1. Any work submitted by students must be their own. They are not allowed to copy someone else's work or paraphrase another student's paper or exam and submit it as their own. Any work that is someone else's must be clearly identified as such with credit given. In the case of collaborative work, it is certainly permissible to have appropriate interactions; however, unless instructions explicitly state otherwise, students will prepare their own separate and individual exams, reports, or papers. Under no circumstances are take-home exams collaborative, and, during the take-home time frame, there will be no discussion of the exam questions with anyone other than the instructor.
  2. All students involved in the violation of this policy will be treated equally.
  3. In the case of laboratories where groups do experiments and take data together, students are to keep their own lab notebooks and prepare their own lab analysis and reports. Lab notebooks are not to be shared particularly, data are not to be given to students who did not participate in the experiment.
  4. The instructor will discuss violations of this policy with the student(s) and the Department Head and then will inform the student in writing of the charge and state the evidence. A copy will go to the Dean of Students for the student record. Any student found in violation of this policy will be given, as a minimum penalty, a "0"; on that piece of work. A second violation will lead to an "F" in the course. A student may appeal. Procedures are found in the pamphlet entitled, "Student Academic and Conduct Guidelines and Grievance Procedures", available from the Dean of Students Office.
  5. GTA's will bring cheating matters to the Professor in charge of the course who will then implement this policy.
  6. Whenever possible, student work to be used for evaluative purposes should be done in class or lab or some other controlled environment. 

Further information can be found via the links below.

  • The full MSU policy on Academic Misconduct can be found here.
  • For all MSU policies and procedures, visit this link.
  • The online academic misconduct notification form is located here.