Promoting Academic Integrity

Student Rights & Responsibilities has created the following suggested guidance to assist in promoting and upholding academic integrity.

Faculty can promote positive academic integrity through:

  • Outlining class expectations on academic integrity in the course syllabus and remind students of these expectations throughout the course.
  • Providing clear directions on exams and assignments about which resources are permitted and which are prohibited.
  • Clarifying the type/style of citation standards.
  • Giving students opportunities to seek and receive clarification about expectations.

Suggested Syllabus Language

The University encourages faculty to use their syllabus as an opportunity to address the importance of academic integrity. This statement is a sample of such language and could be used verbatim in GW courses or may be modified as suits the needs of the course.

  • Academic integrity is an essential part of the educational process, and all members of the GW community take these matters very seriously. As the instructor of record for this course, my role is to provide clear expectations and uphold them in all assessments. Violations of academic integrity occur when students fail to cite research sources properly, engage in unauthorized collaboration, falsify data, and otherwise violate the Code of Academic Integrity. If you have any questions about whether or not particular academic practices or resources are permitted, you should ask me for clarification. If you are reported for an academic integrity violation, you should contact Student Rights & Responsibilities (SRR) to learn more about your rights and options in the process. Consequences can range from a warning to expulsion from the university and may include a transcript notation. For more information, please refer to the SRR website, email [email protected], or call 202-994-6757.

For guidance about establishing behavioral expectations in a course, faculty may find this resource helpful for syllabus language (see “Before a course begins or an incident occurs”).

Integrity Pledge Model

Research indicates that requiring students to affirm academic integrity on graded assignments increases the likelihood that they will engage in the assignment honestly1. For this reason, the University recommends that students affirm their academic integrity on all assignments. The following suggested affirmation is adapted from this research1.

Faculty may amend and/or use this as suits their needs. The research is based upon affirmation with each graded assignment. This could also be used as an affirmation at the beginning of a course or for major assignments and exams, for example.

Reporting cases of academic integrity violations is not contingent upon use of this or any other affirmation.

  • I affirm that this is my own work, I attributed where I used the work of others, I did not facilitate academic dishonesty for myself or others, and I used only authorized resources for this assignment, per the GW Code of Academic Integrity. If I failed to comply with this statement, I understand consequences will follow my actions. Consequences may range from receiving a zero on this assignment to expulsion from the university and may include a transcript notation.

Guide to Clarifying Academic Integrity Expectations

This guidance may help faculty clarify for students examples of resources that may be permitted or prohibited on various assessments. While some of these may seem obvious, we encourage faculty to think critically about these resources and communicate expectations explicitly to students. Providing clear, meaningful, and specific boundaries has been proven to improve academic integrity.

The Faculty Guide to Clarifying Academic Integrity Expectations (docx) is intended so that faculty can copy and paste this into their assessments, moving various resources between categories as fits their assessment. Feedback and suggestions can be provided to Student Rights & Responsibilities at [email protected].

  • For the upcoming [insert assessment here], the following resources are prohibited or permitted as indicated. Where indicated, you may use the resource, and doing so requires proper citation. If you have questions about other resources, please don’t hesitate to contact me. If the resource is not listed under “permitted” or “permitted with citation,” you should assume it’s prohibited unless you receive notice otherwise from me. If I detect you used prohibited resources or failed to cite appropriately, I will address that matter as described in our University’s Code of Academic Integrity. Questions about that process should be directed to Student Rights & Responsibilities.
Resource Permitted Permitted with Citation Prohibited
ChatGPT or other artificial intelligence.      
Chegg, Course Hero, Quizlet, and similar sites focused on academic assessments.      
Classmates in your assigned group.      
Classmates, including via GroupMe or other shared conversations      
Classmates in other groups, not your own.      
Course materials on Blackboard.      
Course materials not on Blackboard.      
Gelman Library Research Services      
Google translate, other translation services and tools, or other tools of “artificial intelligence” (broadly interpreted). [Faculty may wish to specify further.]      

GW Writing Center

     
Material from outside of this course (e.g., library books, notes from other courses, online material, Wikipedia, YouTube videos, etc).      
Material from students formerly enrolled in the course (when used without permission, this may result in academic integrity violations for all students involved).      
Notes page designated for this purpose (e.g., you may bring one page of notes to an in-class exam).      
Notes taken in course meetings (including office hour meetings).      
Other people (not classmates as noted above).      
Recorded lectures (from this class, if recording was done or permitted by instructor).      
Recorded lectures, talks, podcasts, videos (from a source other than this class).      
A tutor (from GW’s Academic Commons or elsewhere at GW).      
A tutor not affiliated with a GW service.      
All other resources not specified, unless you receive direction otherwise from the course leaders.     X
Copying (including and pasting) text or answers from a resource without citation or if that resource is prohibited.     X

Beasley, E.M. (2014). Students reported for cheating explain what they think would have stopped them. Ethics & Behaviors, 23:3, 229-252 and Tatum, H. and Schwartz, B.M. (2017). Honor codes: Evidence based strategies for improving academic integrity. Theory Into Practice, 56:2, https://doi-org.proxygw.wrlc.org/10.1080/00405841.2017.130817