A first year student is taking a health class. Part of the assignment for the course is that she has to write
down what she eats every day, the amount of exercise she does every day and add up the calories consumed and
used at the end of the week. She has to do this for 5 weeks of the term. The calorie diary counts as 30% of
her grade so it's important.
She does really well the first week and watches what she eats very carefully. But by the middle of the second
week, she's not so careful anymore. She went to a friend's house and ate some pizza and other junk food and
she's embarrassed to write it in her diary, so she just leaves it out. By the end of the third week, she has
stopped entering her calories altogether.
Now it's week 5, her food diary is due tomorrow, and she is panicking. If she does not turn her food diary
in, she won't pass the class. She goes to the online diary and enters the things she remembers eating but
leaves some out and adds some others so it looks "about right." She hits the submit button and moves on to
her next project.
Is this a case of academic misconduct?
What kind of academic misconduct is it?
This is Falsification. The student made up the data. Even though she did try to remember
what she had done, it's not an honest representation of her work.
Outcome:
The instructor goes through the online diaries of the students and reviews the
contents. Each entry has a timestamp. He notices that the student's entries for 3 weeks were all entered on
the same day, one right after the other. He calls the student into his office and points out that all the
entries were made the night before the due date. The student denies it at first saying she noted everything
on paper and then entered everything online. The instructor notes that the student entered the same menus
several days in a row. He tells the student this is considered falsification.
A student is frantically finishing up a research paper. He has a whole stack of printed articles and web
pages that he is using to support his research. He has spent a lot of time on this research paper and really
wants to make it good. He also needs to submit the paper tomorrow because he has several exams to study for.
He's working on a very important part of the paper but he can't find the article that has the data on low
income housing shortages he wants to use.
He remembers reading about it and has some of the information in his notes but he didn't write all of it down
and now he can't find the article again. Glancing at the clock, he realizes he only has a few hours to
finish this paper and submit it. He decides to add in the data he can't find because he's pretty sure he
remembers it correctly. He cites the paper and adds the citation to his works cited. He finishes the paper
and submits it.
Is this a case of academic misconduct?
What kind of academic misconduct is it?
This is Falsification. The student did not accurately report the data from the article that
he used. Even though he tried to provide the right data, he failed to take good notes and ended up making up
the numbers.
Outcome:The instructor reading this student's paper is very impressed so far. He even used a
very recent research report on low income housing that was published on the internet that the instructor did
not know about. Curious, the instructor looks up the report and glances through it. She notices that the
numbers the student used in the paper are different than what is in the report. They are not very different,
but not exactly the same. The instructor wonders why. She calls the student into her office and shows him
the online reports and the paper. She points out that this is falsification. The student protests that he
did not make up this data, he just misremembered it and could not find the article. If he had, he would have
used the data from the article. He does not think that this is such a big deal. The instructor informs him
that it is indeed a big deal as the data is not accurate and this is called falsification.
After receiving a math midterm back from the instructor...
A student is disappointed because he didn't do well on the exam. After class, a friend of his asks how he did
on the midterm. He says, "I studied a lot, but I got a very low score. I'm not sure what I did wrong." Both
students compare their solutions on the midterm to see what he did wrong.
That night, the student takes out his midterm, erases some of his original work, and instead writes down the
correct formula and solution on the midterm test. He goes to his professor's office hours the next day and
explains that he thinks some of his solutions were graded incorrectly and would like the test to be
re-graded.
Is this a case of academic misconduct?
What kind of academic misconduct is it?
This is Tampering. The student changed his answers after the exam was graded.
Outcome:
The instructor generally circles solutions to problems and the work students
show to get those solutions while grading tests. When the student shows the instructor his test, the
instructor notices that the student's solutions don't fit inside the circles. The instructor points this out
to the student and asks what happened. The student admits that he had corrected some of his solutions on the
test after it was graded, but insists that the new solutions are all his own work. The instructor explains
that this is considered tampering. The grade was given based on the knowledge the student demonstrated at
the time of the test. By changing the answers after the test is over, the student has committed a type of
academic misconduct. The instructor files an Academic Misconduct report
A student is sending a transcript (a record of her coursework and grades at Oregon State) to a local business
for a potential internship. She really wants this internship but she learns from the internship description
that there are some skills she would need that she does not have.
She will take some of those classes in the coming quarter but that won't show on her transcript until the end
of the year. She goes online and requests a PDF copy of her transcript. Using a scanner and some software,
she adds the courses she has not yet taken to the transcript. She WILL be taking them next quarter so she
really will have the experience when it's important.
Is this a case of academic misconduct?
What kind of academic misconduct is it?
This is Tampering. The student changed the record of her studies. It does not matter if she
plans on taking the classes, she has not taken them yet so this is not a true record of her work.
Outcome:
The internship coordinator is looking over the resumes and transcripts. One in
particular catches his eye. The student has a lot of courses listed but the number of credits just does not
add up. The font for some of the classes is a little different. The internship coordinator calls up the
university with his concerns. The registrar asks for a faxed copy of the transcript so he can verify it. The
registrar calls the Dean of the college and informs her of what has happened. The student gets called to the
Dean's office. She asks the student to look at the record of her grades online and the forged transcript and
explain the difference between the two. The student can't and admits she added those classes but insists she
is planning on taking them. The Dean informs her that this is considered tampering since the student has
changed an official university document and there will be serious consequences. The student is referred to
Student Conduct, and she does not get the internship.
Two friends are in the same health class. One of the students has had a bad cold and needs to miss several
classes while he's sick.
In each class meeting, students are required to answer questions with a clicker to show that they are
attending and doing their reading. Participation points on the clicker questions are factored into the final
grade for the course. The friends are both hard-working students and want to earn high grades. He's worried
about losing points on clicker questions because he has missed too many classes. His friend offers to take
his clicker to class so he can record the student's attendance.
Is this a case of academic misconduct?
What kind of academic misconduct is it?
This is Assisting. The student who took the clicker is helping another student be dishonest.
The student who gave his clicker to another student to take attendance is cheating. Both students are
committing academic misconduct.
Outcome:
A teaching assistant (TA) sees a student using 2 clickers to answer the
questions in class. He speaks to the student and collects the student's name and both clicker registration
numbers. The student protests that he is just helping his friend who is sick, but the TA explains that the
syllabus clearly states that students cannot answer clicker questions for another student. Later that week,
the health professor schedules a meeting with both students and explains that because the student who was in
class was using a clicker that did not belong to him, both of the students had engaged in academic
misconduct. As a result, both students lost their participation points for that day.
A student majoring in chemistry is nearing the end of the term and has put off starting a literature review
paper for a history class, which comprises 40% of the term's grade.
The student is very good at math and science subjects, but struggles at reading comprehension and writing.
Since the assignment is worth so much, failing it could cause him to fail the class. He has learned from a
friend about a website where you can purchase pre-written college papers. He looks into it and finds a
website that will write you an "A" paper for $25 per page. He decided that $200 for the paper is better than
the cost of taking the course again.
Within a couple of days, he had his completed paper sent to him, which he turns in to his instructor.
Is this a case of academic misconduct?
What kind of academic misconduct is it?
This is Cheating. Purchasing a paper can sometimes be tempting, especially when you are
under a lot of pressure, but it will get you into trouble.
Outcome:
The instructor notices a significant discrepancy in the writing style and
quality of this paper in comparison to previous assignments. The instructor initiates a conversation with
the student to complement the work and to learn what the student did to improve his writing so quickly. The
student does not have an answer. Noticing this, the instructor asks a few questions about the paper and what
his thoughts are about a couple details of the topic. The student hesitantly provides a brief answer which
contradicts some of the statements in the paper. At this point, the instructor questions if the student did
the assignment on his own. The student continues to falsely claim the he completed the paper on his own
without any assistance. Based on the fact that the student did not have an understanding of the subject or
the material in the paper, the instructor concludes that he did not write the paper and therefore is
responsible for cheating. He does not get credit for the paper and therefore fails the class. The office of
Student Conduct and Community Standards reviews the report and determines that this is a very serious
violation of the Code. He didn't write the paper himself and he continued to mislead the instructor by
claiming to have written it. The case was forwarded to the SCCS committee to determine if the student should
face further discipline from the university.
Two undergraduate students decide to do a report on the same topic for their business class.
They know that their work had to be their own, but they do not see the harm in working together to find some
of the information. There isn't anything in a syllabus that says they can't work together. They share the
sources they found with one another and follow the same formatting for their reports. They purposely refuse
to show their papers to each other so they will not be accused of cheating. However, because they'd
discussed the information they want to use, and they chose the same sources, their final papers appear to be
very similar.
Is this a case of academic misconduct?
What kind of academic misconduct is it?
This is Cheating. Even though the students were very careful not to share their written
work, they did use the same sources which they found working together. They did not do their own work. If
the syllabus does not say if you can or cannot work in a group, check with your instructor.
Outcome:
The student grader for the class noticed that the two students had chosen the
same information for their report and had also listed the same sources in their bibliography section. The
content included in the report was nearly the same in the two papers. The instructor of the class was
notified, and he told the students that he had to file an Academic Misconduct report against them for
cheating and assisting on the report assignment. The consequences included a loss of 30 points and 10% on
the assignment, as well as taking an online course for Academic Misconduct.
Several computer science students are taking an introductory course in software coding. They like to work
together and the professor has encouraged them to work in groups, although he has cautioned them not to copy
each other's work on assignments.
One of the students in the study group has to leave early but leaves a draft of his homework assignment so
the other group members can get an idea of what steps he took to complete the assignment. Another student in
the group does not quite understand how the code should be written. Instead of looking at the assignment for
guidance on what steps to take, he and ends up just copying large portions from the other student's
answers.
Is this a case of academic misconduct?
What kind of academic misconduct is it?
This is Cheating. In many cases, it's OK to talk to your classmates about a strategy for
solving a problem, but you cannot take portions of another's student's work and use it, even if you think
you would do it the same way. You need to do the work yourself. The student who left his draft homework may
also get into trouble for assisting even if he thinks he was just trying to help his friends.
Outcome:
The instructor for the course is reviewing the homework assignment. He notices
that one student has big chunks of code that are correct but then other similar types of code that are
incorrect and don't really make sense. He compares the correct chunks with some of the other students' work
and discovers some significant similarities between this student and another student. He calls them both
into his office. The first student denies having assisted anyone but does admit that he left the draft of
his response for others to see just to give them some ideas. He never said to any of them that they could
copy his work. The other student admits to having copied large portions of the homework. The instructor lets
them know that this is cheating and assisting. Both students are found responsible for academic misconduct
and get no points for the homework.
While conducting research, a student reads the following paragraph in the Journal of the American Academy of
Business, titled: "Patent Rights, Mergers and Entrepreneurship in the Biotechnology Industry of Sweden"
written by Wali I. Mondal and Juan España in 2006.
Sweden has a unique law regarding grant of patent
rights that has made the country a leader in the area of biotechnology inventions. The international merger
of drug companies Pharmacia from Sweden and Upjohn from the U.S. in 1995 as well as the 1999 merger of drug
firms Astra from Sweden with the British company Zeneca sparked a growth of Swedish biotechnology research
by displacing thousands of Swedes from the merged companies. On a per capita basis, Sweden has the most
biotech-intensive economy in the world.
The student includes the following sentence in his paper,
In the mid-nineties two separate mergers of big
international pharmaceutical companies resulted in the lay-offs of many Swedish biotech workers.
He feels
he's used his own words so he does not cite the source in his paper but does include it in the works cited.
Is this a case of academic misconduct?
What kind of academic misconduct is it?
This is Plagiarism. When you use another source, even if you use your own words, you need to
say where you got the information. This is called citing your sources.
Outcome:
The instructor invites the student into her office and says, "You need to cite
your source. This is plagiarizing." The student replies, "But, I paraphrased and used my own words; I didn't
use the same words as the author." The instructor replies, "Whether you use a direct quote, or paraphrase,
you got the information from another source and you must cite it." Citing gives credit to the author and
also shows that you have written your paper using expert research, not just your opinion. In this case, the
student receives a 0 on the assignment.
A student is taking two courses. One is BIO 301 (Human Impacts on Ecosystems) and the other is BIO 306
(Environmental Ecology).
Both courses have a theme of sustainability and both require a research paper.
He does a really good job with his BIO 301 paper, which is due first, and receives a very high grade. Because
he got a good grade and the topic is very similar to the one for BIO 306, he makes a few minor changes to
the paper and submits it for his BIO 306 class. After all, he wrote the paper. It's all his work so he
should be able to hand it in for both classes.
Is this a case of academic misconduct?
What kind of academic misconduct is it?
This is Plagiarism. You cannot take a paper and hand it in to two different classes. It
sounds strange but this is considered "self-plagiarism." Your instructors expect you to do original work for
each class.
Outcome:
Professor Lee and Professor Rickman from the Biology Department are having
coffee to talk about the curriculum, when Professor Lee mentions a really good paper one of his students
turned in. Professor Rickman notes that it sounds a lot like a paper she received in her course. They
discover that it is the same student and essentially the same paper. The student is called in for a meeting
with both professors. The student protests that it is his work and he did not do anything wrong. Professor
Rickman points out that handing in the same paper for two different classes is considered plagiarism.The
student gets a failing grade on the paper for both classes, and the case is reported to the Office of
Student Conduct and Community Standards. The student is required to complete an online course and have a
follow-up meeting with that office.
A first-year student is having a lot of trouble managing his time lately. He decides to get all of his
unfinished homework done by using an entire weekend to complete it.
On Sunday, he realizes that he underestimated how much time he needed to get all his homework done and starts
to panic. He tries to finish as much as he can.
He finds a version of his math instructor's solution manual. He had no idea how to do his math homework and
decides to copy the solution from the manual. By doing so, he finally finished all the homework he planned
to do.
Is this a case of academic misconduct?
What kind of academic misconduct is it?
This is Cheating. Copying from a solutions manual or other guide that is not authorized by
the instructor is not permitted.
Outcome:
Though the student did copy the correct final solutions straight from the
solutions manual, he did not realize that the work shown in the manual for two of the problems contained
typographical errors where a "+" symbol was accidentally printed as a "-" symbol. When the teaching
assistant (TA) in the class was grading the student's homework, he recognized the first error the student
made and figured it was just one mistake. The TA then saw the second error made in the student's homework
and recognized both errors as the same errors in the solutions manual. The TA calls the student into his
office and notes the errors. He also reminds the student that the course syllabus specifically says "use of
a solution manual and/or any solved problems is not permitted." The TA reported the issue to the instructor
of the class who filed an academic misconduct report against the student, and gave him 0 points on the
assignment. This report for academic honesty is now on the student's record, he doesn't want it to ever
happen again.
You have completed the Graphical Scenarios
Students often plagiarize because they are unclear about the course expectations or because they have a lot
going on and did not plan well. Some students feel they are under a lot of pressure to succeed or are afraid
they won't do as well as their classmates. Sometimes, students commit academic misconduct without meaning to
because they are trying to help a friend. All of these are reasons why students engage in behavior that is
academically dishonest.
Giving credit when you use someone's ideas, words or images is an important strategy for avoiding academic
dishonesty. It's also important to know what is considered academic dishonesty at Oregon State so you can avoid
breaking rules. While it's great to want to help your friends, be careful that you don't end up doing their work
for them. Oregon State has many resources on campus to help you succeed academically.
There is nothing wrong with proofreading papers, especially since many professors encourage peer-editing groups
or peer-review partners but helping friends with academic assignments can put you at risk of violating rules in
the form of assisting. You need to be careful when you are "helping" or "peer-reviewing" someone's work.
Rewriting sections of a paper or making changes to the wording can quickly turn into doing someone's work for
them.
Instead of re-writing passages, ask questions or make notes in the margins to help your friend think about the
writing mechanics and the topic of the paper.
Academic dishonesty can have some serious consequences. It's important that you know and understand what these
are. It's more important that you talk to your instructors and professors and ask for help to make sure you
don't get into trouble in the first place.
This is called self-plagiarism. It might sound strange, but you cannot write a paper for one class and then hand
in the same paper or parts of the paper in another class. If you have a similar topic, try to find a new angle
or approach to the topic. The expectation of the class instructor is that original work will be created for each
assignment. Using part or all of one's own previously submitted work violates this rule.
The point of any test is to show what you have or have not learned. The grade you receive is based upon your
knowledge of the subject and/or how well you could explain an idea or course concept.
The copy of the test from your friend is considered an unauthorized study aid in this example. Unless materials
are specifically permitted for study use in the syllabus, using them is considered cheating.
Changing lab data is considered falsification. When doing lab work, write down the results that you actually
achieved and in your conclusion/source of errors, discuss why you got different information than you should
have. Your instructor wants to see the process you used and how you learned from it.
This depends on the expectations outlined by the instructor. Check your syllabus first for guidance. If you have
further questions ask the instructor. Do not make assumptions – assumptions are risky.
Here are a few questions to consider before working on a graded assignment in a group:
Is the instructor okay with you working on homework together?
Is it fair to your classmates that do the work by themselves?
If you turn in the same answers, would the professor consider this plagiarism or cheating?
If you are not sure, it is best to check with the instructor.
You can get in as much trouble for "assisting," as you can for cheating. Don't give your
classmate an advantage on the test because they were able to copy off of you. Is it fair that you do the work
and they get the grade?
Assist your friend in other ways, such as studying in groups to help learn the material or attending workshops
in the Academic Success Center. If you want to help someone, help them to learn, not to cheat.
If the syllabus does not specifically contain this information, you should check with your instructor.
