Key Definitions, High Profile Cases of Misconduct

Defining the Terms
Keywords in Context: Misconduct Makes the News

Defining the Terms

What is Academic Misconduct?

The University of Oregon and wider academic community—all students, faculty, and researchers everywhere—devotes itself to the ethical pursuit of knowledge and the fair acknowledgement of each of our contributions to that pursuit. Acts of “academic misconduct” violate our core mission; they are attempts by any member the University community to gain unfair academic advantage over their peers or to take credit or recognition for the ideas of others.

Examples include, but are not limited to:

ŸIntentionally tampering with grades, resubmitting assignments for more than one class without the permission of the professor;

Intentionally obtaining or distributing any part of a test that has not been administered;

Cheating;

Plagiarizing;

and knowing furnishing false information to a University Official.

“Cheating” means any act of deception by which a student misrepresents or misleadingly demonstrates that he or she has mastered information on an academic exercise that he or she has not mastered.  Examples include but are not limited to:

(a) Giving or receiving unauthorized help in an academic exercise;

(b) Using of sources or resources beyond those authorized by the instructor in writing papers, preparing reports, solving problems, or carrying out other assignments;

(c) Acquiring, without permission, tests or other academic materials belonging to a member of the University faculty or staff; and

(d) Engaging in any behavior specifically prohibited by a faculty member in the course syllabus or class discussion.

“Fabricating” means the intentional use of information that the author has invented when he or she states or implies otherwise, or the falsification of research or other findings with the intent to deceive.

“Plagiarizing” means using the ideas or writings of another as one’s own.  It includes, but is not limited to:

(a) The use, by paraphrase or direct quotation, of the published or unpublished work of another person without full and clear acknowledgement; and

(b) The unacknowledged use of materials prepared by another person or agency engaged in the selling of term papers or other academic materials.