ECONOMICS  College of Business and Public Administration
 Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa 50311

Maintaining academic integrity

The basic rules of academic integrity are simple:

  1. Never work together with other people on any assignment without clear and explicit permission from your instructor.
  2. Never quote or paraphrase someone else without including a complete citation (author, name of work, publisher, date, page).

Many students new to college are nevertheless confused and surprised by these rules. Perhaps in high school working with other students was the norm. Perhaps in high school the "right" answer was the one they found in some book. But in college, students are evaluated on their own work. Working with others without clear and explicit permission from the instructor is considered cheating and quoting or paraphrasing without a complete citation is considered plagiarism.

The following examples of academic dishonesty, taken from Appendix A of the Faculty Handbook of the College of Business and Public Administration, may serve as a helpful guide.

Examples of academic dishonesty include, but are not limited to:
  • Copying from another student's paper, laboratory report, or computer files and listings;
  • Using, during a test or laboratory experiment, material and/or devices not authorized by the person in charge of the test;
  • Without the instructor's permission, collaborating with another, knowingly assisting another knowingly receiving the assistance of another in writing an examination or in satisfying any other course requirements;
  • Incorporating into assignments materials written by others without giving them credit, or otherwise improperly using information written by others (including that which might be stored on computer disks or other technological devices); buying and submitting commercially prepared papers as one's own;
  • Submission of multiple copies of similar papers without prior approval of the several instructor involved;
  • Claiming as one's own work that which was done by tutors or others with no mention of credit to or the assistance of those persons;
  • Deliberately damaging or destroying another's laboratory experiments, computer work or studio work;
  • Knowingly obtain access to, using, buying, selling, stealing, transporting, or soliciting in its entirety or in part, the contents of a test or other assignment unauthorized for release;
  • Substituting for another student, or permitting another student to substitute for oneself, to take a test or other assignment or to make a presentation;
  • Intentional and unauthorized falsification or invention of any information or citation in an academic exercise;
  • Forgery, alterations, or misuse of University documents;
  • Falsifying information submitted or failure to reveal relevant information in any University application form or offering any false information in any University disciplinary proceeding.
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