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Academic Integrity[1]

The Cumulative Nature of Scholarship

A basic principle of pedagogic practice in a university is that all work (including rough drafts) presented to faculty members for comment and evaluation must, in all substantial respects, be the independent work of the author whose name appears on it. That said, it is essential to academic and intellectual inquiry to learn from others. In addition, cumulation of knowledge is critical to the development of the field of security studies, as in others. In order for students to contribute to this field, they must situate their own work in the existing body of literature. Serving all of these concerns simultaneously requires careful acknowledgement of which ideas are the author’s own, which build on others’ work, and which are solely derivative from it.

While avoiding misuse short of plagiarism may be matter of judgment, true plagiarism, the theft of words, is unambiguous. In general, information, concepts, and interpretations that are common knowledge within a scholarly field or sub-field, such as one might find in textbooks, encyclopedia articles, or other works whose aims are largely synthetic, normally do not require detailed citation. Direct quotes and recent or distinctive findings or interpretations always do, regardless of where they appear.

This document outlines the NSA department’s general guidance on these issues. Individual instructors are free to provide additional guidance, or set additional requirements, in connection with specific courses.

Academic Dishonesty

Unfortunately, violations of academic integrity have become an increasingly serious problem and must be explicitly addressed. The following practices are unacceptable and will result in penalties as discussed below.

Cheating

• Offering another person's work as one's own.
• Using unauthorized materials, prepared answers, written notes or information concealed in a blue book or elsewhere during an examination.
• Allowing others to do the research and writing of an assigned paper (including use of the services of a commercial term-paper company).
• Copying from others during an examination.
• Communicating exam answers with other students during an examination.
• Taking an examination for another student or having someone take an examination for oneself.
• Sharing answers for a take-home examination or assignment unless specifically authorized by the instructor.
• Tampering with an examination after it has been corrected, then returning it for more credit.

Dishonest Conduct

• Submitting substantial portions of the same work for credit in more than one course without consulting all instructors involved.
• Stealing or attempting to steal an examination or answer key from the instructor.
• Changing or attempting to change academic records without proper sanction.
• Forging add/drop/change cards and other enrollment documents, or altering such documents after signatures have been obtained.
• Intentionally disrupting the educational process in any manner.
• Allowing another student to copy off of one's own work during a test.

Plagiarism

The most disconcerting breach of academic integrity is plagiarism, a term that derives from the Latin word for "theft." It means use of the intellectual creations of another without proper attribution. The theft or expropriation of another author's text, which means the presentation of it as if it were one's own without quotation marks or citation, constitutes plagiarism. Plagiarism is a serious violation of scholarly ethics, an offense against the original author's literary rights, and the copyright owner's property rights.

Plagiarism may take two main forms, which are clearly related:

• To steal or pass off as one's own the ideas or words, images, or other creative works of another.
• To use a creative production without crediting the source, even if only minimal information is available to identify it for citation.

In addition to egregious forms plagiarism,[2] there are other ways in which the writings of another author can be misused, even when one does not borrow the exact wording. Such misuse includes using another scholar's distinctive and significant research findings, hypotheses, theories, rhetorical strategies, or interpretations without attribution. More subtle abuses include the appropriation of concepts, data, or notes, all disguised in newly crafted sentences, or reference to another's work in an early note, followed by extensive further use without attribution. Close paraphrasing, in which one follows the sentence and paragraph structure of the original but changes a word here and there, is also plagiarism, even if the original source is cited. All such tactics reflect an unworthy disregard for the contributions of others. Such practices can be as unfair and unethical as plagiarism itself.

Whenever an author makes use of another’s ideas or words, credit must be given.

• If a passage is quoted verbatim, it must be noted with quotation marks (or other formating) and a citation. (The length of such a passage might be anywhere from a phrase to several sentences.)
• If the ideas—but not the precise words—are used, then quotation marks are not needed, but a citation still is. (Thus, paraphrasing or summarizing still requires a citation, and any paraphrasing should be largely in the student’s own words and not a close imitation of the original.)
• “Common knowledge” information generally does not require a citation. A good general rule of thumb for students to assess whether a particular fact is “common knowledge” is: would it be likely that the fact/idea is already known by most of his/her classmates.

Scope and Consequences

Any breach of the standards of independence of scholarly work and adequate citation of source material—even if inadvertent—is the responsibility of the student. Ignorance of the standards in this regard is not a legitimate defense in the face of any transgression.

Academic dishonesty applies equally to electronic media and print, and involves text, images, and ideas.

Collusion to cheat or plagiarize is also a violation of the standards of academic integrity: Any student who knowingly or intentionally helps another student perform any of the above acts of cheating or plagiarism is also subject to discipline for academic dishonesty.

The NSA department policy is to report ALL cases of plagiarism—intentional and unintentional—to NSA department authorities. Based on the severity of the violation, and on the frequency of the problem, appropriate disciplinary action will be taken. This can include informal counseling, a failing grade on a test or paper, failing a course, the denial of a graduate degree, and/or documentation in your officer performance report and other non-judicial punishment. The range of sanctions available at the Naval Postgraduate School is given in NAVPGSCOLINST 5370.1D of 6 Jan 2006.[3]

Other General Guidance

Research Papers

Unless forbidden by the professor, students preparing research papers would normally consult with a number of other individuals in the course of their work. They would certainly interact with librarians and others in obtaining access to necessary materials, and might also discuss their ideas with other students or other faculty members besides the professor of the course. They might also seek the help of a typist or copyeditor in preparing the final draft. This is a common and approved practice especially in the preparation of theses. All such conduct is legitimate, and often desirable, provided it does not intrude upon the substantive contents of the work being submitted. At all times and in all cases, students are expected to express their own ideas in their own words, and to employ standard forms of academic citation whenever they make substantive use of the ideas or words of others. However, it is also a common and approved practice to resort to a thesis copyeditor when the writer’s mother tongue is not English, and NPS makes funds available for this purpose.

Take-Home Examinations

The considerations that apply to "take-home" examinations are especially stringent, and differ in important respects from those that are appropriate to a research paper or other unique project.

• The Reason For Take-Home Examinations. Take-home examinations are employed in graduate education to allow the incorporation of appropriately complex problems into examinations intended for advanced students.
• The Expectation. Unless expressly permitted by the instructor, it must be always understood and always expected that take-home examinations are to be completed without the benefit of help from any other individual. This means, for instance, that even if the ground rules for the examination permit you to consult published materials in preparing your answer, you are not free to ask a librarian, a friend, an editor, a staff member, or another faculty member to recommend relevant material for you to consult.
• Unpublished Material. Unless expressly authorized by the instructor, you are not free to use unpublished material, including course papers written by other students, even if these were submitted in a different course or for a different purpose.
• Typists and Editors. Your examination cannot be typed, proofread, or edited by another person. As a general rule for take home exams, you cannot discuss your ideas or conclusions with anyone, including people unconnected with the school, until the examination is submitted to the course instructor of record.
• Locus of Responsibility. Breaches of take-home examination standards, regardless of how they may occur, are the sole responsibility of the student. If you have any doubts about the ground rules for a take-home examination, you must ask the instructor for clarification before beginning your work.

Additional Resources

For an excellent exercise on distinguishing plagiarism from legitimate cumulation of knowledge in academia, see the quiz developed by Boston College’s Political Science Department. The NSA department strongly recommends all its students take this self-graded quiz and thoroughly understand the explanations given for the answers.

• See: http://www.bc.edu/schools/cas/polisci/integrity/quiz.html

For more on plagiarism, see the resources offered by the George Mason University’s writing center, which maintains an excellent set of online resources.

• See: http://writingcenter.gmu.edu/resources/plagiarism.html

Most standard undergraduate writing and research guidebooks have discussions for avoiding plagiarism. For instance, see:

• Troyka, Lynn Quitman, Simon & Schuster Handbook for Writers, 6th ed. (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2002).
• Turabian, Kate L., A manual for writers of term papers, theses, and dissertations (Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, 1996).
• Gibaldi, Joseph, MLA handbook for writers of research papers (New York, NY: Modern Language Association of America, 1995).

When in doubt, ask your instructors and advisors for assistance!

218. Academic Honor Code[4]

Students must follow the academic honor code at all times. The highest standards of honesty and integrity are expected of all students. Plagiarism, fraud, cheating, and verbal or written misrepresentation, constitute a violation of the Academic Honor Code. Instructor-authorized group activities/projects should rightly acknowledge the efforts of all respective participants. Faculty will clearly state in each course (and/or assignment) how much consultation/cooperation among students is permissible, and must indicate what materials may be used in student preparation for and performance of all graded work.

While no single list can identify and define all types of academic honor code standards, the following are cited as examples of unacceptable behavior:

• Cheating - Using unauthorized notes, study aids, or information on an examination; looking at another student’s paper during an examination; altering a graded work after it has been returned, then resubmitting it for re-grading; allowing another person to do one’s work and submitting it under one’s own name.

• Plagiarism - Submitting material that in part or whole is not entirely one’s own work without attributing those same portions to their correct source. Student shall ensure all references are properly sited.

• Fabrication - Falsifying or inventing any information, data, or citation.

• Obtaining an Unfair Advantage - Gaining access to examination materials prior to the time authorized by the instructor; unauthorized collaboration on an academic assignment; possessing, using or circulating previously given examination materials where those materials clearly indicate that they are to be returned to the instructor at the conclusion of the examination.

Appropriate disciplinary action may include dis-enrollment, fitness report comments, and a letter to appropriate government agencies or official service branches.

Individuals suspecting Academic Honor Code violations are required to inform the appropriate academic/curricular officials.

Notes

1. Numerous NSA faculty members have contributed to this document, in particular: Anne Clunan, Dan Moran, Jeffrey Knopf, Jessica Piombo, Maria Rasmussen, and Christopher Twomey.

2. This paragraph was adapted from the American Historical Association's "Statement on Standards of Professional Conduct."

3. See: http://intranet.nps.edu/Code00/Instructions/pdf_files/NAVPGSCOLINST%205370.1D.pdf

4. Excerpted from NPS Student Information Handbook available at http://www.nps.edu/CurStudents/index.html as of March 2008.

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