As a student, you will have many assignments, papers, laboratory reports and/or presentations to prepare over the course of your studies. You may also become involved in peer or public education or become a teaching assistant (TA) for undergraduate courses. As such, academic integrity may apply to you not only as a student, but potentially in these other roles as well.
During your time at McGill, you may encounter the following scenarios that raise questions about academic integrity. For each, we indicate if it involves a violation of the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures (the Code), the specific article of the Code that is violated, an explanation of what constitutes a particular offence, how a TA or instructor can prevent similar situations from occurring and the immediate consequences. The penalties for a violation of the Code are listed in the Green Book, Articles 54 and 56.
Scenario: Questioning cell phone use
While entering an exam room, a student realizes that they forgot to bring a watch, but is not concerned since their cell phone has a clock on it. During the exam, the student takes out the cell phone to check the time. Has the student violated the Code?
Resolution
Yes.
Why is this an issue?
Knowing the time during an exam is important for effective time management, but unlike watches, cell phones can receive and display text messages, pictures and even diagrams. Furthermore, allowing a student to use a cell phone during an exam may create the impression that the student enjoys an advantage over his/her peers, even if it is only used for time checks. It also creates an opportunity for cheating to occur. An interview with the disciplinary officer will be required.
How can it be avoided?
During an exam, all students - even those without a watch - should know how much time is available to complete the exam. At the beginning of the exam, the instructor or TA should explain that cell phones are absolutely forbidden, but that regular time updates will be provided. This ensures fairness for everyone, provides an effective time management mechanism and removes an opportunity for cheating.
Scenario: Reusing your own paper
A student is taking a course this semester that is related to a previous course he took. His final paper for the previous course was on a topic that is central to the present one. Due to the overlap, he decides to hand in the same paper as one of his assignments for the current course. Is this permitted?
Resolution
No.
Why is this an issue?
One of the objectives of your studies is to build on your education by applying concepts and knowledge acquired in previous courses to current ones. The work produced for each course must be original, and the resubmission of an old paper does not build on previous knowledge; it recycles it. An interview with the disciplinary officer will be required.
How can it be avoided?
It is sometimes possible, and even desirable to use previous work as a launching base for new assignments, and this can be part of the academic process. Students who want to do this should contact the course instructor or TA to find out if and how a previous piece of work can be expanded or otherwise used to fulfill the requirements of a current course. If the student fails to do this and submits a previously graded paper, the TA must inform the course instructor, who will then contact the appropriate disciplinary officer.
Scenario: Avoiding misrepresentation
A student presents a TA with a doctor's note to explain why she missed the midterm exam. It is discovered that she changed the dates on the doctor's note. She explains that she had been ill the week before the midterm and was not able to study. She had recovered by the date of the exam; however, feeling unprepared she decided to alter the dates on her doctor's note to include the day of the exam. Has this student violated the Code?
Resolution
Yes.
Why is this an issue?
Serious illness or other major problems in the lead-up to an exam can be legitimate reasons for seeking a deferred exam. But forging a doctor's note or other official document, regardless of the legitimacy of the motivation, is a serious offense. Official documents are useful precisely because they tell us something specific from a known and implicitly trusted source. Students need to know that undermining that social contract hurts everyone, including themselves. An interview with the disciplinary officer will be required.
How can it be avoided?
If a student has a legitimate reason for seeking a deferral, the student needs to contact the Faculty's student affairs/services office (or GPS in the case of graduate students) as soon as possible. This is where a decision can be made. If a student hands in a forged note, the course instructor must send it to the faculty disciplinary officer. Staff should explain to students that while they may have legitimate reasons for missing an exam, forgery is unacceptable.
Scenario: Class presentation and attribution of diagrams, charts, and tables
A student has incorporated diagrams and charts from various textbooks into a class presentation. He thought source citation was not required since he used the course textbook and other reference resources on the suggested reading list. Has he violated the Code?
Resolution
Yes.
Why is this an issue?
The authors of the diagrams and charts and the sources where they were found must be acknowledged. Without these attributions, the student is presenting the work of others as his own. Also, a TA may not recognize every chart, diagram or table from every suggested reading, and grades for originality could be allocated for what is in fact copied work. An interview with the disciplinary officer will be required.
How can it be avoided?
When the instructor or TA advises students to include explanatory tables, charts and diagrams, a discussion of citation expectations would be helpful. Students could be referred to the liaison librarian for the relevant academic discipline for assistance with citation requirements.
Scenario: Translation and quotation marks
A student reads an article which was published in French and she wants to quote it in her English-language term paper. She believes that personal translation work is automatically considered paraphrasing, so while she provides the reference for the passage she translates, she does not use quotation marks or text indentation to bring attention to the translated text in her paper. Is this an acceptable method for including translated text in a term paper?
Resolution
No.
Why is this an issue?
The expression of a sentence or paragraph may change due to your choice of words, but the essential message and findings belong to the original author. Readers need to know when content they are reading has not been chosen or arranged by the author. The translation must be treated as a quote. An interview with the disciplinary officer will be required.
How can it be avoided?
There are various citation styles to choose from when including translated text in your work:
- You may use quotation marks around translated passages and add a footnote stating that you translated the text into English; in this case, the original text would be provided in quotation marks in the footnote, with the source.
- You may also indent the translated text so that it has larger margins than the main text. In this case the original passage, in French, would be provided either before or after the translated text.
(MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 7th edition. 2009. The Modern Language Association of America, New York, pp. 104-105).
Consult a librarian to learn what method is expected in your academic discipline.
Scenario: Sharing my work
A TA for a course notices similarities between two assignments. It turns out that one student loaned her finished work to her friend to give him an idea of how to proceed with the assignment. Without her knowledge, the friend copied some answers and handed in the homework. She assumes that since she did not give permission to her friend to copy her work she has not violated the Code.
Resolution
No.
Why is this an issue?
Peer teaching and peer learning are important and effective study strategies for students. However, giving a completed assignment to a friend is not peer teaching and copying answers is not peer learning. Unintentionally or otherwise, the student who passed on the assignment enabled cheating to occur, and has therefore committed a violation. An interview with the disciplinary officer will be required.
How can it be avoided?
Peer learning should be encouraged, since it helps students learn to teach. Instructors should explain effective peer teaching strategies such as working in pairs, sharing comments on work, and brainstorming solutions to problems in groups. Sharing completed work is not an acceptable peer learning technique. If a student has copied the answers of another student, the incident must be documented by the TA and the material sent to the course instructor, who will contact the appropriate disciplinary officer.
Scenario: Requesting a re-read
A student brings his graded test to a TA to ask that the marking of certain questions be revised. The TA determines that the original answers have been altered and some have new material added to them. The student explains that the original answers didn't accurately reflect his knowledge, so he has added clarifications that he feels better represent what he knew at the time he took the exam. Has he violated the Code?
Resolution
Yes.
Why is this an issue?
It is good for students to reflect on their work in light of grader feedback, but it is a serious offence to revise graded work prior to submitting it for a re-read. An interview with the disciplinary officer will be required.
How can it be avoided?
Students should indeed integrate instructor feedback into future work. In fact, some instructors allow students to revise their work for re-grading as part of their teaching methods. When evaluating an assignment, however, graders must only assess what was submitted and cannot infer what a student intended or meant to write. If a student alters graded work and requests a re-read, the incident must be documented and the instructor will contact the appropriate disciplinary officer. Modified graded work can never be resubmitted unless students are expected to submit multiple drafts or corrected work as part of an assignment. Consult the grading section of the course outline or ask about the resubmission policy in the course.
Scenario: Your homework, your responsibility
A student mentions to a TA that her husband did her lab reports, since he took the course the year before. Has this student violated the Code?
Resolution
Yes.
Why is this an issue?
Students learn from doing course work and applying their knowledge. Instructors work hard to design course work from which students can benefit, so students cheat themselves out of their education when they don't complete their own course work. It is also unethical to present someone else's work as your own. An interview with the disciplinary officer will be required.
How can it be avoided?
Instructors and TAs should explain to students the benefits of completing their own course work and make clear the learning objectives of every assignment. If a student is presenting someone else's course work as his own, the matter will be documented by the TA and reported to the instructor who will contact the appropriate disciplinary officer.
Scenario: Working together
In a particular course, group work is encouraged but all assignments must be written individually. Two students work together, and they write down their ideas as they work, contributing equally. As required, they write up their reports separately, using these notes. In the end, there is substantial overlap in their reports. Have they violated the Code?
Resolution
Maybe.
Why is this an issue?
While there will be overlap in the ideas presented in a report that is developed collaboratively, all students bring different perspectives and have different writing styles. That alone should ensure that reports developed collaboratively but written separately will be unique. In this case, an interview with the disciplinary officer will not be required.
How can it be avoided?
Instructors and TAs should remind students that while they may share ideas and concepts, and even the structure of their assignment, each student should develop his or her own conclusions from the discussion they share, and each item handed in for grading must be written individually.
Scenario: Posting course material on public websites
A TA notices that a student has posted class lecture recordings, lab assignments with answers, and other instructor-generated course materials on a public website. When questioned, the student explains that sites such as this were created for students to share information, and his intention was to help other students. Has he violated the Code?
Resolution
Yes.
Why is this an issue?
The course content that instructors develop belongs to the instructor and it is protected under copyright law. A student may not distribute an instructor’s course materials without explicit permission.
How can it be avoided?
Instructors could remind students that their instructor generated material is protected by law and put the copyright symbol (©) on their materials. Students could be reminded that the public note sites are intended for posting of student generated materials. Personal views on whether materials should be under copyright is beyond the scope of the Code; it is the law at present.
Scenario: "I didn't know the rules!"
A TA is grading lab reports and notes that much of the background material (methodology, instruments used, etc.) in one report is taken directly from a website. It turns out that the student didn't know that Web material of this type had to be referenced. The student assumes that this is not plagiarism since it was unintentional, and expects to receive a warning only. Is the student correct in his assumption?
Resolution
No.
Why is this an issue?
Obtaining information from published sources is desirable and inevitable, but it is important to know how and when to cite sources. Referencing your sources allows interested readers to look them up and learn from them, just as you have. Taking direct text passages from secondary sources that explain or comment on methods, concepts and ideas and presenting them as your own is plagiarism and a serious offence. An interview with the disciplinary officer will be required.
How can it be avoided?
Students need to learn how to use available materials effectively and how to reference properly, as it is not only ethical but required academically. If a student has not been referencing outside sources, the instance will be documented and brought to the instructor's attention for forwarding to the disciplinary officer.
Scenario: Paraphrasing and citation
You are writing your term paper or thesis introduction, thoroughly citing primary papers as you go. You come across an excellent review article that perfectly sums up what you are trying to say. You paraphrase its conclusion and fail to cite the article in your submission. Did you violate the Code?
Resolution
Yes.
Why is this an issue?
Failing to cite the review is plagiarism. That author's thoughts and ideas were reworked by the student but are not the student's own thoughts, even if he or she shares that point of view. Although the conclusion was paraphrased, it is an offence not to cite the review article. An interview with the disciplinary officer will be required.
How can it be avoided?
Familiarize yourself with citation methods and procedures. Your liaison librarian is an excellent resource person. Remember, never fail to cite any material used in your writing, including ideas expressed in reviews.
