procedure and shall be prosecuted accordingly.
Recommended Sanctions: The typical sanction for all level
four violations and a repeat infraction at level three is permanent expulsion
from the Rutgers School of Public Health.
Records: Notation
of "academic disciplinary separation" will be placed on a student's transcript
and remain permanently.