Computer Science Academic Honesty

Computer Science Department

Academic Honesty Policy

Definition: What is plagiarism?

Plagiarism is not only unethical but it is also detrimental to student learning and goes counter to the department culture. Plagiarism is presenting, as one's own, the code, ideas, words or products of another person, for academic evaluation, without proper acknowledgment.  According to Merriam-Webster online dictionary, plagiarism is an act of fraud. It involves both stealing someone else's work and lying about it afterwards. Please refer to SCSU ACADEMIC MISCONDUCT,  SCSU student handbook  and ACM's Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct.

Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to:

copying Course Evaluation Materials and Solutions (CEMS) including code, programs or parts of a program, information, exam, assignment, project, term paper, laboratory report sentences, phrases, paragraphs, tables, figures, images, sound, videos or data directly or in slightly modified form from a book, article, websites, another person’s work, or other academic source without instructor’s permission;

here are some examples:

1. Copying CEMS from the Internet and submitting it as one's own work.
2. Copying CEMS from another student and submitting it as one's own work.
3. Soliciting CEMS for the purpose of turning them in as one's own work
4. Selling or distributing CEMS to another person for submission by that other person, for academic evaluation, as his or her own work
5. Impersonating another student in an examination environment.
6. The theft of course materials such as gaining unauthorized access to CEMS solutions.
7. Allowing others to commit plagiarism from your work, e.g. sharing your answers to CEMS, assisting others in an in-class, take-home or online assessment from current or previous semesters.

As stated above, you are responsible for protecting your work. Take care of the materials you develop. The following table shows the activities that you are allowed / not allowed to do to protect your work:

If you are not sure whether the materials you prepare to submit are appropriate, please see the following restrictions or consult with your instructor before submission.

Restrictions:

Your work should be yours and yours alone.

1. You should never share your CEMS to any current or future students of the CS class.
2. You should never view someone else’s CEMS. If another student shares a solution with you, do not open it.
3. You may not place your CEMS in a public location (such as a website, a public code repository, or a printout left in a lab) unless required or authorized by your instructor.
4. You may include or change CEMS from course materials, textbook, or external resources if you have the instructor’s permission and include proper acknowledgment and citation to the original author or source. Students may not receive any credit for CEMS not developed by themselves.
5. You should never lead another student line-by-line through a solution.
6. If you are retaking a course and have CEMS from previous semesters, you may not reuse them unless you have permission from your instructor.
7. You should not plagiarize from yourself; this could happen if you submit CEMS from a previous class or submit the same CEMS for two classes without the instructor’s permission.

Plagiarism Detection and Notification:

A faculty can employ any computational software and/or manual inspection to conclude that one or more students have plagiarised. Once such a case of plagiarism is detected, the faculty shall notify the student(s) of the plagiarism case in writing according to the SCSU Guidliness for addressing students misconduct. The faculty is NOT obligated to tell the student how the case was detected since it gives away the detection technique and might make future plagiarisms harder to be detected.

Penalties and Sanctions:

Instructor Level

The first offense will result in a zero point credit in the corresponding assessment. Upon committing an act of plagiarism for the second time, the student(s) involved will get an ‘F’ in the course and be reported to the Computer Science department.

Department Level

Plagiarism records are accessible by the department’s faculty across courses, and will contribute to the tally.  That is, plagiarism offense counts do not reset when taking a new course. For example, if student A, who was never charged with an act of plagiarism in any CS course at SCSU, plagiarizes in course X and also in course Y, one of these acts (depending on the assessment submission dates) is considered the first offense and the other one the second. Records of plagiarism with less than three offense counts will be maintained for the duration of the student’s program duration and will be erased once the student graduates. However, plagiarism records with three or more offenses will be reported  to the Dean of the School, Dean of Student Affairs and SCSU Judicial Officer. Possible penalty may be suspension or expulsion from the university.

Student Rights and Responsibilities

A student accused of academic dishonesty has the right to appeal an instructor’s allegations.

The CS department will follow the policies and guidelines developed by the SCSU Faclty Senate.

This policy can also be downloaded in pdf format here:

Academic Honesty