Academic Integrity

Boston College places great value on academic integrity. The University's statement on academic integrity includes the following:

The pursuit of knowledge can proceed only when scholars take responsibility and receive credit for their work. Recognition of individual contributions to knowledge and of the intellectual property of others builds trust within the university and encourages the sharing of ideas that is essential to scholarship. Similarly, the educational process requires that individuals present their own ideas and insights for evaluation, critique, and eventual reformulation. Presentation of others' work as one's own is not only intellectual dishonesty, but also undermines the educational process.

Standards

Academic integrity is violated by any dishonest act which is committed in an academic context including, but not restricted to the following:

Cheating is the fraudulent or dishonest presentation of work. Cheating includes but is not limited to:

  • the use or attempted use of unauthorized aids in examinations or other academic exercises submitted for evaluation;
  • fabrication, falsification, or misrepresentation of data, results, sources for papers or reports, or in clinical practice, as in reporting experiments, measurements, statistical analyses, tests, or other studies never performed; manipulating or altering data or other manifestations of research to achieve a desired result; selective reporting, including the deliberate suppression of conflicting or unwanted data;
  • falsification of papers, official records, or reports;
  • copying from another student's work;
  • actions that destroy or alter the work of another student;
  • unauthorized cooperation in completing assignments or during an examination;
  • the use of purchased essays or term papers, or of purchased preparatory research for such papers;
  • submission of the same written work in more than one course without prior written approval from the instructors involved;
  • dishonesty in requests for make-up exams, for extensions of deadlines for submitting papers, and in any other matter relating to a course.

Plagiarism is the act of taking the words, ideas, data, illustrations, or statements of another person or source, and presenting them as one's own. Each student is responsible for learning and using proper methods of paraphrasing and footnoting, quotation, and other forms of citation, to ensure that the original author, speaker, illustrator, or source of the material used is clearly acknowledged.

Other breaches of academic integrity include:

  • the misrepresentation of one's own or another's identity for academic purposes;
  • the misrepresentation of material facts or circumstances in relation to examinations, papers, or other evaluative activities;
  • the sale of papers, essays, or research for fraudulent use;
  • the alteration or falsification of official University records;
  • the unauthorized use of University academic facilities or equipment, including computer accounts and files;
  • the unauthorized recording, sale, purchase, or use of academic lectures, academic computer software, or other instructional materials;
  • the expropriation or abuse of ideas and preliminary data obtained during the process of editorial or peer review of work submitted to journals, or in proposals for funding by agency panels or by internal University committees;
  • the expropriation and/or inappropriate dissemination of personally-identifying human subject data;
  • the unauthorized removal, mutilation, or deliberate concealment of materials in University libraries, media, or academic resource centers.

Collusion is defined as assistance or an attempt to assist another student in an act of academic dishonesty. Collusion is distinct from collaborative learning, which may be a valuable component of students' scholarly development. Acceptable levels of collaboration vary in different courses, and students are expected to consult with their instructor if they are uncertain whether their cooperative activities are acceptable.

The complete and authoritative statement of the university's policies and procedures regarding academic integrity can be found on the Boston College web site.

Students are urged to consult the plagiarism examples and guidelines, and a self-test quiz offered by the Political Science Department.

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