How to Avoid Academic Irresponsibility: Tips for Students

Advice for Students

• How to Avoid: Academic Misconduct

  • Do not take an exam in one section of a course and then discuss the nature and content of that exam with students who have yet to take the exam.
  • Do not submit the same assignment to fulfill requirements in two courses without the written permission of both instructors.
  • Do not help with or edit another student’s assignment (including papers, projects, computer programs, homework, etc.) in ways that go beyond the instructor’s expectations or beyond the student’s statement of sources.
  • Do not collaborate with another student in the planning or writing of a theme, project or computer program without the knowledge and permission of the instructor.
  • Do not steal and use or give away an unadministered exam.
  • Do not steal an administered exam so that the grades cannot be recorded.
  • Do not alter or change a grade either before or after it has been recorded.

   

• How to Avoid: Cheating

  • Never discuss a quiz, test or exam with a student who has not yet taken it.
  • Put away all notes, books and the other materials before a test begins unless your instructor says otherwise.
  • Never use materials (e.g., previous years’ tests) to prepare for an exam unless your teacher has given the class permission to use them.

   

• How to Avoid: Fabrication

  • Be honest. Make sure you report the experimental observations that you actually made.
  • Report all data that you know is relevant and never report as facts statements you know to be bogus.
  • Do the work you are assigned and report the results honestly and completely. Don’t “cut corners.”

   

• How to Avoid: Inappropriate Collaboration

  • Always save your work to your private space on the Bucknell network or to your hard drive, never to your public space. Anyone can access work that is on your public space and misappropriate it without your knowledge.
  • Never share your work via email or public space unless encouraged by a faculty member.

   

• How to Avoid: Misuse of Computing Facilities

  • Do not read or copy computer files or programs without the owner’s explicit permission and with or without the owner’s knowledge to submit this work as one’s own.
  • Do not use another person’s computer logic.

   

• How to Avoid: Plagiarism

  • Any source of any type used in writing a paper must be cited in such a way that a reader knows precisely how that source contributed to your essay.
  • When in doubt as to whether material is general knowledge, cite your source or ask your instructor.
  • All work submitted for a class, including ungraded work, must be original to that class unless your instructor has given you permission to use work done for another class.
  • The honor code requires not only that you act honestly, but also that you forthrightly oppose dishonest behavior by your peers.
  • When in doubt concerning either the need for citation or the form a citation should take, ask your instructor.
  • Many instructors use automated tools to spot plagiarism. They can compare your submitted work to work produced by others both inside and outside of Bucknell.
  • When you show another student your work, even if it is allowed by the instructor, you cannot be sure the student will use it in responsible ways.
  • Always store your work on your private space on the network. You can access it there from any computer on campus.
  • Realize that within each discipline there may be a specific approach to the citation of sources. Seek the advice of your professor.

  If you use another person’s ideas or expressions without proper citation you have committed plagiarism. It is important that in rewriting you demonstrate your own synthesis of ideas and fully credit your original source. Paraphrasing causes students the most difficulty. When you change words in a sentence, but the idea remains the same, you must cite your source.