These are the guidelines of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) at University of North Texas related to academic integrity, student misconduct, and professionalism.

The Computer Science and Engineering Department of the University of North Texas promotes the integrity of learning and embraces the core values of trust and honesty. Academic integrity is based on educational principles and procedures that protect the rights of all participants in the educational process and validate the legitimacy of degrees awarded by the University. Student conduct is important to the well-being, honor, and dignity of all who live, learn, and work in our educational community. In the investigation and resolution of allegations of student academic dishonesty and student misconduct, the Department’s actions are intended to be corrective, educationally sound, fundamentally fair, and based on reliable evidence. Similarly, professional behavior promotes more opportunities and encourages collaboration and is a critical component of student education and future careers.

The policies listed below clarify the expected consequences for certain violations. It is the student’s responsibility to be aware of these policies. Lack of awareness is not grounds for appeal of these policies, as the department issues these policies disseminates them consistently through syllabi, orientation, email broadcast, and website.

Consequences of Academic Integrity and Code of Conduct Violations

There are several potential consequences of academic integrity violation(s) or student misconduct violations including, but not limited to:

  • *Removal from the student’s degree program
  • Deny of future TA/IA/RA positions
  • Denial of awards and recognition
  • Termination of TA/IA/RA position
  • Impact on MS or PhD admissions
  • *Removal of scholarship support

*Severe violations or repeated violations after documented warnings can escalate to these more serious consequences.

Definitions

Academic Integrity Defined

Academic integrity refers to the moral principles and ethical practices that guide rigorous research and scholarship. The honest and responsible pursuit of scholarship is essential to academic culture, because the information or data produced is expected to be truthful, accurate, and reliable. The reputation of an educational institution, and public perception of the student excellence that it trains, depend upon the highest standards of academic inquiry and achievement.

Academic integrity is ideally characterized by “best practices” such as:

  • Completing academic assignments or exams per the highest standards of honesty and scholarly excellence;
  • Integrating truthful, accurate, and reliable research information or data into papers or academic projects;
  • Responsibly incorporating and acknowledging referenced sources of information to avoid plagiarism or negligent misattribution;
  • Producing original scholarship of the highest quality using the best information available.

Academic integrity emanates from a culture that embraces the core values of trust and honesty necessary for full learning to occur. As a student-centered public research university, the University of North Texas promotes the integrity of the learning process by establishing and enforcing academic standards. Academic dishonesty breaches the mutual trust necessary in an academic environment and undermines all scholarship. The Student Standards of Academic Integrity are based on educational principles and procedures that protect the rights of all participants in the educational process and validate the legitimacy of degrees awarded by the University. (UNT Policy 18.1.16)

Acts of Academic Dishonesty Defined

More often, academic integrity refers to the avoidance of cheating, plagiarism, or fraudulence as practices of academic dishonesty. Per the UNT Student Standards of Academic Integrity, categories of academic dishonesty include cheating, plagiarism, forgery, fabrication, facilitating academic dishonesty, and sabotage. UNT defines each of these incidences accordingly:

  • Cheating is intentionally using or attempting to use unauthorized materials, information, or study aids in any academic exercise. The term academic exercise includes all forms of work submitted for credit or hours. This also includes “dual submission of a paper or project, or re-submission of a paper or project to a different class without express permission from the instructor.” Finally, UNT includes “any other act designed to give a student an unfair advantage on an academic assignment” as cheating. (UNT Policy 18.1.16)
  • Plagiarism is the deliberate adoption or reproduction of ideas, words or statements of another person as one's own without explicit acknowledgement or citation. However, the adoption or reproduction of the ideas or words of another person as one's own without complete and correct acknowledgement, often the result of a misunderstanding or citational misattribution (defined as “negligent” per the UNT Academic Integrity Policy), can be considered plagiarism.
  • Fabrication is the intentional and unauthorized falsification or invention of any information or citation in an academic exercise.
  • Forgery is altering a score, grade or official academic university record or forging the signature of an instructor or other student.
  • Facilitating academic dishonesty intentionally or knowingly helping or attempting to help another violates a provision of the institutional code of academic integrity.
  • Sabotage is acting to prevent others from completing their work or willfully disrupting the academic work of others.

Although UNT policies create seemingly “black or white” definitional parameters for punitive purposes, there can be a lot of “grey” ambiguity or uncertainty when it comes to application to real students and actual cases. It is critical to reach out to instructors, or relevant faculty and staff, to clarify what constitutes an academic integrity violation when uncertain.

Additional Acts of Plagiarism

While not explicitly defined in the UNT Academic Integrity Guidelines the following acts of plagiarism are an important addition to an academic integrity vocabulary:

  • Self-plagiarism - content from a prior project and passing it off as a new work.
  • Patch-writing plagiarism - slightly rearranged words or phrases directly copied from a source text with minimal changes.
  • Team plagiarism - shared work on an assignment required to be individually completed for credit.

Self-plagiarism, patch-writing plagiarism, or team plagiarism are all forms of plagiarism that are not tolerated by the department, and if you believe these policies may be a concern to your case, it is critical to bring it to the attention of your instructor prior to submission of an assignment.

Academic Integrity

Artificial Intelligence in Academic Integrity

A more complete procedures and guidelines will be made available soon, but for now be aware the "unauthorized" use of any person or technology that assists in a student's assignment, project, or paper is considered cheating under the UNT Student Academic Integrity Policy (UNT Policy 6.003). Unless a professor or instructor gives explicit "authorization," AI cannot be used to assist in the completion of assignments, projects, or papers. Doing so will result in a "cheating" violation. Again, if uncertain contact the instructor prior to using AI tools.

Guidelines and Procedures

Violations and processes that can lead to removal from Computer Science and Engineering programs:

  1. Two reported and verified academic integrity violations in two separate courses with two separate instructors.
    1. This may be enforced with violations on exams or on assignments.
  2. TAs (Teaching Assistant) or IAs (Instructional Assistant) that facilitate academic integrity violations result in severe, immediate consequences which include, but are not limited to: Immediate expulsion – verified assisting other students in cheating, including providing privileged information and purposeful neglect to report academic dishonesty.

Violations which lead to an automatic F in the course.:

  1. Cheating during exams: Examinations are to involve no talking, no sharing/discussing, notes, or internet use unless authorized. Violations will result in an automatic F in the course.
Procedures:

If you are reported for academic integrity violations, the academic integrity appeals process is available.

If your actions are not reported as an academic integrity violation but affect the final grade in your course, you can follow the grade appeals process after you have been assigned a final grade for the course.

University Policy links:

Department Guidelines
  • Lying or misrepresenting awards, experience, or other information to benefit your TA/IA/RA application process. Confirmed cases will be forwarded for placement on the departmental do not hire list. Severe misrepresentations will be reported as a conduct violation.
  • Requesting higher grades because you are near the borderline. This is inappropriate. If the request continues after a verbal warning, a conduct violation can be reported.
  • Requesting higher grades because of your outcome/needs (e.g. “guilt tripping”) rather than accepting the scores or what you have fairly achieved in the course. If the request continues after a verbal warning, a conduct violation can be reported.
  • Pervasive, persistent emails after being requested to stop. Will be reported.
  • Foul language
  • Messaging excessively high in the chain of supervisors or administrators (e.g. President, Dean when clearly not appropriate)
  • Requesting other students’ information, particularly after warning.
Professionalism

These are principles and best practices to appear professional and knowledgeable. Individual courses may have variations in these policies – please consult with your instructor for exceptions.

  • Focus on learning rather than points: Spend more time and effort on learning the material to score well, rather than techniques and tricks to increase your score or grade independent of learning the material.
  • Timely request for regrading: There is no expectation of regrading or re-evaluating assignments or exams if the graded assignment or exam has been returned for more than 2 weeks.
  • Personal assignments: It is generally unethical to request assignments or opportunities not available to other students simply to increase your grade.
  • Do not request personal favors for overrides, waitlist placement, TA/IA positions, etc. The department has policies and procedures to be fair.
    • Exceptions that may be granted are based on needs for graduation or other high priority concerns which are generally agreed up by the administration.
  • Do not mistreat and/or harass faculty, staff, or student workers
    • Do not enter an office or follow someone after they have stated the conversation is over.
  • Be aware of the proper way to address faculty or staff both by name and tone
    • Generally, faculty should be addressed as “Professor [last name]” or “Dr. [last name]” unless otherwise noted.
    • When requesting assistance, in writing or in person, be aware of your tone and understand that staff and faculty are here to help you.
Guidance for instructors
  • In Syllabi we suggest you insert: “All department policies on Academic Integrity and Student Conduct apply for this course – these are available at the following link: https://engineering.unt.edu/cse/students/resources/academic-integrity.html Any exceptions to these guidelines are noted explicitly in the syllabus”
  • Note all deviations from the department guidelines in the syllabus explicitly, ideally directly after the mention of the CSE guidelines.