Academic Integrity Overview

When students matriculate at Tufts University, they join a community of learners, artists, researchers, and scholars dedicated to the discovery of knowledge and the creation of artistic expression. Just as membership in Tufts' academic community confers great privileges, so too does it demand serious responsibilities. The responsibility for full and proper citation and attribution underscores that current intellectual and artistic endeavors rely on the work of a far broader community comprised of intellectual and artistic predecessors in other nations, cultures, and time periods. In addition, members of the university community should pursue the attainment and advancement of knowledge with integrity and use transparent, principled, and ethical practices.

Academic integrity is the joint responsibility of faculty, students, and staff. Each member of the community is responsible for integrity in their own behavior and for contributing to an over all environment of integrity at the university.

Faculty Responsibilities

Faculty members and other instructors are responsible for creating an atmosphere of integrity and honesty in their courses, in their research, and in their other academic interactions. This is accomplished by:

• Clearly defining expectations in course syllabi;
• Communicating any course- or discipline-specific scholarly procedures to students;
• Engaging students in robust ways; and
• Reporting concerns about academic misconduct each time such concerns are known.

Student Responsibilities

Students are responsible for creating an atmosphere of integrity and honesty in all assignments, class discussions, research conducted, and other academic work.  This is accomplished by:

• Learning and using proper scholarly procedures;
• Scrupulously following directions and asking for clarification when needed; and
• Engaging with course material fully and meeting the spirit of the assignment.

Academic misconduct is inimical to academic integrity and violates a core value of Tufts University.  Accordingly, faculty and students are prohibited from engaging in academic misconduct.  Academic misconduct includes cheating, plagiarism, inappropriate collaboration, academic dishonesty, research misconduct, and facilitating the academic misconduct of another.  Academic misconduct can occur with the intent to deceive or by disregarding proper scholarly procedures.

Please review the Academic Misconduct policy in the Code of Conduct. We also encourage you to review the information below about the parameters of scholarly work to consider how to best meet University expectations.

Overview

Academic Integrity is:

1. Relying on your own intelligence and abilities to complete coursework and exams. Do NOT solicit or enlist another to take an exam for you, write your papers, do your homework, complete your lab reports, or complete other academic work for you; do NOT copy exam answers from anyone else; do NOT copy the homework answers from others; do NOT submit as your own work a paper mostly, wholly, or partially written by someone else. To do any of these things or similar acts is to violate academic integrity.
2. Maintaining the originality and integrity of your own academic work. Do NOT misrepresent the originality and integrity of your academic work by submitting the same paper or assignment to two or more different courses without prior permission from both professors. Do NOT falsify or fabricate data or information on a lab report or research project based upon the assumption that the student’s research represents the truth or reality. To do any of these things or similar acts is to violate academic integrity.
3. Being honest and truthful about your academic record. Do NOT tamper with or alter your own academic records or those of another; do NOT lie about your grade point average or other academic accomplishments on a job application or other application; Do NOT alter your answers on a graded exam or homework assignment then submit it for re-grading. To do any of these things or similar acts is to violate academic integrity.
4. Ensuring and maintaining fairness for all students engaged in academic work and learning. Do NOT cheat or behave in such a way that you or a group of students has an unfair advantage over another student or group of students taking the exam or performing the academic activity. Do NOT sabotage the work of others, destroy or make library materials inaccessible, or act maliciously to give yourself an unfair advantage over others. To do any of these things or similar acts is to violate academic integrity.
5. Maintaining the integrity of exams by insuring that all students taking the exam have equal access to authorized materials and that no one has access to unauthorized materials. Do NOT cheat on an exam or help others cheat. Do NOT access unauthorized materials, information, or equipment during an exam. “Unauthorized materials” may include crib notes, cheat sheets, textbooks, lecture notes, and other texts that may contain information relevant to the exam and that have not been explicitly authorized by the instructor or exam proctor. “Unauthorized information” includes information that may be communicated by other test-takers or other individuals while an exam is in progress. “Unauthorized equipment” includes cell phones, calculators (including specific models of programmable calculators), laptop computers, iPads, iPods, tape recorders, cameras, and other devices capable of displaying, recording, storing, retrieving, or transmitting information or images to others inside or outside of the exam room. Other banned materials may also include periodic tables and other graphics and texts that have not been specifically authorized for use during the exam by the instructor or exam proctor. Do NOT help others cheat by providing others with exam answers. Do NOT engage in behavior that gives the appearance of cheating, such as sending or receiving a text message during an exam, passing a note to a friend, whispering to another student while the exam is in progress, or handling your cell phone, even to turn it off if it rings or vibrates in the middle of the exam; if you do any of these things while you are taking an exam, the proctor or instructor assumes that you are cheating. DO turn off your cell phone and put it out of reach, out of sight, or as instructed before the exam begins.
6. Writing papers in your words, creating your own forms of expression, and giving others credit for their ideas, words, and unique forms of expression. Using appropriate methods of paraphrasing, quotation, citation, and documentation when writing from research or integrating the words and thoughts of others into your paper, project, or lab report in order to clearly represent which words belong to you and which belong to others. Do NOT plagiarize any amount of text. Even accidental, unintentional, and careless copying without attribution is considered plagiarism. DO ask for clarification from the instructor is you are unsure whether a passage needs to be cited. DO seek assistance from writing tutors if you are unsure about your skills in paraphrasing, summarizing, citing, and documenting the thoughts and words of others.