Cheating and Plagiarism

Scope

All Indiana University faculty and students.

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Policy Statement

General Principles and Policy

The faculty member has a responsibility to foster the intellectual honesty as well as the intellectual development of students. He or she should carefully scrutinize methods of teaching and assignments in order to be sure that they encourage students to be honest. If necessary, the faculty member should explain clearly the meaning of cheating and plagiarism as they apply to the course. The faculty member’s obligation is particularly serious in connection with examinations. It is his or her duty to arrange for careful supervision of all examinations and class exercises. Should the faculty member detect signs of plagiarism or cheating, it is his or her most serious obligation to investigate these thoroughly, to take appropriate action with respect to the grades of students, and in any event to report the matter to the Dean for Student Services [or equivalent administrator]. The necessity to report every case of cheating, whether or not further action is desirable, arises particularly because of the possibility that this is not the student’s first offense, or that other offenses may follow it. Equity also demands that a uniform reporting practice be enforced; otherwise, some students will be penalized while others guilty of the same actions will go free.

A university is devoted to the discovery and communication of knowledge. In this endeavor, intellectual integrity is of the utmost importance, and correspondingly, its absence is taken very seriously. By enrolling at Indiana University, students commit themselves to its ideals and must expect to find these ideals actively fostered and defended.

In practical terms, in addition to the preceding moral considerations, the University must determine whether its teaching is effective and give due recognition, which includes valuable fellowships and scholarships, to those students who have succeeded in learning. In order to encourage learning and to judge its quality, examinations and assignments are employed. To evaluate these with justice and fairness, it is necessary that they be executed with complete honesty. In the interest of protecting the honest student and making an accurate evaluation of every student’s performance, the University has adopted the following regulations governing cheating and plagiarism.

(Faculty Council, May 2, 1961)

Cheating

Dishonesty of any kind with respect to examinations, course assignments, alteration of records, or illegal possession of examinations shall be considered cheating. It is the responsibility of the student not only to abstain from cheating but, in addition, to avoid the appearance of cheating and to guard against making it possible for others to cheat. Any student who helps another student to cheat is as guilty of cheating as the student he or she assists. The student also should do everything possible to induce respect for the examining process and for honesty in the performance of assigned tasks in or out of class.

(Faculty Council, May 2, 1961; University Faculty Council, March 11, 1975; Board of Trustees, July 11, 1975)

Plagiarism

Honesty requires that any ideas or materials taken from another source for either written or oral use must be fully acknowledged. Offering the work of someone else as one’s own is plagiarism. The language or ideas thus taken from another may range from isolated formulas, sentences, or paragraphs to entire articles copied from books, periodicals, speeches, or the writings of other students. The offering of materials assembled or collected by others in the form of projects or collections without acknowledgment also is considered plagiarism. Any student who fails to give credit for ideas or materials taken from another source is guilty of plagiarism.

(Faculty Council, May 2, 1961; University Faculty Council, March 11, 1975; Board of Trustees, July 11, 1975)

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