Skip to Main Content

Public Administration: Academic Integrity & Plagiarism

A guide for students doing research on public administration and policy.

Academic Integrity at LIU

Academic Conduct Policy Standards

The following standards, or set of responsibilities, of academic conduct are designed to foster the highest ideals of academic integrity and are intended to clarify expectations. Listed after each one is a description of activities that violate the standard.

Academic Respect for the Work of Others

Plagiarism: representing in any academic activity the words or ideas of another as one’s own (whether knowingly or in ignorance) without proper acknowledgement. This principle applies to texts published in print or on-line, to manuscripts, to your own work, and to the work of other students. Acts of plagiarism include but are not limited to:

  1. Paraphrasing ideas, data, or writing (for instance, from web or online databases, books, periodicals, monographs, maps, charts, pamphlets, and other electronic sources), even if it makes up only part of your written assignment, without properly acknowledging the source; or
  2. Using someone’s words or phrases and embedding them in your own writing without using quotation marks and citing the source; or
  3. Quoting material directly from a source, citing the source on the bibliography page, but failing to mark properly the author’s text or materials with quotation marks and a citation; or
  4. Submitting as your own part of or an entire work produced by someone else; or
  5. Transferring and using another person’s computer file as your own; or
  6. Obtaining papers, tests, and other assessment material from organizations or individuals who make a practice of collecting papers for resubmission; or
  7. Using visual images, dance performances, musical compositions, theatrical performances, and other digital resources (PowerPoint presentations, etc.) as your own without proper acknowledgement.

Academic Self-Respect

Facilitating Academic Dishonesty: assisting another to cheat, fabricate, or plagiarize, including but not limited to:

  1. Allowing another student to copy from you; or
  2. Providing material or other information to another student with knowledge that such assistance could be used in any of the violations stated above (e.g., giving test information to students in other sections of the same course); or
  3. Taking a quiz, exam, or similar evaluation in place of another person; or
  4. Signing on the attendance sheet the name of a student who is not present.

Academic Honesty

Cheating: Improper application of unauthorized materials, information, or study aids, including but not limited to:

  1. Obtaining unauthorized prior knowledge of an examination or part of an examination; or
  2. Using resources or instruments on academic tasks not explicitly permitted by the supervising instructor (e.g., textbook, notes, formula list, calculator, etc.); or
  3. Using any electronic device in an academic exercise or examination that is not explicitly authorized by the supervising faculty. This includes but is not limited to the Internet, cell phones, beepers, iPods, headphones, PDAs, and other wireless handheld devices; or
  4. Altering a graded exam or assignment and then requesting that it be regraded; or
  5. Collaborating by sharing information or requesting assistance, when such collaboration has been explicitly prohibited by the instructor; or
  6. Making use of another person’s data or work without proper citation in an assignment; or
  7. Allowing another person to take a quiz, exam, or similar evaluation for you; or
  8. Submitting work with identical or similar content in concurrent courses without permission of the instructors; or
  9. Resubmitting a work that has already received credit with identical or substantially similar content in another course without consent of the present instructor.

Academic Originality

Fabrication: falsification or invention of any information or citation in an academic activity, including but not limited to:

  1. Crediting source material that was not used for research; or
  2. Presenting results from research that was not performed; or
  3. Altering data to support research; or
  4. Inventing excuses for missed assignments, exams, or classes; or
  5. Altering or falsifying University documents or records related to academic matters.

Academic Fairness

Sabotage: this is understood as stealing, concealing, destroying or inappropriately modifying classroom or other instructional material, such as posted exams, library materials, laboratory supplies, or computer programs.