Academic Misconduct

University Policy

Academic misconduct is behaviour that erodes the basis of mutual trust on which scholarly exchanges commonly rest, undermines the University's exercise of its responsibility to evaluate students' academic achievements, or restricts the University's ability to accomplish its learning objectives.

The University takes a serious view of academic misconduct and will severely penalize students, faculty and staff who are found guilty of offences associated with misappropriation of others' work, misrepresentation of personal performance and fraud, improper access to scholarly resources, and obstructing others in pursuit of their academic endeavours. In addition to this policy, the University has adopted a number of policies that govern such offences, including the policies on Misconduct in Research and Scholarship and the Student Rights and Responsibilities regulations. These policies will be strictly enforced.

It is the responsibility of the University, its faculty, students and staff to be aware of what constitutes academic misconduct and to do as much as possible through establishment and use of policies and preventive procedures to limit the likelihood of offences occurring. Furthermore, individual members of the University community have the specific responsibility of initiating appropriate action in all instances where academic misconduct is believed to have taken place. This responsibility includes reporting such offences when they occur and making one's disapproval of such behaviour obvious.

University of Guelph students have the responsibility of abiding by the University's policy on academic misconduct regardless of their location of study; faculty, staff and students have the responsibility of supporting an environment that discourages misconduct. Students should also be aware that if they find their academic performance affected by medical, psychological or compassionate circumstances, they should inform the appropriate individuals,(instructors, program counsellors, graduate advisors) and follow the available procedures for academic consideration outlined in the University's calendars.

Department Policy

1. No Quotation and references. Plagiarism has occurred if the author does not place quotation marks around word-for-word copying of print or electronic format source material even if the source is correctly cited. To further reduce the possibility that a quotation will be misrepresented or mistaken as one's own work, instructors may request that quotations be italicized or double indented.

2. Degree of fidelity to source. Plagiarism has occurred if the author's writing is clearly recognizable as essentially derived from cited or uncited print or electronic format sources, even though the author has altered the original source material by inverting word or sentence order, or substituting synonyms. Authors should summarize and synthesize ideas and concepts rather than interchange words.

3. Group projects. Teams working on group projects should practice group dynamics (such as meetings of the whole group, review of each other's work and discussion of academic misconduct) that will discourage individuals from contributing plagiarized material. Groups may bear collective responsibility for the academic integrity of their project.

4. Identical individual projects. Plagiarism will be strongly suspected if two or more students submit individual projects that are substantially identical.

5. Editing answers. It is an improper academic practice to add, delete, or edit answers after the exam period has concluded, or using prohibited materials during an exam.