Academic Honesty and Plagiarism
 

Goblin Threat
How to avoid plagiarism

As a community of learning and faith, Texas Lutheran expects all members of the community, whether students, faculty or staff, to maintain the highest standards of honesty and integrity. 

What is Academic Dishonesty  

The most common forms of academic dishonesty are cheating and plagiarism. Cheating includes but is not limited to:

• Submitting material that is not one's own as part of the course performance, such as copying from another student's exam, or allowing another student to copy from one's exam;
• Using information or devices not allowed by the faculty, such as formulas or a computer program or data, or unauthorized materials for take-home exams;
• Obtaining and using unauthorized material, such as a copy of an examination before it is given;
• Fabricating information, such as data for a lab report;
• Violating procedures prescribed to protect the integrity of an assignment, test, or other evaluation;
• Collaborating with others on assignments without the instructor's consent;
• Cooperating with or helping another student in cheating;
• Other forms of dishonest behavior, such as having another person take an exam in one's place, altering exam answers and requesting the exam be re-graded; or communicating with anyone other than the proctor or instructor during an exam.

Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to:

• Directly quoting the words of others without using quotation marks or indented format to identify them; or
• Using sources (published or unpublished) without identifying them; or
• Paraphrasing material or ideas of others without identifying the sources.

Students unsure about something that they want to do or the proper use of material should ask the instructor for clarification.

Students must not cheat or plagiarize, and they must not condone these behaviors nor assist others who cheat or plagiarize. Academic misconduct not only jeopardizes the career of the individual student involved, but it also undermines the scholastic achievements of all students and attacks the mission of this institution. Students are responsible for doing their own work, thereby insuring the integrity of their academic records. Violations of academic honesty involve two required components and a third component at the instructor's discretion:

1. Academic penalties for cheating (which includes plagiarism) are imposed by the instructor, usually after consultation with the department chair or college dean, through the grade and/or credit issued. Faculty members may determine appropriate sanctions on a case-by-case basis. If the student disputes any instance of failing due to academic dishonesty, whether it is for a grade on a single assignment or a course grade, he/she may file an appeal with the Admissions, Academic Standards, and Advising Committee (AAA). The provost serves as the appeal for all AAA decisions. It is suggested that the academic advisor, the department chair, and the appropriate dean be notified of all such occurrences and the follow-up.
2. In addition to whatever penalties are assessed by the professor in the classroom, the professor is to report the incident to the dean of student life and learning to be put in the student's file.
3. At the professor's discretion, he or she may also file a code of conduct complaint against the student for breaking the TLU academic honesty/plagiarism policy as outlined in the TLU Student Handbook.
4. Students who accrue three incidents of cheating are charged automatically with breaking the code of conduct. The student who is charged with a code of conduct complaint then enters the TLU judicial process and the incident is viewed as a disciplinary violation.
5. Judicial records are kept on every incident providing a written record. Flagrant or repeated occurrences of academic dishonesty can lead to dismissal of the student from the university.