Academic Ethics

Academic misconduct occurs when community members cheat, plagiarize, fabricate, or falsify information, or assist others in these actions. when a student misrepresents others' work as their own or otherwise behaves so as to unfairly advantage themselves or another student academically.

Cheating, Plagiarism, Fabrication, and Falsification 

Cheating occurs when a student attempts to complete or take credit for work by any dishonest means or assists another in doing so. Some examples of cheating include, but are not limited to, lying to obtain an academic advantage; copying from another’s exam or assignment or collaborating on an exam or assignment, unless specifically allowed by the instructor; submitting the same work in more than one course without instructor permission; falsifying data collected in research or laboratory courses; taking or receiving copies of an exam without the permission of the instructor; and using notes or other information devices inappropriate to the test conditions.

Plagiarism occurs when the ideas, organization, or language of another are incorporated into one’s work without properly crediting the original source with a citation or other disclosure. It includes re-writing or re-formatting material without acknowledging the original source of the ideas. Even if the language and organization are in the student’s own words, any ideas or information that are not common knowledge must be acknowledged in a reference.

Fabrication or falsification occurs when unauthorized information is created, altered or reported in an academic activity. Some examples of fabrication or falsification include, but are not limited to, creating data sets in a context in which data should be collected from an actual experiment; unauthorized altering, falsification or omission of data, information, or results; and fabricating sources of information.

Related Information

• Occidental's Shared Academic Integrity Commitment
• Policy and process for alleged Commitment violations