Definitions of Academic Misconduct
Academic Misconduct is behavior and/or action by a student that interferes with education or fair evaluation of a student’s performance or work. These behaviors or actions often mean a student is preventing their own learning. As a result, Academic Misconduct is prohibited at Boise State University.
Academic Misconduct can be either intentional or unintentional. In addition to intentional or unintentional, an incident could also be categorized as cheating, plagiarism, fabrication or falsification of information, inappropriate or unauthorized collaboration, and research misconduct (or sometimes a combination). Students who engage, or attempt to engage, in any of the identified behaviors and/or actions may be found in violation of Section 8.B. in the Student Code of Conduct. A simplified version can be used as a guide for interpretation— Section 8 Explained.
In addition to deciding the category of misconduct, faculty are encouraged to take into consideration whether it is believed the student engaged in academic negligence or a more intentional act of academic dishonesty (but not both).
- Academic negligence includes, but is not limited to, the act of a student who, through ignorance, carelessness, or mistaken academic work, engages in behavior that, upon initial review, appears to be a deliberate act of Academic Misconduct but ultimately is found not to be intentional in the act.
- Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, determining a student intentionally acted in a way to gain an unfair advantage over other students.
The categories of academic misconduct include (but are not limited to):
- Cheating
- Plagiarism
- Unauthorized Collaboration
- Fabrication or Falsification
- Research Misconduct
This information is excerpted from Section 8.B of the Boise State Policy 2020 The Student Code of Conduct, where both definitions of each type and longer lists of examples that constitute cheating and plagiarism can be found for.
It is the role of the Faculty/ instructor to determine the severity of the behavior and determine the appropriate sanction(s). The University considers both academic negligence and academic dishonesty to be acts of Academic Misconduct and both are therefore violations of the Student Code of Conduct.