Academic Integrity

Personal integrity is a behavioral expectation for all members of the Messiah community: administration, faculty, staff, and students. Violations of academic integrity are not consistent with the community standards of Messiah University. These violations include:

  1. Plagiarism. Submitting as one’s own work part or all of any assignment (oral or written) which is copied, paraphrased, or purchased from another source, including on-line sources, without the proper acknowledgment of that source. Examples: failing to cite a reference, failing to use quotation marks where appropriate, misrepresenting another’s work as your own, etc.
  2. Self-Plagiarism: The reuse of significant, identical, or nearly identical portions of one's own work without acknowledging that one is doing so or citing the original work. Examples: Reusing portions of a previously written text, paper, or article (published or unpublished text), republishing or reusing the same paper that is published elsewhere without notifying the reader nor publisher of the journal, etc.
  3. Cheating. Attempting to use or using unauthorized material or study aids for personal assistance in examinations or other academic work. Examples: using a cheat sheet, altering a graded exam, looking at a peer’s exam, having someone else take the exam for you, using any kind of electronic mobile or storage devices (such as cell phones, PDAs, Blackberry, iPods, iPhones, Flash drives, DVDs, CDs), communicating via email, IM, or text messaging during an exam, using the internet, sniffers, spyware or other software to retrieve information or other students’ answers, purposely disconnecting from the internet to cause a lock on an online exam, etc.
  4. Fabrication. Submitting altered or contrived information in any academic exercise. Examples: falsifying sources and/or data, etc.
  5. Misrepresentation of Academic Records. Tampering with any portion of a student’s record. Example: forging a signature on a registration form or change of grade form on paper or via electronic means.
  6. Facilitating Academic Dishonesty. Helping another individual violate this policy. Examples: working together on an assignment where collaboration is not allowed, doing work for another student, allowing one’s own work to be copied.
  7. Computer Offenses. Altering or damaging computer programs without permission. Examples: software piracy, constructing viruses, introducing viruses into a system, copying copyrighted programs, etc.
  8. Unfair Advantage. Attempting to gain advantage over fellow students in an academic exercise. Examples: lying about the need for an extension on a paper, destroying or removing library materials, having someone else participate in your place, etc.