Honor Code

York University is committed to academic integrity. Academic integrity is essential to the success of the University’s educational and transformational missions, and violations of academic integrity constitute serious offenses against the entire collegiate community. This academic integrity policy and Honor Code is designed to guide students as they prepare assignments, take examinations, and perform the work necessary to complete their degree requirements.

The principles of academic integrity require that a student:

Properly acknowledge and cite all use of the ideas, results, or words of others
Properly acknowledge all contributors to a given piece of work
Make sure that all work submitted as his or her own in a course or other academic activity is produced without the aid of unsanctioned materials or unsanctioned collaboration
Obtain all data and results by ethical means and report them accurately without suppressing any results inconsistent with his or her interpretation or conclusions
Treat all other students in an ethical manner, respecting their integrity and right to purse their educational goals without interference. This requires that a student neither facilitate academic dishonesty by others nor obstruct their academic progress
Uphold the canons of the ethical or professional code of the profession for which he or she is preparing.

Adherence to these principles is necessary in order to insure that:

Everyone is given proper credit for his or her ideas, words, results, or other scholarly accomplishments
All student work is fairly evaluated and no student has an inappropriate advantage over others
The academic, ethical, and spiritual development of all students is fostered
The reputation of the University for integrity in its teaching, research, and scholarship is maintained and enhanced.

Failure to uphold these principles of academic integrity threatens both the integrity of the institution and the value of the degrees awarded to its students. Every member of the University community therefore bears a responsibility for ensuring that the highest standards of academic integrity are upheld and violations of this policy will dealt with through York University’s adjudication process. The first violation will result in a zero on the assignment and the second will result in a WF of the student from the class. If more violations occur, the student faces suspension from the University.

What is Academic Dishonesty?

Plagiarism: In short, plagiarism is presenting another existing work, original ideas, or creative expressions as one’s own without proper attribution. It is a violation of the Honor Code and out of keeping with a Christian institution of higher education. Plagiarism, more narrowly defined, can come in many forms:

Word-for-word plagiarism
Paraphrasing plagiarism
Plagiarism of primary or secondary sources or of ideas

To avoid plagiarism, every direct quotation must be identified by quotation marks or appropriate indentation and both direct quotation and paraphrasing must be cited properly according to the accepted format for the particular discipline or as required by the instructor in a course.

Collaborative Effort: While collaborative effort may or may not have been considered acceptable practice at a student’s high school, York University broadly defines collaborative effort as outside the bounds of integrity and a violation of the honor code. A natural exception to this rule is the group project.

Cheating: Cheating is the use of inappropriate or prohibited materials, information, sources, or aids in any academic exercise. Cheating also includes submitting research papers, research results and reports, analyses, etc. as one’s own work when they were, in fact, prepared by others.

Fabrication: Fabrication is the invention or falsification of sources, citations, data, or results, and recording or reporting them in any academic exercise.

Facilitation of Dishonesty: Facilitation of dishonesty is knowingly or negligently allowing one’s work to be used by other students without prior approval of the instructor or otherwise aiding others in committing violations of academic integrity. A student who intentionally facilitates a violation of academic integrity can be considered to be culpable as the student who receives the impermissible assistance, even if the facilitator does not benefit personally from the violation.

Academic Sabotage: Academic sabotage is deliberately impeding the academic progress of others.

Violation of Research or Professional Ethics: Violations in this category include both violations of the code of ethics specific to a particular profession and violations of more generally applicable ethical requirements for the acquisition, analysis, and reporting of research data and the preparation and submission of scholarly work for publication.

Violations Involving Potentially Criminal Activity: Violations in this category include theft, fraud, forgery, or distribution of ill-gotten materials committed as part of an act of academic dishonesty.

For specific examples regarding academic dishonesty consult with provost@york.edu.