University of Maryland’s Code of Academic Integrity is designed to ensure that the principle of academic honesty is upheld.
Academic Dishonesty Includes the Following Acts
1) CHEATING: fraud, deceit, or dishonesty in any academic course or exercise in an attempt to gain an unfair advantage and/or intentionally using or attempting to use unauthorized materials, information, or study aids in any academic course or exercise.
- Students completing any examination, including online or take-home exams, should assume that external assistance (for example, the use of cell phones, books, notes, calculators, or conversation with others) is prohibited unless specifically authorized by the instructor.
- Students must not allow others to conduct research or prepare any work for them without advance authorization from the instructor; this includes, but is not limited to, the services of commercial term paper companies.
- Substantial portions of the same academic work may not be submitted more than once without authorization from each instructor.
- Students should not collaborate on homework assignments or take-home tests/quizzes without advance authorization from the instructor; students should assume that all work is to be done individually unless specifically stated by the professor.
2) FABRICATION: intentional and unauthorized falsification or invention of any information or citation in any academic course or exercise.
- “Invented” information may not be used in any academic exercise without notice to and authorization from the instructor.
- One should acknowledge reliance upon the actual source from which cited information was obtained.
- Students who attempt to alter and resubmit academic work without notice to the instructor would be in violation of the Code of Student Conduct.
3) FACILITATING ACADEMIC DISHONESTY: intentionally or knowingly helping or attempting to help another to violate any provision of this Code.
- This includes helping another student cheat, fabricate, or plagiarize.
- This is different than studying together; helping other students understand concepts is ok, but when working on assignments, students must be sure not to share work directly.
- Sharing work with another student is not permitted. Any time one student shares completed work (or even part of completed work) with another student, it may be a violation unless specifically permitted by the instructor.
- Sharing access to accounts with another student is not permitted.
- This includes giving students past assignments from previous semesters or courses.
4) PLAGIARISM: intentionally or knowingly representing the words or ideas of another as one’s own in any academic course or exercise.
- Information that is obtained in one’s reading or research, which is not common knowledge among students in the course, must be acknowledged.
- Common knowledge is “Information generally accepted as being true.”
- For example, “People eat hot dogs” does not need a citation, but “One million hot dogs are eaten each year” does need a citation.
- When in doubt, cite it.
- Direct Quotation: Every direct quotation must be identified by quotation marks or by appropriate indentation and must be promptly cited in the appropriate manner (i.e., MLA style, APA style, Chicago style, footnote).
- Paraphrase: Immediate acknowledgement is required when material from another source is paraphrased or summarized, in whole or part, in your own words. Paraphrasing is not reordering or changing a few words in a sentence.
- Textbooks and handouts are not considered common knowledge.
5) SELF-PLAGIARISM: the reuse of substantial identical or nearly identical portions of one’s own work in multiple courses without prior permission from the current instructor or from each of the instructors if the work is being submitted for multiple courses in the same semester.
If you are unsure of the proper citation rules and format for a class, ask your instructor to explain what is expected.
The University of Maryland Honor Pledge
The University of Maryland Honor Pledge is a statement that students should be asked to write by hand and sign on examinations, papers, or other academic assignments. The Pledge reads:
I pledge on my honor that I have not given or received any unauthorized assistance on this assignment/examination.
The Honor Pledge is a community-building ritual, designed to encourage faculty and students to reflect upon the University’s core institutional value of academic integrity. Professors who invite students to sign the Honor Pledge signify that there is an ethical component to teaching and learning. Students who write by hand and sign the Honor Pledge affirm a sense of pride in the integrity of their work. If a handwritten Honor Pledge and signature do not appear on a paper or examination, faculty members will likely ask a student for an explanation, but students remain free to decline to write or sign the Honor Pledge and should not be penalized for exercising that right. Students are subject to the requirements of the Code of Academic Integrity, whether or not they write and sign the Honor Pledge.
The University of Maryland Honor Council
The University of Maryland Student Honor Council (SHC) is one of the branches of the University Student Judiciary and has two primary roles: 1) adjudicating cases of suspected academic dishonesty reported to the Office of Student Conduct, and 2) reducing the amount of academic dishonesty which occurs. The Honor Council puts the responsibility of upholding the standards of academic integrity in the hands of the University’s students.
The University of Maryland Code of Student Conduct
The University of Maryland Code of Student Conduct defines non-academic prohibited conduct that is subject to disciplinary action.