Current Students

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY IN THE SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES

All students must familiarize themselves with Rutgers University Academic Integrity Policy.

Code of Professional Conduct: All students have a fundamental responsibility for maintaining academic integrity and intellectual honesty in their academic and professional endeavors. They are expected to observe generally accepted principles of scholarly work, to submit their own rather than another's work, to refrain from falsifying data, to acknowledge the published work of others in an appropriate manner, and to refrain from receiving or giving aid during examinations or other work requiring independent effort. When submitting written material, students take full responsibility for the originality of all work not otherwise identified by appropriate acknowledgments and imply that both the ideas and words used are their own. All students are expected to respect the property of faculty and other students, and not use research equipment or laboratory supplies of others without permission.

The following general examples are designed to clarify what is not permissible. The list is not all-inclusive, but intends to establish that no form of academic dishonesty will be tolerated by the school, its faculty, or its students.

• • Providing false information in any academic document or academic exercise
• • Forging, plagiarizing, or altering any academic document
• • Intentionally impeding or interfering with the ability of fellow students to use academic materials or to complete academic work
• • Taking another student's personal belongings or taking University equipment for personal use.
• • Knowingly assisting a fellow student in any of the above activities.
• • Specific examples of appropriate behavior in examinations, research papers, oral presentations and qualifying exams are given below:

Examinations: The purpose of an examination is to assess a student's knowledge of a topic defined within a course or courses. Unless given explicit written instructions to the contrary, a student must work without assistance on an examination .

• • Classroom examination: Each student will provide answers to questions as directed. Unless otherwise stated, no material (books, calculators, computers, communication devices) of any kind can be used during an examination.
• • Take-home examination: Each student will provide answers as directed. Unless otherwise stated, research and writing must be done individually without assistance or exchange of information with others. The ability to use source material in the research of answers will be defined for each examination. But, unless stated otherwise, all source material should be cited appropriately as outlined below.

Research Papers: The purpose of preparing a research paper is to help a student think deeply about a topic after reading about and/or discussing a subject. These reports are also used by the faculty to see how well a student understands various problems and concepts. Papers must be written in your own words and are expected to reflect your own ideas and your synthesis of the material presented.

• • Because you are expected to read about the subject, research papers can include background material from journals, textbooks and, sometimes, websites. All material used to develop an idea or concept in a research paper must be properly cited.
• • Proper citation should be given immediately after every idea or fact that derives from another source. A complete bibliographic reference is then written at the end of the paper. Both immediate citation and bibliographic references must be used to appropriately cite work by others. Appropriate citation styles are available in citation handbooks located in Rutgers University Libraries at: 

https://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/research-support/tutorials-information-literacy-and-critical-thinking/citation-styles 

• • Paraphrasing is the use of sentences or ideas that are very close to what someone else has written or said. Paraphrasing written or oral work by others is not permissible. Express yourself using your own words.
• • Some facts are considered common scientific knowledge and do not need to be cited (e.g., "all eukaryotic cells are enclosed by membranes"). If you are unsure or have any questions about using material, you should ask the faculty.
• • Using the exact wording of another author is very rarely done in scientific papers. However, when you do that, the words must be in quotes followed by a citation (e.g., "Cats are very friendly animals" [Smith et al., 2003] ).
• • Ignorance of appropriate citation guidelines is not an excuse so it is always safer to cite sources rather than omit citations.
• • Keep all notes regarding research papers at least until your grade is finalized.

Oral and Poster Presentations: Presentations of data and ideas, both orally or in poster format, are important forums to disseminate scientific information. As a student, you may be called upon to make oral presentations for class assignments or to present your research work. These presentations will also occur at crucial times during your doctoral training, such as your doctoral defense, and in your professional career, so it is important that you present your ideas and work clearly and distinguish your work from that of others. During presentations, you should follow these guidelines:

• • All text should be in your own words. Ideas taken from other sources should be cited on a slide or orally and, in the case of poster presentations, referenced in a bibliography, similar to a written paper.
• • Quotations are rarely used and must be offset by quotation marks and attributed to their source(s) on the same page or slide.
• • Figures given without attribution should be your own. Any figures not produced by the presenter must be attributed. Exceptions to this rule are when a mentor gives you explicit permission to use one of his/her figures or slides without providing written attribution. However, even in this case, you should orally attribute the person(s) who produced the figure or slide.

Additional resources
Students are strongly encouraged to view and understand information located at : Information Ethics | Evaluating Information | Visual and Quantitative Literacy | Sources of Information | Culture and Citizenship