Academic Integrity

Academic integrity requires commitment to the values of honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility. It is expected that students, faculty members and staff at the University of Victoria, as members of an intellectual community, will adhere to these ethical values in all activities related to learning, teaching, research and service. Any action that contravenes this standard, including misrepresentation, falsification or deception, undermines the intention and worth of scholarly work and violates the fundamental academic rights of members of our community. The following policies and procedures are designed to ensure that the University's standards are upheld in a fair and transparent fashion.

In this regulation, "work" is defined as including the following: written material, laboratory and computer work, musical or art works, oral reports, audiovisual or taped presentations, lesson plans and material in any medium submitted to an instructor for grading purposes.

Violations of academic integrity covered by this policy can take a number of forms, including the following:

Plagiarism

A student commits plagiarism when he or she:

• submits the work of another person as original work
• gives inadequate attribution to an author or creator whose work is incorporated into the student's work, including failing to indicate clearly (through accepted practices within the discipline, such as footnotes, internal references and the crediting of all verbatim passages through indentations of longer passages or the use of quotation marks) the inclusion of another individual's work
• paraphrases material from a source without sufficient acknowledgement as described above

Students who are in doubt as to what constitutes plagiarism in a particular instance should consult their course instructor.

The University reserves the right to use plagiarism detection software programs to detect plagiarism in essays, term papers and other assignments.

Multiple Submission

Multiple submission is the resubmission of work by a student that has been used in identical or similar form to fulfill any academic requirement at UVic or another institution. Students who do so without prior permission from their instructor are subject to penalty.

Falsifying Materials Subject to Academic Evaluation

Falsifying materials subject to academic evaluation includes, but is not limited to:

• fraudulently manipulating laboratory processes, electronic data or research data in order to achieve desired results
• using work prepared by someone else (e.g., commercially prepared essays) and submitting it as one's own
• citing a source from which material was not obtained
• using a quoted reference from a non-original source while implying reference to the original source
• submitting false records, information or data, in writing or orally

Cheating on Assignments, Tests and Examinations

Cheating includes, but is not limited to:

• copying the answers or other work of another person
• sharing information or answers when doing take-home assignments, tests and examinations except where the instructor has authorized collaborative work
• having in an examination or test any materials or equipment other than those authorized by the examiners
• impersonating a candidate on an examination or test, or being assigned the results of such impersonation

Aiding Others to Cheat

It is an offence to help others or attempt to help others to engage in any of the conduct described above.

Procedures for Dealing with Violations of Academic Integrity in Course Work

Procedures for determining the nature of alleged violations involve primarily the course instructor and the Chair or Director of the unit concerned (or, in the case of undepartmentalized faculties, the Dean). Procedures for determining an appropriate penalty also involve the Dean of Graduate Studies and, in the most serious cases, the President. The Chair, Director or Dean (in the case of undepartmentalized faculties) may designate an experienced faculty member (e.g., the course coordinator in multiple-section courses) to fulfill his or her responsibilities in relation to this policy.

Allegations

Alleged offences must be documented by the instructor, who must inform the Chair. The Chair shall then inform the student in writing of the nature of the allegation and give the student a reasonable opportunity to respond to the allegation. Normally, this shall involve a meeting between the instructor, the Chair, the student and, if the student requests in advance, another party chosen by the student to act as the student's adviser.

Determining the Nature of the Violation

The Chair shall make a determination as to whether convincing evidence exists to support the allegation.

Determining Appropriate Penalties

If there is convincing evidence, the Chair shall inform the Dean of Graduate Studies, who shall then inform the Chair whether the student's record contains any other confirmed instances of plagiarism or cheating. If there is no record of prior offences, the Chair shall make a determination with respect to the appropriate penalty, using the guidelines provided below.

Referral to the Dean

Where there has been a prior offence, the Chair shall forward the case to the Dean of Graduate Studies, after having first determined that convincing evidence exists to support the allegation. The Chair may submit a recommendation to the Dean with respect to a proposed sanction. In the case of a first-time offence that is particularly unusual or serious, the Chair may refer the case to the Dean, with a recommendation for a penalty more severe than those outlined below.

Letters of Reprimand

Any penalty will be accompanied by a letter of reprimand which shall be written by the authority (Chair, Dean, President) responsible for imposing the penalty. The letter of reprimand shall be sent to the student and copied to Graduate Records, where it shall be kept until four (4) years after graduation.

Rights of Appeal

Students must be given the right to be heard at each stage, and have the right to appeal decisions in accordance with University policy. A student may:

• appeal a decision made by an instructor to the Chair of the academic unit in which the student is registered
• appeal a decision made by the academic unit Chair to the Dean of Graduate Studies
• appeal a decision made by the Dean or by the President under the provisions of section 61 of the University Act to the Senate Committee on Appeals

In the case of a successful appeal, any penalty will be rescinded and the letter of reprimand shall be withdrawn from Graduate Records.

Guidelines for Penalties

These guidelines distinguish between minor and serious violations of university policy, and between first and subsequent offences.

Violations Relating to Course Work

Plagiarism

Multiple instances of inadequate attribution of sources should result in a grade of zero for the assignment. A largely or fully plagiarized assignment should result in a grade of F for the course.

Multiple Submission Without Prior Permission

If a substantial part of an assignment submitted for one course is essentially the same as part or all of an assignment submitted for another course, this should result in a grade of zero for the assignment in one of the courses. If the same assignment is submitted for two courses, this should result in a grade of F for one of the courses. The penalty normally will be imposed in the second (i.e., later) course in which the assignment was submitted.

Falsifying Materials

If a substantial part of an assignment is based on false materials, this should result in a grade of zero for the assignment. If an entire assignment is based on false materials (e.g., submitting a commercially prepared essay as one's own work), this should result in a grade of F for the course.

Cheating on Exams

Any instance of impersonation of a candidate during an exam should result in a grade of F for the course for the student being impersonated, and disciplinary probation for the impersonator (if he or she is a student). Isolated instances of copying the work of another student during an exam should result in a grade of zero for the exam. Systematic copying of the work of another student (or any other person with access to the exam questions) should result in a grade of F for the course. Any instance of bringing unauthorized material (e.g., crib sheets, written notes on body or clothing) into an exam should result in a grade of F for the course. Sharing information or answers for take-home assignments and tests when this is clearly prohibited in written instructions should result in a grade of zero for the assignment when such sharing covers a minor part of the work, and a grade of F for the course when such sharing covers the bulk of the work.

Collaborative Work

In cases in which an instructor has provided clear written instructions prohibiting certain kinds of collaboration on group projects (e.g., students may share research but must write up the results individually), instances of prohibited collaboration on a substantial part of the assignment should result in a grade of zero for the assignment, while instances of prohibited collaboration on the bulk of the assignment should result in a grade of F for the course.

Repeat Violations

Any instance of any of the violations described above committed by a student who has already committed one offence, especially if either of the offences merited the assignment of a grade of F for the course, should result in the student's being placed on disciplinary probation. This decision can only be taken by the Dean of Graduate Studies. Disciplinary probation will be recorded on the student's transcript. If a student on disciplinary probation commits another offence, this should result in the student's permanent suspension. This decision can only be taken by the President, on the recommendation of the Dean.

Violations Relating to Graduate Student Dissertations or Theses

• a) Instances of substantial plagiarism or falsification of materials that affect a minor part of the student's dissertation or thesis should result in a student being placed on disciplinary probation and required to rewrite the affected sections of the thesis. While the determination of the nature of the offence would be made by the Chair, this penalty could only be imposed by the Dean of Graduate Studies. If there were no further offences, the notation "disciplinary probation" would be removed from the student's transcript after graduation.
• b) Instances of plagiarism or falsification of materials that affect a major part of the student's dissertation or thesis should result in the student being placed on disciplinary probation and the rejection of the thesis. While the determination of the nature of the offence would be made by the Chair, this penalty could only be imposed by the Dean of Graduate Studies.
• c) If a student on disciplinary probation commits a second offence, the student should be subject to permanent suspension. This decision can only be taken by the President, on the recommendation of the Dean of Graduate Studies.

Keeping Records

Violations of academic integrity are most serious when repeated. Records of violations of university policy are kept to ensure that repeat offenders can be identified and appropriately sanctioned. Access to these records is restricted to protect students' right to privacy.

a) Chairs, Directors and Deans (whichever is responsible for imposing the penalty) will report instances of plagiarism and cheating to the Graduate Admissions and Records Office. The student's file will be marked to indicate that a violation has occurred and the faculty in which the violation occurred, and to note the penalty imposed (i.e., zero for the assignment, F for the course).

b) Only Deans (or their designates) will have access to information on individual students, and only to check for repeat offences. This information will not be available to instructors, Chairs, or other staff. Administration officers may have access to aggregate information on numbers of offences for purposes of analysis, but in this case the information is to be provided without revealing the names of students.

c) Disciplinary probation will be recorded on the transcripts of students who have committed two or more offences.

d) Files detailing the nature of the offence are to be retained in either the Dean's office or the Chair's office until four years after the student's graduation.

e) Ordinarily, information on cases of plagiarism and cheating is to be available only to the Dean of Graduate Studies and only for the purpose of checking for repeat offences. However, in some special circumstances, there may be reasons why faculty members need to have access to this information (e.g., character attestation for purposes of professional accreditation). If a faculty intends to use the files kept by the Dean of Graduate Studies or Chair for any such purpose, that purpose must be publicly identified by the faculty.