Academic Integrity

The foundation of good academic work is honesty. Maintaining academic integrity upholds the standards of the University. The responsibility for maintaining integrity in all the activities of the academic community lies with the students as well as the faculty and the University. Academic dishonesty affects the University’s reputation and devalues the degrees offered.

The following are defined as acts of academic dishonesty in the context of this policy:

(a) Plagiarism

Plagiarism is ‘to use or pass off as one’s own, writings or ideas of another, without acknowledging or crediting the source from which the ideas are taken’. This includes:

  • The use of words, images, diagrams, graphs, or ideas derived from books, journals, magazines, visual media, and the internet without proper acknowledgement.

  • Copying of work from the internet or any other sources and presenting as one’s own; and

  • Submitting the same piece of work for different courses or to different journals and publications.

(b) Academic Fraud

Academic fraud is a form of academic dishonesty involving cheating, lying, and stealing. This includes:

  • Cheating - Bringing or having access to unauthorised books or materials during an examination or assessment, or in any work to be used by the lecturer, tutor, instructor, or examiner as a basis of grading.

  • Collusion - Copying the work of another student, having another person write one’s assignments, or allowing another student to borrow one’s work.

  • Falsification of Data – Fabrication or alteration of data to mislead such as changing data to get better experiment results.

  • False Citation – Citing a source that was never utilised or attributing work to a source from which the referenced material was not obtained.

  • Contract Cheating - Students get academic work completed on their behalf, usually involving the payment of a fee to a third party, which they submit as their own.

(c) Facilitating Academic Dishonesty

This includes allowing another student to copy an assignment that is supposed to be done individually, allowing another student to copy answers during an examination/assessment and taking an examination/assessment or doing an assignment for another student. 

Definition

Plagiarism (from the Latin word for "kidnapper") is the wrongful presentation of someone else’s ideas or words as your own. Acts of Plagiarism include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • The unacknowledged use of words, images, diagrams, graphs, or ideas derived from any source such as books, journals, magazines, the visual media, and the internet. Note: cutting and pasting words from the internet into your own essay, even if you reword them, is still plagiarism.

  • Buying and/or copying essays, assignments, projects etc. from the internet or any other source and claiming them to be your own.

    [Note: In addition to the above please remember that copying the work of a fellow student, having another student write one “s assignments, or allowing another student to borrow one ‟s work, is akin to cheating].

Please bear in mind that your professors and lecturers know the subject and have read widely. They therefore can identify unreferenced quotations and can generally differentiate between university-level writing and that of published scholars.

Why plagiarism is academically dishonest

  • The unacknowledged borrowing of another’s work is theft.

  • Independent and creative thinking, as well as intellectual responsibility, are fundamental to a humanities, arts, and social sciences education, and cannot be developed if one simply borrows the work of another.

Plagiarism

  • If you use an author’s exact words, you must place them in quotation marks. If you paraphrase another’s ideas, you again must indicate the source to your reader.

  • Facts and statistics that are not “common knowledge” must be referenced.

  • Be sure to use the method of citation recommended by your professor.

  • If in doubt, it is always best to reference your material.

  • Remember that your lecturer wants to see your ideas and interpretations. Avoid excessively quoting secondary sources and show your reader your mode of thinking.

  • Do not commit idioplagiarism (or self-plagiarism) or submit the same work for different classes/courses.

Collusion and complicity

  • Ask your lecturer if you are allowed to work on assignments in groups.

  • Get the approval of your professor if you want to submit material that you have already submitted for another course. It may or may not be acceptable.

  • Do not allow fellow students to copy your work (including work from previous semesters).

  • Follow the examination rules set out by the university.

If you still have questions, please ask your professors, or consult the following  websites: 

NTU strives to create a thriving environment for the intellectual enrichment of all. For this to happen, all faculty and students are expected to honor the principles of intellectual and academic integrity. Plagiarism offenses are taken seriously and are reviewed on a case-by-case basis. 

Source: The Little, Brown Essential Handbook. Ed. Jane E. Aaron. New York: Pearson Longman, 2006.