Principles of Academic Honesty
The Faculty have adopted the following principles are the cornerstone of educational integrity at Columbia Law School. They also reflect the legal profession’s special obligations of self-regulation. Students are expected to familiarize themselves with these principles during initial orientation and before taking an examination or submitting any work for credit toward a degree. Academic dishonesty — attempted or actual — will not be tolerated.
Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to:
- Plagiarism: Failure to cite or otherwise acknowledge in any paper, exercise, or project submitted for credit ideas or phrases gained from another source such as published text, another person’s work, or materials on the Internet unless the source is obvious from the context given.
- Self-Plagiarism: The submission of one piece of work in more than one offering or in any two exercises for credit without the explicit permission of the instructors involved.
- Preparation by another: The submission of work as one’s own that has been prepared by or purchased from another.
- Cheating: To give, receive, take assistance, or make unauthorized use of information from written material, another person, his or her paper, or from any other source (except as explicitly allowed by the instructor) before or during an examination or other written exercise.
- Violation of instructions: Failure to abide by the explicit directions or instructions of an instructor with regard to a performance for credit.
- Falsification of work product: Falsification or misrepresentation of data, evidence, or other reportable observations in any course or other exercise for credit.
- Impermissible collaboration: The violation of the rules on acceptable collaboration on projects, papers, exercises, or examinations set by a faculty member or Law School committee.
- Tampering with materials: Removing, hiding, or altering library materials or stealing another person’s materials.
- Facilitation of academic dishonesty: Facilitating academic dishonesty by enabling another to engage in such behavior.
In further clarification and recognition of the standards of academic conduct to be met, students sign and affirm this statement of principles, Student Certification of Examination Performance, when submitting any exam, and Student Certification of Written Work when submitting work for credit.