Academic Honesty Policy

Examples of Academic Honesty Violations

Examples of Academic Honesty violations include, but are not limited to:

1. Plagiarism: The most common form of academic dishonesty is the presentation of the work of another person as one’s own. Plagiarism is a serious academic infraction that tarnishes everyone associated with it. Civil and criminal penalties may also apply where conduct violates U. S. copyright laws.
   1. Copy and Paste/Cheating: Copied the work of another person and presented such copied work as their own. May include cheating on quizzes, tests, exams, as well as work from an article, website, book, online repository, and also images, music, and code.
   2. Contract Cheating: Hired and/or compensated another person or organization to prepare and/or complete academic work on their behalf. This includes hiring individuals or services to perform data collection and/or analyses for doctoral research studies.
   3. False References: Used false references, for example incorporated references that are not relevant or are fake to misrepresent resources.
   4. Manipulated Assignment Submission: Manipulated an assignment to avoid detection of content that is non-original and/or similar to other sources by plagiarism software.
   5. Paraphrasing: Paraphrased without citing the original author; did not give credit to another person's work when the ideas/facts presented were not their own.
   6. Patchwriting: Pieced together the work of other people, section by section or as-a-whole, and presented such copied work as their own. Per the American Psychological Association, 2022, patchwriting is “when students mistakenly think they have paraphrased an author's words because they added or removed a few words or replaced some of the words with synonyms. This is called patchwriting. If your wording has a similar sentence structure and uses the same words and phrases of the original author, you are patchwriting.”
   7. Self-Plagiarism (Repurposing): Learners are not permitted to submit work previously submitted for assessment in another course unless it is specified in the assignment instructions. This includes part of a paper or excerpts from a previously graded paper for an assignment from another class. Doctoral students may use work developed as part of their doctoral project in multiple courses as they develop their doctoral project manuscript.
2. Submission of Prior Work (Re-use): Learners are only permitted to resubmit work if they are retaking the same course and would like to use previously written assignment(s) from that course. For the previous work to be accepted, the student/learner is expected to revise the assignment and apply any feedback from the prior instructor. The student/learner must also notify the current instructor if they are retaking the course and plan to submit prior work. Doctoral students may submit work developed in previous courses as they develop their doctoral project manuscript.
3. Artificial Intelligence: Learners are not authorized to use AI tools to create content for assignment submissions unless specifically instructed to do so in the assignment. The expectation is that submitted work be original and the result of the student’s own efforts and learning. All submitted assignments will be reviewed for use of Artificial Intelligence and violations will be addressed according to the academic honesty policy.
4. Facilitating academic dishonesty: Learners who intentionally assist or attempt to assist another learner to commit an act of academic dishonesty or learners who do not report another learner that is committing an act of academic dishonesty.
5. Other: Any activity, behavior, or representation to alter academic standing that a reasonable person in the discipline of study would consider dishonest or that violates the disciplines’ Professional Code of Ethics.

The University takes all violations seriously. As such, any occurrence that is found and is not covered by the above stated policy will be reviewed by Academic Affairs. The University reserves the right to review all current and previous grades in the current program of study of any learner found to have engaged in plagiarism.

Reporting Charges of Plagiarism

Charges of plagiarism may be raised by anyone including but not limited to:

• Instructors, Professors, or Mentors
• Administrators
• Peers (other learners or co-workers)

Escalation of Academic Honesty Violations

• In some cases, learners may be coached on proper/appropriate approach to the submission or original work and allowed to resubmit an assignment for minor or first academic honesty violations.
• In cases of continued academic honesty violations, repercussions could include failing grade on assignment or failing grade in class.
• Depending on severity and pattern of academic honesty violation(s), escalation to the Code of Conduct Committee can occur at any point for potential final written warning and/or dismissal from the University.
• Violations do not carry over from the undergraduate level to the graduate level.
• Academic honesty violations are cumulative over a learner’s tenure with the program.

Right of Appeal

In cases where disciplinary action is applied, the learner shall have the right of appeal.

• The learner may appeal the academic honesty decision within five business days to the program Dean.
• The learner may appeal disciplinary action applied by the Dean within five business days to the Vice Provost.
• Learners may formally appeal Learner Conduct Committee decisions with submission of a written grievance to the Office of the Ombudsman at Ombudsman@CalSouthern.edu (refer to the Learner Code of Conduct policy).