Academic Integrity: Overview

Academic integrity means behaving in an ethical way when producing written and creative works in an academic setting. Violations of academic integrity as outlined by the College for Creative Studies include:

• Buying papers or using a third party's* paper or studio project
• Written plagiarism (i.e. using a third party's* words or ideas without proper acknowledgement)
  • Exact words must be placed in quotation marks and indicated with a citation
  • Citations are required for both paraphrasing and summarizing another's words
• Creative dishonesty (i.e. copying as opposed to drawing inspiration from the original)
• Submitting the same work in more than one course without explicit instructor permission
• Unauthorized collaboration with other people or third party* tools
• Cheating (i.e. using dishonest methods - including third party* tools - to gain an advantage)
• Misrepresenting experience or ability (i.e. falsifying your portfolio or misrepresenting your technical abilities through the use of third party* tools)
• Falsifying data or records
• Deleting or destroying work that doesn't belong to you

*Third party is defined as a person or an artificial intelligence tool/system

For more information and the full statement, see the CCS Academic Integrity policy.

Academic integrity is extremely important - it shows that you are honest and trustworthy and willing to comply with professional ethics (a necessity after you graduate). It also enhances the value of your degree by demonstrating personal integrity. Furthermore, using someone else's work for assignments or otherwise engaging in academic dishonesty means that you are cheating yourself of what you could have learned - whether it is the knowledge behind a research paper or a specific technique used to create visual works.

Appropriation in art walks a fine line between inspiration and copying. While appropriation involves borrowing, copying, and altering existing imagery, it is usually done to critique the original or present it in a new context, thereby creating new meanings for the artwork. Many artists have appropriated work throughout time - Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol, and Jeff Koons are just a few examples. For more information on when you are allowed to incorporate another's work into your own creations, see "Using Others' Work" tab on the left and the Copyright guide.