Academic misconduct
Plagiarism
If you directly copy or summarize someone else’s words or ideas without acknowledging the source.
Word-for-word plagiarism is … a sequence of 7 or more words from another source, [that] fails to identify the quoted passage, … the full in-text citation crediting the author(s), and … the bibliographic reference. (Frick et al. 2016)
Academic integrity
The promotion of independent and original scholarship ensures that students derive the most from their educational experience and their pursuit of knowledge. (Academic Integrity)
Violations include cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, and participating in or encouraging dishonesty.
Violators will receive zero credit and be referred to the Office of Student Conduct.
Claudine Gay (2023)
AIs help and hinder learning
AI-based tools, including ChatGPT, can help and hinder our learning.
Obviously, there’s a strong temptation to skip learning and misrepresent our work, this is academic misconduct.
Using AI tools well and honestly requires the disclosure of their use and careful effort—they can plagiarize and “hallucinate” facts and sources.
(A past student used ChatGPT to summarize his own paper for the conclusion and it plagiarized text from elsewhere.)
AI policy
- AI cannot be used for quizzes or exams.
- All other usage (e.g., understanding, insights, findings, and prose) must be substantively your own and you must include a note or appendix describing your use, including important prompts.
Otherwise, you are:
- forgoing learning;
- taking credit for something you are not responsible for;
- putting forth claims/sources you didn’t know or evaluate.
Showing your work
To show your work is your own
- you must include a link to evidence of your work’s progression via versioning.
- You must also be prepared to speak with me to demonstrate your understanding.
Versioning is native to GDocs and Pages; MS Word requires use of Northeastern’s Office 365/OneDrive.
Good uses: query, don’t copy
- Ask how to cite a web source without an author, in APA.
- Find compositional errors in short phrases.
- Remember query but don’t copy-paste: AI prose can include plagiarisms and hallucinations.
- Brainstorm essay topics or research sources.
Ask questions and disclose your use; do not copy-and-paste its prose.