When you study at the College, you join a conversation among scholars, professors, and students, one that helps sustain both the intellectual community here and the larger world of thinkers, researchers, and writers. The tests you take, the research you do, the writing you submitall these are ways you participate in this conversation.

The College presumes that your work for any course is your own contribution to that scholarly conversation, and it expects you to take responsibility for that contribution. That is, you should acknowledge what is your own individual work and what you have derived from others so that other members of the community can trace the evolution of your ideas.

Failure to live up to this expectation constitutes academic dishonesty, which can include but is not limited to:

• Cheating on tests
• Downloading and using without adequate citation material found on the World-Wide Web, including words, pictures, graphs, tables, and other graphics
• Turning in written or graphic work without citing the sources of ideas, words, data, or images
• Copying from others on papers, tests, or other work
• Copying a computer program or subprocess without acknowledging its sources
• Manufacturing or falsifying data in the process of research
• Submitting one paper to satisfy the requirements of two different courses without getting permission from both professors.

Students found to have committed dishonest acts may incur penalties including a lower course grade, failure in a course, probation, suspension, or dismissal from the College.

In general, then, you should make the following assumptions about work assigned at the College:

• When you submit a report, paper, examination, homework assignment, or computer program, you are claiming that its form and content represent your own work, except where you have clearly and specifically cited other sources.
• Tests or examinations are closed-book unless the professor states other- wise.
• Any assigned work is to be done independently unless the professor states otherwise.
• If you collaborate on any phase of an assignment, you must indicate what work is your own and what emerged from the collaboration.

One particular type of academic dishonestyplagiarismoccurs when a writer uses sources, whether through quoting, paraphrasing, or summarizing, without clearly or sufficiently acknowledging the debt. Thus, to avoid plagiarizing, you must cite the source of any expressions, ideas, or observations not your own, whether they come from a primary source, a secondary source, an electronic source, a textbook, a class discussion, a lab manual, or any other source of information.

Whenever you quote, paraphrase, summarize, or use an idea from a source, you must acknowledge that source through some system of citation. The exact system varies by discipline; your professor will tell you whether to use the MLA, the APA, the Chicago style, or some other.

If you are found to have misused sources, you may be found guilty of plagiarism even when you have made no conscious effort to deceive. Therefore, you should cite your sources in a clear and consistent way; if you have any doubts about how to cite sources, ask your professor.

Generally, in writing papers, you should comply with the following requirements for acknowledging sources:

• Quote sparingly and precisely: Brief quotations, included within your own clear analyses or interpretations, are far more effective than long, unanalyzed ones.
• Indicate quotations: Place quotation marks around any quotation you use in your text, even those consisting of only a phrase. In the case of long quotations, set them off by indenting. In addition, cite the precise source of the quotation in a footnote, endnote, or in-text citation. You must use quotation marks around the directly-quoted parts and cite the source even if you have rearranged the order of the sentences or have interspersed some of your own words and ideas.
• Paraphrase carefully: When you paraphrasethat is, when you put what a source says into your own wordsyou must not merely rearrange a few words from the source, but must recast the passage or sentence completely. In addition, you must specifically cite the sourceof any material that you have paraphrased or summarized, even when you have substantially reworded or rearranged it. It is not acceptableto explain similarities between your work and that of others by claiming that you read the source or sources long ago and have confused the phrases and ideas of the other author or authors with your own. Rule of thumb: When in doubt, cite.
• Cite ideas and data: You are also obliged to acknowledge, whether in an in-text citation or a footnote, any idea you have borrowed from another person or source. Scholars, researchers, and writers often engage in intense discussions, with each speaker confirming or modi-fying some aspect of another's thought. Given these circumstances,it's often difficult to credit the source for any given idea. However, such acknowledgment is part of how we honor each other's words and work. Even though, at times, you may feel as if the distinction between your ideas and the ideas of others is unclear, you must make that distinction as clear as possible. This requirement to acknowledge the ideas of others applies whether the source is a faculty member, another student, a guest lecturer, or an off-campus friend or relative.
• Include a list of references, works cited, or bibliography at the end of your essay, lab report, or research paper. That is, in addition to using footnotes or parenthetical references to cite sources in the body of your essay, you must provide at the end of your project a clearly structured record of all your sources.

Your participation in a scholarly conversation often requires that you work with others in learning or creating knowledge. At Grinnell, each professor establishes rules about such collaboration for his or her course. Some will insist that all work be done individually (This is the default assumption); others may allow you to work together on part of a project but not the final product; others may encourage collaboration throughout the project. If you are in doubt about the extent of collaboration permitted in a specific course, ask your professor to clarify the rules. To behave ethically, you must follow the rules of each professor in each course. Whenever you collaborate with others, you must acknowledge the joint effort through in-text citations to others' contributions, a written expression of thanks, and an entry in the bibliography or list of works cited. In other words, just as you cite written sources to tell the reader what words or ideas come from that source, you must acknowledge the help of your c ollaborators to tell the reader how the product emerged from the collaboration. In addition, when you submit work on which you have collaborated with others, you must ensure that the whole work conforms to the standards of accurate and precise citation.

In sum, as a Grinnell student, you now contribute to a conversation as a member of the global academic community. To do so responsibly, you must acknowledge your debt to others.

In submitting a report, paper, examination, project, homework assignment, or computer program, a student is stating that the form and content of the paper, report, examination, project, homework assignment, or computer program represents her or his own work, except where clear and specific reference is made to other sources. If any suspicious course work is submitted to an instructor, that instructor must bring it to the attention of the Committee on Academic Standing. Students cannot be penalized for academic dishonesty without a hearing by the Subcommittee on Academic Honesty. The student has no recourse with the instructor once course work has been submitted by the instructor to the Academic Honesty Subcommittee.

The Subcommittee on Academic Honesty of the Committee on Academic Standing will inform the student in writing of its receipt of the suspicious material, including identification of the course involved, the work submittedexam, paper, report, project, homework assignment, or computer programand enough information to identify those elements of the material deemed suspicious. This notification will set the time and place of a hearing as well as the procedures to be used for the hearing. The hearing is scheduled in such time as will insure a fair and expeditious process.

The student may submit a written statement in addition to or in lieu of appearing in person to respond to the charges. The student is informed of her or his right to bring another person from the College community as a nonparticipating observer at the hearing. Typically, the observer is the student's academic adviser, another faculty member, a member of the Student Affairs staff, or a Residence Life Coordinator.

The Chair of the Subcommittee on Academic Honesty will notify the faculty member involved that he or she may directly inform the student that he or she is suspected of academic dishonesty and that the suspicious material has been delivered to the Committee on Academic Standing for investigation and disposal of the case. The subcommittee understands that in some cases the faculty member might have already so informed the student. Other than providing relevant information to the Subcommittee on Academic Honesty, the faculty member has no further function in the process.

The function of the Subcommittee on Academic Honesty is to ascertain the facts, formulate an opinion in the case, and submit its findings and recommendations to the Committee on Academic Standing, which imposes such penalties as appear in the best interest of the student and the College. The student is notified in writing by the chair of the Subcommittee on Academic Honesty about the final decision.

The penalties for academic dishonesty may include, but are not limited to, grade reduction, course failure, suspension, or dismissal. Any penalty other than dismissal may carry up to two semesters of academic dishonesty probation.

The student has the right to appeal to the faculty's Executive Council. The appeal, which must be made in written form and delivered to either the Vice-President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College or the Chair of the Faculty within seven days after receipt of the committee's decision, calls for consideration on the grounds of relevant new evidence or on the grounds that agencies involved in the action made significant procedural errors in reaching the original decision.