Guidelines for Working with Integrity
In the context of academic writing and research, integrity guidelines are meant to ensure that student credits are earned, awarded, and administered fairly, and that student work is in compliance with the ethical standards of related fields of practice.
To cheat is to attempt to gain an improper advantage in an academic evaluation. Some forms of cheating include getting a copy of an exam or finding out an exam question before it is officially available; copying another person’s answer to an exam question; consulting an unauthorized source during an exam; submitting the work one has done for one class or project in a second class without permission; submitting work prepared in collaboration with other members of a class without authorization from the instructor; submitting work prepared in whole or in part by another person and representing that work as one’s own.
To obstruct is to interfere with the scholarly activities of another in order to harass or gain unfair academic advantage. This includes interference or tampering with experimental data, with a human or animal subject, with a written document or other creation (e.g., a painting, sculpture or film), with a chemical used for scientific study, or with any other object of study.
Complete Coursework Responsibly
Do your own work. It is a breach of academic honesty to have someone impersonate oneself in class or in a test or examination. Both the impersonator and the individual impersonated may be charged under York University’s Senate Policy on Academic Honesty.
Do not cheat. Some forms of cheating include getting a copy of an exam or finding out an exam question before it is officially available; copying another person’s answer to an exam question; consulting an unauthorized source during an exam; submitting the work one has done for one class or project in a second class; submitting work prepared in collaboration with other members of a class without authorization from the instructor; and submitting work prepared in whole or in part by another person and representing that work as one’s own.
Represent Your Research Process Fairly
This principle directly relates to falsification and fabrication.
It is a breach of academic honesty to fabricate (make-up) research or results. This includes: statistics, experimental results or data, research methodology, facts, quotations, references or bibliographic material and research and the ideas of others.
It is also a violation of academic honesty to falsify information. This includes:
- dishonest reporting of research, lab results or data
- misrepresenting the research and ideas of others
- falsely reporting having met the research responsibilities for a course, for example, pretending to have completed a lab exercise
- modifying graded, returned research reports then submitting them for re- grading as if they were the originals
Do Not Enable Breaches Of Academic Integrity By Others
Examples of aiding and abetting include sharing a lab report/formula/assignment/old exam/computer program with another student in person or electronically by email or on a social networking site such as Facebook. Both the owner of the lab report/formula/assignment/old exam/computer program and the person who copied may be charged with a breach of academic honesty.
It can be challenging and stressful to resist strong pressure from friends, peers and classmates to participate in activities that may constitute a breach. If you need strategies for coping with stress, see Counselling & Disability Services.
Engage With Sources Responsibly and Transparently
Representing someone else’s ideas, writing, creative works, or other intellectual property as your own constitutes plagiarism, and is a form of academic dishonesty. Any use of the work of others, whether published, unpublished or posted electronically (e.g., on web sites), attributed or anonymous, must include proper acknowledgement. Common types of plagiarism include:
- buying research papers and submitting them as your own
- copying and pasting text or images from other sources without proper acknowledgement
- copying and submitting someone else’s work as your own
See the Academic Integrity Checklist in Resources for help in avoiding plagiarism. Read more about plagiarism in the Creating Bibliographies module.
Gather and Share Data From Human and Animal Subjects Ethically
If your research involves gathering information from people or animals, or handling biohazardous materials, discuss the ethics review process with your instructor. You must have approval before proceeding with such research. For additional information see York’s Research Support Centre.