The Graduate School
Academic Integrity
The University of Texas at Austin provides an environment where ideas are exchanged and disseminated for the continual process of intellectual advancement. Academic integrity provides the underpinning of this process.
On campus scholastic dishonesty is defined as any act that gives a student an unfair academic advantage. It includes cheating, collusion, falsifying academic records,unauthorized collaboration, the abuse of online resources, and multiple submissions.
It is common to see students working together in labs and classrooms. Many times a professor encourages this sharing of ideas and skills. However, in an assignment that is designed for individual assessment, sharing would be considered unauthorized collaboration. This is the most common form of academic dishonesty because students can easily justify this behavior and assume that working together is allowed. Remember, the class norm is each student doing his or her work individually and collaborative work should be specifically approved.
UT Austin defines plagiarism as including but not limited to "the appropriation, buying, receiving as a gift, or obtaining by any other means, another's work and the submission of it as one's own academic work offered for credit". There are many reasons a student may be tempted to plagiarize. A few stolen sentences or a paragraph might seem like an easy way to alleviate the pressure to complete a project, receive good grades and/or keep a scholarship. However, it is a serious offense and may be grounds for dismissal from the University.
Although the Internet has brought a wealth of information to students, it can be another area of temptation. The availability of Web-based resources has helped contribute to an increasing incidence of plagiarism, and copyright infringement. It is easy to lift text out of a Web page with a click of a mouse or download entire papers and multimedia. Claiming these materials as your own is plagiarism. If you use Web resources, learn how to properly cite them and give credit to those who created them.
It may be tempting after completing a successful paper to hold on to it to resubmit in the future. This violation of academic integrity is called multiple submission or "self-plagiarism." A student may re-work or supplement current papers with previous work only with permission from an instructor.
In addition to the guidelines of academic integrity offered by the university, there are those imposed by your chosen profession. A professional scientific society, for example, would have specific guidelines that discourage violations such as data fabrication. Creating data to suit the intended results of a study, violates the academic integrity of a society of researchers and being associated with a project that used unethical practices may affect your reputation as a professional.
Academic dishonesty taints your work, your degree, and your profession. These guidelines for academic integrity are in place to protect you and help maintain a high standard of academic excellence at UT Austin.