Academic Honesty & Professional Ethics
Academic Dishonesty Policy
Academic honesty is essential to the intellectual life of the University. Thus, academic dishonesty is a basis for disciplinary action. Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, cheating, plagiarism, falsifying and fabricating data, or submitting any fraudulent document in academic work, research, and creative activity. In all cases of academic dishonesty, the supervising faculty member makes a judgment about the student’s academic performance and reports all incidents to the Office of the Provost.
Refer to the Collected Rules and Regulations, Section 200.010, Standard of Conduct, Section 200.020, Rules of Procedures in Student Conduct Matters, and the Academic Catalog for for more specific details.
Plagiarism
Academic plagiarism occurs when a scholar presents another person’s ideas, writing, research or other work as their own without attributing the source.
Plagiarism is one of many forms of academic dishonesty. Mizzou offers guidelines and resources for avoiding and addressing plagiarism:
Reporting Dishonesty
According to the MU Faculty Handbook, faculty are required to report to their academic program chair and the provost’s office all acts of academic dishonesty committed by graduate and undergraduate students.
In all such cases, the faculty member should discuss the matter with the student and then make an academic judgment about the student’s grade on the work affected by the dishonesty and, where appropriate, the grade for the affected course.
The provost or their designee decides whether disciplinary proceedings are instituted. Because of the importance of honesty to academic and professional life, acts of dishonesty by graduate students may result in suspension or dismissal from the University.
Codes of Ethics in Your Field
Graduate students also should be aware that most professional associations have codes of ethics.
These codes vary considerably across fields, but tend to provide guidelines for a broad array of professional responsibilities, including teaching, research, and working with clients.
Violations of a code of ethics can lead to negative sanctions by one’s professional colleagues and the expulsion from the professional associations in one’s field. Graduate students are encouraged to obtain copies of codes of ethics for their chosen profession from their advisor or the director of graduate studies in their department or program.