Professionalism and research ethics are crucial to becoming
a respected scholar and a citizen of the academy. Included in this packet are materials to
orient you to your career as a member of GSAS, Columbia, and the larger community of
scholars.
Also in fall 2007-08 GSAS plans to sponsor a series of presentations
and conversations focusing on issues of academic integrity, responsible
conduct of research and ethics in the academy.
Academic Honesty
Students should be aware that academic dishonesty (for
example, plagiarism, cheating on an examination, or dishonesty in dealing with
a faculty member or other University official) or the threat of violence or
harassment are particularly serious offences and will be dealt with severely
under Dean’s Discipline. (GSAS Bulletin 87)
Each graduate student bears the responsibility to observe
traditional canons of scholarly discourse, scientific research, and academic
honesty. Students as well as faculty are
expected to exhibit the high level of personal and academic integrity required
of members of an academic community.
Scholars draw inspiration from the work done by other scholars; they
argue their claims with reference to others’ work; they extract evidence from
the world or from earlier scholarly works.
In this intellectual engagement, it is vital to credit properly the ideas,
contributions, and work of others. To
fail to do so would violate your scholarly responsibility.
In particular terms, students must not cheat on
examinations, and deliberate plagiarism is of course prohibited. Students should not purchase papers from (or
post papers on) on-line term-paper sites; nor should they submit the same paper
to more than one class. Graduate
students must also take special care to avoid even accidental plagiarism: You
are responsible for proper citation and paraphrasing, and your best strategy is
to use great caution in your handing of ideas and prose passages; be sure to
take notes carefully, clearly marking words and ideas not your own. Failure to observe these rules of conduct can
result in serious consequences, up to and including dismissal.
Plagiarism includes the following (adapted from Purdue University’s
Online Writing Lab, http://owl.english.purdue.edu)
- Buying, stealing, or borrowing a paper
- Hiring someone to write your paper
- Copying from or paraphrasing another source without citing
(whether on purpose or by accident)
- Building on someone’s ideas without citing
Copies of the Graduate
School of Arts &
Sciences Grievance & Disciplinary Policy are available in 107 Low, or http://www.columbia.edu/cu/gsas/pdf-files/grievence_policy/grievance_policy.pdf
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