Code of Academic Honesty

Honesty is an essential value of our academic community.
You are here to learn, and learning depends upon hard work and academic honesty.
Your instructors set high standards and expect you to do your very best, completing your work honestly.
Any student who registers for courses in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences has, in essence, agreed to the value of learning and thus to the importance of the College’s Code of Academic Honesty.

Students who choose not to live up to the Code may be asked to leave the College.

Examples of Offenses against the Code of Academic Honesty
Consequences for Academic Misconduct
Appeals

Examples of Offenses against the Code of Academic Honesty

The following are examples of offenses against the Code of Academic Honesty in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Many of these categories overlap. Offenses are not limited to this list and include other types of cheating, misrepresentation, and dishonesty related to academic exercise or program.

Cheating on Quizzes and Exams

  • Using  notes, books, calculators, phones, photos, computers, web sites, tweets, social media, or other aids during a quiz or an exam when not allowed by the instructor
  • Talking during a quiz or exam when told by the instructor talking is not permitted
  • Looking at another student’s exam or quiz during the testing period
  • Continuing to work on a quiz or exam after the instructor has notified students that time for the test has ended
  • Stealing, reproducing, circulating, or otherwise gaining access to a quiz, exam, or homework materials prior to the time authorized by an instructor
  • Ignoring the guidelines specified by the instructor for an assignment or for a "take home" test and instead using materials or study aids that the instructor has forbidden

Plagiarism

  • Using the words, sentences, arguments, rhetorical structures, and ideas of another without proper citation and acknowledgment
  • Copying data, facts, graphs, computer programs, spreadsheets, images, photos, film/video, or other materials and using them without proper citation or acknowledgment
  • Copying homework, quiz, or exam answers from an answer key, solution manual, textbook, web site, or other items from another student, thus presenting another’s work as your own
  • Using material generated by artificial intelligence (AI) unless specifically allowed by the course instructor
  • Failing to use quotation marks properly or when needed
  • Failing to give a source for quoted materials
  • Failing to paraphrase language completely
  • Failing to give a source for paraphrases
  • Failing to cite sources correctly and completely

Unauthorized Collaboration

  • Receiving help with homework, reports, labs, paper, data collection, or other activities when not allowed by the instructor
  • Accepting credit for a group project without doing your share of the work
  • Helping others with their homework or other assignments when not allowed by the instructor
  • Allowing others to view your answers or copy part of your homework, lab, quiz answers, exam answers, or other related work when not permitted to do so by the instructor.
  • A group doing another student’s work on a group project, lab, presentation, report, or other  activity while presenting the work as if done by the entire group equally

Willful Misrepresentation

  • Fabricating quotations
  • Fabricating sources
  • Fabricating, dishonestly adjusting, omitting, or otherwise misrepresenting research results and records, including information, data, statistics, research facts, and its analysis
  • Engaging in selective reporting or omission of conflicting data for deceptive purposes
  • Altering graded work, then resubmitting it for new grade
  • Providing false information about reasons for class absences or late work when requesting a make-up quiz or exam or an extension for homework
  • Submitting the same paper in more than one class without the approval of the instructors involved
  • Submitting a paper from a previous semester for a current class without the approval from the instructor
  • Failing to provide required or requested information regarding academic performance or enrollments at previous institutions
  • Intentionally obstructing or interfering with other students' academic work, or otherwise undertaking activity with the purpose of creating or obtaining an unfair academic advantage over other students' academic work.
  • Altering documents affecting academic records, such as falsifying information on an official academic document, form, grade report, letter of permission, clinical record, student ID cards, or any other official document.
  • Providing false information to others about academic performance, leadership activities, or membership in student organizations.
  • Falsification of information records
  • Recording hours not actually worked
  • Submitting an altered or fabricated preceptor evaluation
  • Altering a score, grade, or schedule change on an academic record.
  • Forging the signature of an instructor, advisor, dean, or another student
  • Creating false university, college, or other official correspondences (such as medical documentation)

Facilitating Academic Dishonesty of Others

  • Writing a paper for another student
  • Allowing another student to use your past homework assignments, papers, labs, or similar items
  • Sharing homework with another student when told collaboration is not allowed
  • Allowing or helping another student to look at your exam or quiz during a test
  • Sharing with other students your notes, books, calculators, phones, photos, computers, web sites, tweets, social media, or other aids during a quiz or an exam when not allowed by the instructor
  • Completing another student’s  exam or quiz by filling in the student’s Scantron form or other answer sheet or by attending the exam in place of the other student
  • Providing any materials, information, or assistance to another person with the knowledge or reasonable expectation that such would be used for dishonest purposes

Consequences for Academic Misconduct

Academic misconduct diminishes your education and the classroom experience for other students, undermining the UI mission of serving all students. 

  • Instructors in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) may fail any assignment showing evidence of academic misconduct . Instructors may also fail a student for the course for academic misconduct with prior permission and in consultation with the College.
  • Instructors report all incidents of academic misconduct to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; these reports are shared with other undergraduate colleges at UI.
  • The College may assign the student additional consequences, listed below, based on the offense and the number of offenses by the student previously reported to the College.

For information on the appeal process, please refer to the information below. 

Note: At times, the sanctions are modified or combined based on the particulars of a situation. That is, a student with a serious first offense may be suspended or expelled, depending on the particulars of the incident. Likewise, a student with a second offense could be expelled if the incident rises to a very serious level of concern.

First Offense

If found responsible for a first incident of academic misconduct, the student will be assigned to complete an online seminar called the Academic Integrity Seminar, requiring substantial time (around 18-20 hours) and a fee of $105. The seminar is not offered by UI and the cost of the seminar is not included in UI tuition. The Academic Integrity Seminar requires essay answers based on readings drawn from current events, literature, historical documents, and other sources designed to help the student better understand the effects of academic misconduct and the importance of personal integrity. A student may not register for future UI courses until the student completes this Academic Integrity Seminar; a "hold" is placed on the registration and is only removed once the student successfully passes this seminar.

Each undergraduate college carefully tracks offenses on a shared data base, and these reports are shared across colleges. If a student is already a member of a UI college outside of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the associate dean of that UI college will be notified of the student's misconduct and this might affect a student's admission to that UI college. The student should contact the college in question for more information. The report is kept internally until the student graduates or for a maximum of five years.

Second Offense

Students with a second offense are placed on disciplinary probation and are suspended by the College, even if the first offense occurred while the student's primary collegiate home was outside of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The suspension is recorded on the student's record during the time of the suspension. When the period of suspension ends, the notation is removed from the transcript but is kept internally in case another offense occurs.

Third Offense

A student may be expelled from the University of Iowa and from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences for a third offense. This is added to the student's permanent record and is visible on the transcript. The student is not allowed to enroll in courses at UI or to graduate from the institution.

Note: At times, the sanctions are modified or combined based on the particulars of a situation. That is, a student with a serious first offense may be suspended or expelled, depending on the particulars of the incident. Likewise, a student with a second offense could be expelled if the incident rises to a very serious level of concern.

Contact Information

All students in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences are invited to discuss academic misconduct and its consequences as well as how to appeal a decision made by the College. Please call 319-335-2633 or email clas-undergrad@uiowa.edu to request an appointment to discuss the academic misconduct policy and the appeal process.

Appeals

All students have the right to file an appeal about a decision by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences related to academic misconduct. More information about student rights and responsibilities can be found at https://clas.uiowa.edu/students/handbook/student-rights-responsibilities.

  • If a student believes that the finding of academic misconduct or the grade assigned by the instructor is in error, the student should first arrange a meeting with the instructor (and/or the course supervisor) and then, if needed, with the Director of Undergraduate Studies and/or the Departmental Executive Officer (DEO) of the department or program to discuss the matter.
  • If the student is dissatisfied with the result of these meetings, the student may make an appointment to discuss the matter informally with the College. The student should call 319-335-2633 to schedule an appointment. During that meeting the student will be given information on how to request a formal appeal.
  • If the student is not satisfied with the results of the formal appeal to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the student may then request a review of the decision by the Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education. Appeals are not heard by the Associate Provost until the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences has responded to the formal appeal from the student

Additional information on resources to help students file a complaint, such as the University Ombudsperson; additionally, steps to take when confronting sexual misconduct are available at the indicated links.

Students are encouraged to review the UI Code of Student Life for University-wide expectations and policies for student behavior.