All UB students are expected to uphold high standards of academic integrity, and instructors are expected to report all infractions, regardless of severity, to the Office of Academic Integrity. This helps to hold students accountable across their coursework and time at UB as we promote the fundamental value of integrity in the learning process. At UB, academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, the following:
In addition to committing dishonest acts to benefit yourself, academic integrity forbids unauthorized assistance to others. This is defined in the policy as, “Actions that allow another student to engage in an act of academic dishonesty, including completing an examination or assignment for another student, failing to protect academic work by leaving it unattended, or collaborating without instructor permission.” Be sure to close your laptop, take your flash drive, and otherwise protect your work from being copied by others.
Cheating involves using any disallowed aids in academic work. The policy describes cheating as, “ Use of unauthorized resources, including sources not permitted by the course instructor, or tools such as calculators, smart watches, phones, or other students’ work.” If students have questions about what resources are allowed to be accessed or the level of collaboration that is allowed to occur, they should ask instructors to clarify the guidelines.
Honesty is the foundation of the teacher-student relationship. Any falsification of academic materials obviously erodes that relationship. Falsification occurs when a student alters any document related to coursework. Examples from the policy are, “Altering, fabricating, forging, or submitting: any course-related materials, including laboratory reports, notes, or any forms of data; an instructor’s name or initials; an examination or assignment for re-evaluation; an assessment (in whole or in part) prepared by any person or technology (e.g., artificial intelligence) other than the student responsible.” Note that most cases of unauthorized use of artificial intelligence are submitted under this charge.
Misrepresenting documents is similar to falsifying academic materials, except the falsification is to a document unrelated to academic work. The policy defines this as, “Altering, fabricating, forging, or submitting any non-course-related materials, including any university or official document, instrument of identification, or medical record.” This is a serious charge that can be accompanied by charges under UB’s Student Code of Conduct and/or penalties outside of the university as well. Examples include signing into a class for attendance credit when not present or forging a doctor’s note to get an extension on an assignment.
Plagiarism is the act of using the words, creations, or ideas of other people and representing them as one’s own. It can consist of the intentional copying of text, code, or art from other sources, or it can consist of the unwitting failure to credit sources of ideas and words. The policy definition is, “Representing the ideas or work (e.g., written text, computer code, artwork) of another as one’s own or improperly referencing original authors.” Plagiarism is an act that is especially offensive in the academic community, where ideas and words are held in such high regard. Students are responsible for knowing and following standard procedures for citing the work of others. The Center for Excellence in Writing has excellent resources available.
Buying assessment materials from another person, company or vendor constitutes a serious breach of academic integrity. Often called “contract cheating,” this practice is an egregious form of plagiarism and misrepresentation since students are deliberately misleading instructors about what they know or have learned. It is defined in the policy as, "Buying assignments intended for submission in fulfillment of any course or academic program requirement.”
The academic community is built on a standard of mutual respect. This requires that students not impede another student’s progress. Sabotage is defined in the policy as, “Damaging another student’s work to prevent fair assessment, or interfering with the access or production of knowledge (e.g., deleting another student’s material from a shared Box folder, destroying another student’s experiment, preventing another student from gaining access to required material).”
All submitted work must entirely represent the effort of the student in the course. As a result, no academic work should be sold or traded for favors. This is defined in the policy as “Offering for sale and/or receiving compensation for any academic assignment intended to fulfill any course or academic program requirement.” Like “purchasing academic assignments,” this is an egregious breach of policy.
Faculty have the right to expect that all work done in their course is original. When students reuse their own work for multiple assignments, either in a single course or in multiple courses, it is self-plagiarism. The policy defines this as, “Re-submitting academic material (in whole or in part) that has been previously submitted by the same student without prior and expressed consent of the instructor.” Students must ask instructors for permission before using any past work, even when retaking a course for a second time.
