Responsibility & Integrity

Academic Integrity Policy

An institution’s reputation and intellectual freedom depend on its uncompromising commitment to the ideal of academic integrity. OPSU is committed to instilling and upholding integrity as a core value. OPSU is dedicated to maintaining an honest academic environment and ensuring fair resolution of alleged violations of academic integrity.

Academic integrity is required in every aspect of a student’s association with OPSU. Students will respect OPSU’s commitment to academic integrity and uphold the values of honesty and responsibility that preserve our academic community.

Students are expected to demonstrate academic integrity through the following actions:

• understand and uphold the academic integrity guidelines established by the university and instructors.
• present their own work for evaluation by their instructors.
• appropriately cite the words and ideas of others.
• protect their responsibility for their own actions.
• accept the responsibility for their own actions.
• treat instructors with respect when violations of academic integrity are examined.

Violations of Academic Integrity

Behaviors that violate the fundamental values of academic integrity may include, but are not limited to:

1. Unauthorized Collaboration: Completing an assignment or examination with other students, turning in work that is identical or similar to others’ work, or receiving help on assignments without the permission of the instructor. This may also include excessively relying upon and borrowing ideas and work of others in a group effort.
2. Plagiarism: Presenting the written, published, or creative work of another as the student’s own work. Whenever the student uses wording, arguments, data, design, etc., belonging to someone else in a paper, report, oral presentation, or other assignments, the student must make this fact explicitly clear by correctly citing the appropriate references or sources by using a professional, accepted writing format style, such as Modern Language Association (MLA), Chicago Manual of Style, American Psychology Association (APA), etc. The student must fully indicate the extent to which any part or parts of the project are attributable to others. The student must fully indicate the extent to which any part or parts of the project are attributable to others. The student must also provide citations for paraphrased materials. OPSU decries plagiarism to be the worst form of academic misconduct. OPSU decries plagiarism, the worst form of academic misconduct. OPSU recognizes that there are two forms of plagiarism: intentional and unintentional. Of course, instructors must determine in their own minds the form of plagiarism that they encounter and establish penalties for each form. However, one might make a case for a wide difference between instances of intentional and unintentional plagiarism, and perhaps penalties for each form might be different as well. When an instructor spots an initial instance of unintentional plagiarism in a student’s work–in an assignment or in a class–the instructor may opt to view this form of plagiarism as a result of a student’s misunderstanding of the nature of the research or student’s poor proofreading skills and not penalize the assignment too stringently. Upon recognizing such unintentional plagiarism, the instructor should ensure that a lapse of academic integrity will never occur again. If, however, an instructor encounters a second instance of unintentional plagiarism from a student –in an assignment or in a class–the instructor may fail a student for the offensive assignment and/or the course. When an instructor spots intentional plagiarism in a student’s work, that instructor may opt to fail the assignment wherein the intentional plagiarism is found and/or fail the student in the course where the intentional plagiarism was committed and/or deal with the issue as the instructor sees fit. Faculty are strongly encouraged to communicate incidents of academic misconduct to the Dean of Student Affairs; misconduct is a violation of the Student Code of Conduct and the Dean keep a list of those who have committed misconduct in the event of repeat offenses in other courses. The following are examples of plagiarism:
   • copying another student’s assignment,c omputer program, or examination with or without permission from the author;
   • copying another student’s computer program and changing only minor items such as logic, variable names, or labels;
   • copying or paraphrasing material from an Internet or written source without proper citation;
   • copying words and then changing them a little, even if the student gives the source;
   • verbatim copying without using quotation marks, even if the source is cited;
   • and expressing int he student’s own words someone else’s ideas without giving proper credit.
3. Multiple Submissions: Submitting substantial portions of the same academic work for credit to more than one class (or to the same class if the student repeats a course) without permission of the instructors.
4. Cheating on Examinations: Gather unathorized information before or during ane xamnationfrom others, using notes or other unapproved aids during an examination, failing to observe the rules governing the conduct of examinations (for example, continuing to work on an examination after time is called at the end of an examination) or having another student take an examination for the student.
5. Fabricating Information: Making up references for a bibliography, falsifying laboratory or research data (for example, tampering with experimental data to obtain “desired” results or creating results for experiments that were not done), or using a false excuse for an absense or an extension on a due date.
6. Helping Another Person Cheat: Providng information about an examination to another student (for example, sending an electronic message with answers during an examination), giving unauthorized help on assignments, or failing to prevent misuse of work by others (for example, allowing another student to copy an examination, assignment, or computer program.) A student must take reasonable care that examination answers are not seen by others or that term papers or projects are not plagiarized or otherwise misued by others. This ctegorty also includes taking an examnation on behalf of another student.
7. Unauthorized Advance Access to Examinations: Obtaining an advance copy of an examination without the instructor’s permission or getting questions and answers from someone who took the examination earlier.
8. Altering or Destroying the Work of Others: Changing or damaging computer files, papers, or other academic products that belong to others.
9. Fraudulently Altering Academic Records: Altering graded papers, computer materials/records, course withdrawal slips, or academic documents. This includes forging an instructor or advisor signature and altering transcripts.