Boston University’s Academic Conduct Code is designed to assist in the development of a supportive and productive learning environment. It is both a description of the University’s ethical expectations of students as well as a guarantee of students’ rights and responsibilities as members of a learning community. The Code provides clarity related to policy and procedure regarding academic conduct.
Academic misconduct is conduct by which a student misrepresents their academic accomplishments or impedes other students’ opportunities of being judged fairly for their academic work. Knowingly allowing others to represent your work as their own is as serious an offense as submitting another’s work as your own.
See the full Academic Conduct Code here.
Academic Misconduct
BU’s Academic Conduct Code outlines five actions that can constitute academic misconduct:
1. Cheating.
Any attempt by students to alter their performance on an examination or assignment in violation of the stated or commonly understood ground rules. Cheating may include, but is not limited to, unauthorized communication during an examination and stealing or otherwise discovering and/or making known to others the contents of an assessment that has not yet been administered. Cheating may also include attempting to improperly influence the award of any unit, grade, or honor, altering or destroying another student’s work or records, altering records of any kind, removing materials from libraries or offices without consent, or in any way interfering with the work of others so as to impede their academic performance, failure to sit in a specifically assigned seat during examinations. Knowingly assisting another student in the act of cheating is also a violation of the University’s Code.
2. Plagiarism.
Representing the work or ideas of another* as one’s own and/or using another’s* work or ideas without appropriately crediting the source. Plagiarism can consist of acts of commission (appropriating the words or ideas of another as one’s own), or omission (failing to acknowledge/document/credit the source or creator of words or ideas). Plagiarism may also include submitting substantially duplicative work in the same course or more than one course without the written consent of all involved instructors. Knowingly assisting someone else in the act of plagiarism is also a violation of the University’s Code.
*“Another” may refer to anything that can be a source of information or work product, including (but not limited to) individuals, books, online sources, academic journals, software/programs, and generative artificial intelligence.
3. Misrepresentation of self or work product.
Deceitful misrepresentation of identity in any interaction with a member of the Boston University community or on any academic work, and/or falsification or fabrication of data presented for surveys, experiments, reports, etc., and/or intentional manipulation, modification, omission, or misrepresentation of research processes, data, or results.
4. Teamwork.
When two or more students are engaged in cooperative and collaborative work for academic units (known as “teamwork” or “group work”), no team member shall intentionally infringe upon the learning of another team member in the course of any team project or other teamwork. Similarly, no team member shall intentionally restrict or inhibit another team member’s access to team meetings, teamwork-in-progress, or other team activities. With regard to academic conduct, all team members may be held responsible for the entire content of the team’s work product as if each team member had individually submitted the team’s project as their own.
5. Additional areas of misconduct.
a. Artificial Intelligence (AI): At any point in the duration of a course (or any other demonstration of academic competence required for course units or degree completion, such as a senior capstone project or doctoral dissertation), any and all use of AI that has not been expressly authorized by the course instructor shall be a violation of the University’s Academic Conduct Code.
b. Professional field assignment and professional standards: Actions and behaviors that violate the policies and/or regulations of Boston University, a Boston University degree program, a host school, a host site, a host organization, or a host agency. This may include, but is not limited to, failing to demonstrate the practical, ethical, and/or behavioral standards affiliated with specific professions, such as (but not limited to) social work, mental health counseling, and physical therapy.
c. Public law: Conduct in violation of public law occurring outside the University that directly affects the academic and professional status of the student after civil authorities have imposed sanctions.
d. The authority of this Code: Intentionally making false statements or presenting false information to any member of the University’s staff or faculty when questioned about a specific academic conduct incident; intentionally making false statements or presenting false information to an Academic Conduct Committee; failure to comply with the sanctions imposed under the authority of this Code.
