Library Tutorial - Academic Integrity - Introduction

You already may have noticed that the following statement is posted in every classroom and included in every course description at Radford University:

Radford University Honor Code

I do hereby resolve to uphold the Honor Code of Radford University by refraining from lying, from the stealing or unauthorized possession of property and from violating the Standards of Student Academic Integrity.

The classroom poster includes the additional information:

Violations of Standards of Student Academic Integrity Include:

• Cheating
• Fabrication and Falsification
• Multiple Submission
• Abuse of Academic Materials
• Complicity in Academic Dishonesty
• Plagiarism

Basically, if you make any statement or commit any action that misleads an instructor about the nature of the work submitted by you or a classmate, you may have violated a standard of academic integrity. The classroom poster provides a quick list of several types of misleading statements and actions. Take the time now to find out what is meant by each item on the list. For example, do you know what "Multiple Submission" means? Briefly, an instructor expects you to hand in work done specifically for his or her class. If you submitted the same paper in two different classes without the knowledge and permission of both instructors, you would be in violation of this standard. Similarly, do you know all the forms that "Plagiarism" can take? You must document ideas and information borrowed from sources even if you put the ideas and information into your own words. Many students who fail to familiarize themselves with the standards assume that they only need to document direct quotations. But think a minute: if you borrow someone else's argument without documenting it, aren't you creating the misleading impression that you came up with the idea-a violation of the Standards of Student Academic Integrity?

next - Learning about Standards of Student Academic Integrity