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[Policies] 2023 Academic Integrity Statement

Academic Integrity Statement

At Utah Valley University, faculty and students operate in an atmosphere of mutual trust. Maintaining an atmosphere of academic integrity allows for free exchange of ideas and enables all members of the community to achieve their highest potential. Our goal is to foster an intellectual atmosphere that produces scholars of integrity and imaginative thought. In all academic work, the ideas and contributions of others must be appropriately acknowledged and UVU students are expected to produce their own original academic work. 

Faculty and students share the responsibility of ensuring the honesty and fairness of the intellectual environment at UVU. Students have a responsibility to promote academic integrity at the university by not participating in or facilitating others' participation in any act of academic dishonesty. As members of the academic community, students must become familiar with their rights and responsibilities Links to an external site.. In each course, they are responsible for knowing the requirements and restrictions regarding research and writing, assessments, collaborative work, the use of study aids, the appropriateness of assistance, and other issues. Likewise, instructors are responsible to clearly state expectations and model best practices. 

Further information on what constitutes academic dishonesty is detailed inUVU Policy 541: Student Code of Conduct Links to an external site..

Definitions and Examples:

Definition:  Academic integrity is a basic principle which requires that students take credit only for ideas and efforts that are their own. Cheating, plagiarism, fabrication, and other forms of academic dishonesty are often defined as the submission of materials in assignments, exams, or other academic work that is based on sources that are prohibited by the faculty member or in ways that do not properly cite the source of a student's ideas and content. Further information on what constitutes academic dishonesty is detailed inUVU Policy 541: Student Code of Conduct Links to an external site..

Definition:  The act of using or attempting to use or providing others with unauthorized information, materials or study aids in academic work. Cheating includes, but is not limited to, passing examination answers to or taking examinations for someone else, or preparing or copying others’ academic work. 

Examples include but are not limited to:

  • Submission of work that is not the student's own for papers, assignments or exams. 
  • Submission or use of falsified data. 
  • Theft of or unauthorized access to an exam. 
  • Use of an alternate, stand-in or proxy during an examination. 
  • Use of unauthorized material including textbooks, notes or computer programs in the preparation of an assignment or during an examination. 
  • Supplying or communicating in any way unauthorized information to a “homework help site” such as CourseHero or to another student in the  preparation of an assignment or during an examination. 
  • Collaboration in the preparation of an assignment. Unless specifically permitted or required by the instructor, collaboration will usually be viewed by the university as cheating. Each student, therefore, is responsible for understanding the policies of the department offering any course as they refer to the amount of help and collaboration permitted in preparation of assignments. 
  • Submission of the same work for credit in two courses without obtaining the permission of the instructors beforehand.

Definition: Plagiarism is the act of presenting another person’s ideas, research or writing as your own. 

Examples include but are not limited to:

  • Using another person’s exact language without the use of quotation marks and proper citation.
  • Rearranging another’s ideas or material and presenting them as original work without providing proper citation. 
  • Submitting another’s work as one’s own; this includes purchasing work from sources such as the internet.
  • Submitting a translation of someone else’s words claiming them as one’s own
  • Failing to acknowledge collaborators on homework and laboratory assignments.
  • Duplicating or submitting work that was originally prepared for another class without the explicit permission of the instructor; or knowingly aiding another student who is engaged in plagiarism.

 

Resources: Citation guide Links to an external site.

Definition:  The use of invented information or the falsification of research or other findings.

Examples include but are not limited to:

  • Citation of information not taken from the source indicated. This may include the incorrect documentation of secondary source materials. 
  • Listing sources in a bibliography not used in the academic exercise. 
  • Submission in a paper, thesis, lab report or other academic exercise of falsified, invented, or fictitious data or evidence, or deliberate and knowing concealment or distortion of the true nature, origin, or function of such data or evidence. 
  • Submitting as your own any academic exercise, (e.g., written work, printing, sculpture, etc.) prepared totally or in part by another.

We would like to acknowledge the following institutions: Northeastern University, University of Jamestown, Washington University in St. Louis, and UVU's Woodbury School of Business. This statement uses or adapts parts of their academic integrity statements or used them for inspiration.