Academic Regulations
Introduction
A student is in good standing if he or she is making
normal progress toward a degree and has a satisfactory
record in scholarship and conduct. Scholastic regulations
for undergraduates pertaining to choice of studies,
completion of course requirements, and academic standing are
printed in the Undergraduate Announcement, and for
graduate students in the Graduate School
Announcement.
Jurisdiction over Undergraduates for Violations of
Academic Rules and Regulations
Jurisdiction over violations of academic rules and
regulations rests with two distinct committees at Princeton.
All in-class undergraduate written examinations and tests
are conducted under the Honor System. All violations of the
Honor System are the concern of the Undergraduate Honor
Committee. Violations of rules and regulations pertaining to
all other academic work, including essays, term papers, and
laboratory reports, fall under the jurisdiction of the
Faculty-Student Committee on Discipline. Should there be any
uncertainty regarding which body is responsible for the
adjudication of a particular case, clarification should be
requested from the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate
Students or the chairperson of the Honor Committee.
Student Acknowledgment of Original Work
At the end of an essay, laboratory report, or any other
requirement, the undergraduate must write the following
sentence and sign his or her name: " This paper
represents my own work in accordance with University
regulations."
Transcription or Publication of Course-Related
Materials
Students may not engage in the publication or sale of
abstracts or transcriptions of the lectures or required
reading in any course of instruction in the University.
This regulation is not intended to preclude situations in
which students may act as assistants to instructors who are
themselves preparing lectures or other course-related
materials, either for informal distribution (without sale)
to members of a particular course or department, or for
formal publication and sale by a publisher.
Tutoring
An undergraduate is subject to disciplinary action if he
or she makes use of any tutoring service or facility other
than that regularly authorized by the Office of the Dean of
the College. Graduate students should consult the Office of
the Dean of the Graduate School.
Also, no member of the University may accept compensation
for tutoring in Princeton courses except as authorized by
the Office of the Dean of the College, or be employed by any
tutoring agency other than that authorized by the Office of
the Dean of the College.
General Requirements for the Acknowledgment of Sources
in Academic Work
The academic departments of the University have varying
requirements for the
acknowledgment of sources, but certain fundamental
principles apply to all levels of work. In order to prevent
any misunderstanding, students are expected to study and
comply with the following basic requirements. If you have
any questions about when and how to cite your sources, ask
the course instructor. An important general rule is this: if
you are unsure whether or not to acknowledge a source,
always err on the side of caution and completeness by citing
rather than not citing.
Quotations
Any quotations, however small, must be placed in
quotation marks or clearly indented beyond the regular
margin. Any quotation must be accompanied (either within the
text or in a footnote) by a precise indication of the
sourceidentifying the author, title, place and date of
publication (where relevant), and page numbers. Any sentence
or phrase which is not the original work of the student must
be acknowledged.
Paraphrasing
Any material which is paraphrased or summarized must also
be specifically acknowledged in a footnote or in the text. A
thorough rewording or rearrangement of an author's text does
not relieve one of this responsibility. Occasionally,
students maintain that they have read a source long before
they wrote their papers and have unwittingly duplicated some
of its phrases or ideas. This is not a valid excuse. The
student is responsible for taking adequate notes so that
debts of phrasing may be acknowledged where they are
due.
Ideas and Facts
Any ideas or facts which are borrowed should be
specifically acknowledged in a footnote or in the text, even
if the idea or fact has been further elaborated by the
student. Some ideas, facts, formulas, and other kinds of
information which are widely known and considered to be in
the "public domain" of common knowledge do not always
require citation. The criteria for common knowledge vary
among disciplines; students in doubt should consult a member
of the faculty.
Occasionally, a student in preparing an essay has
consulted an essay or body of notes on a similar subject by
another student. If the student has done so, he or she must
state the fact and indicate clearly the nature and extent of
his or her obligation. The name and class of the author of
an essay or notes which are consulted should be given, and
the student should be prepared to show the work consulted to
the instructor, if requested to do so.
Footnotes and Bibliography
All the sources which have been consulted in the
preparation of an essay or report should be listed in a
bibliography, unless specific guidelines (from the academic
department or instructor) request that only works cited be
so included. However, the mere listing of a source in a
bibliography shall not be considered a "proper
acknowledgment" for specific use of that source within the
essay or report; a footnote or endnote must also appear
after the information or quotation from that source. Neither
shall the use of a footnote at the end of a sentence or
paragraph in which only minor word changes have been made
from the original source be considered "proper
acknowledgment." The extent of indebtedness to the author
must be made clear.
Electronic and Other Sources
The requirement to acknowledge sources is not limited to
printed material such as books or journal articles.
Information is now readily available through many newer
media, including text and images on the World Wide Web,
CD-ROM, and electronic mail. Information or quotations from
any of these sources must be properly cited; ask your course
instructor for guidance on how to cite such sources. At a
minimum, acknowledge any information, text or image from the
World Wide Web by noting the name and author of the site (if
available), the internet address, and the date you accessed
the site.
Laboratory Work, Problem Sets, Computer Programs, and
Homework
The organization of laboratory and computational courses
varies throughout the University. In many courses, students
work in pairs or in larger groups. In those cases where
individual reports are submitted based on work involving
collaboration, proper acknowledgment of the extent of the
collaboration must appear in the report. In those cases
where there are two or more signatories to a submitted
report, each student's signature is taken to mean that the
student has contributed fairly to the work involved and
understands and endorses the content of the report. If for
any reason, a set of observations or calculations has been
invalidated or left incomplete, permission must be granted
by the instructor to obtain the data from other sources and
those sources must be specifically acknowledged in the
report. Make sure you understand the rules of collaboration
in any course by asking the instructor.
Multiple Submission
Under certain conditions, the student may be permitted to
rewrite an earlier work or to satisfy two academic
requirements by producing a single piece of work more
extensive than that which would satisfy either requirement
on its own. In such cases however, the student must secure
in writing, prior permission of each instructor. In
cases where a previously submitted work, or a portion of it,
is submitted in its original or revised form to another
instructor, the student must also submit the original work
with the revised version. If a single extended work has been
written for more than one course, that fact must be clearly
indicated at the beginning of the essay.
Oral Reports
Students required to submit written notes for oral
reports must clearly acknowledge any work that is not
original, in accordance with the requirements stated
above.
Standard Forms of Reference
For standard forms of quotations, footnotes and
bibliographies, the student may consult one of the
following: The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research
Papers (Modern Language Association of America, 4th
edition, l995); A Manual for Writers of Term Papers,
Theses, and Dissertations (Kate L.Turabian, John
Grossman and Alice Bennett, 6th revised edition, l996) or a
style sheet provided by a department of the University.
Definitions of Academic Violations under the
Jurisdiction of the Faculty-Student Committee on
Discipline
With regard to essays, laboratory reports, or any other
written work submitted to fulfill an official academic
requirement, the following are considered academic
infractions:
Plagiarism
The use of any outside source without proper
acknowledgment. "Outside source" means any work, published
or unpublished, by any person other than the student. (See
examples beginning on page 63.)
Unauthorized Multiple Submission
The failure to obtain prior written permission of the
relevant instructors to submit any work that has been
submitted in identical or similar form in fulfillment of any
other academic requirement at any institution.
False Citation
The attribution to, or citation of, a source from which
the material in question was not, in fact, obtained.
False Data
The submission of data that have been deliberately
altered or contrived by the student or with the student's
knowledge.
In determining whether academic fraud has occurred, the
committee will take into account whether the student should
reasonably have understood that his or her actions were in
violation of University regulations. While the failure to
fulfill the general requirements for acknowledgment of
sources in academic work may not necessarily involve
academic fraud, any such failure will be considered an
academic infraction and will normally result in a
disciplinary penalty.
Violations
Jurisdiction
Violations of these regulations are under the
jurisdiction of the Faculty-Student Committee on Discipline
or the Office of the Dean of the Graduate School.
Student's Defense
The only adequate defense for a student accused of an
academic violation is that the work in question does not, in
fact, constitute a violation.
Neither the defense that the student was ignorant of the
regulations concerning academic violations nor the defense
that the student was under pressure at the time the
violation was committed is considered an adequate
defense.
Seriousness of Offense
Academic infractions are always considered a serious
matter, but will be considered especially serious if:
1. The student has submitted a paper prepared by another
person or agency.
2. The student has on his or her record a previous
conviction for an academic violation.
3. The infraction includes the theft of another student's
papereven if the paper is returned after use, or consulted
without being removed from the student's room or from any
public or private room where the paper has been placed.
Penalty
If the Committee concludes that the student ought
reasonably to have understood that his or her actions were
in violation of University regulations, the penalty will
normally be one year's suspension or required withdrawal
from the University.
For further discussion of undergraduate academic
violations, please consult the chapter on the Honor System
in this booklet.
Examples of Plagiarism
The following examples provide a range of plagiarism from
verbatim copying to thorough paraphrasing. The examples and
comments offer clear guidance about how a source may be used
and when a source must be cited.
Original source:
From: Alvin Kernan, The Playwright as Magician.
New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979, pp.102-103.
From time to time this submerged or latent theater in
Hamlet becomes almost overt. It is close to the
surface in Hamlet's pretense of madness, the "antic
disposition" he puts on to protect himself and prevent his
antagonists from plucking out the heart of his mystery. It
is even closer to the surface when Hamlet enters his
mother's room and holds up, side by side, the pictures of
the two kings, Old Hamlet and Claudius, and proceeds to
describe for her the true nature of the choice she has made,
presenting truth by means of a show. Similarly, when he
leaps into the open grave at Ophelia's funeral, ranting in
high heroic terms, he is acting out for Laertes, and perhaps
for himself as well, the folly of excessive, melodramatic
expressions of grief.
1. Example of verbatim plagiarism, or unacknowledged
direct quotation (lifted passages are underlined):
Almost all of Shakespeare's Hamlet can be
understood as a play about acting and the theatre. For
example, there is Hamlet's pretense of madness, the
"antic disposition" that he puts on to protect
himself and prevent his antagonists from plucking out the
heart of his mystery. When Hamlet enters his mother's
room, he holds up, side by side, the pictures of the
two kings, Old Hamlet and Claudius, and proceeds to describe
for her the true nature of the choice she has made,
presenting truth by means of a show. Similarly, when he
leaps into the open grave at Ophelia's funeral, ranting in
high heroic terms, he is acting out for Laertes, and perhaps
for himself as well, the folly of excessive, melodramatic
expressions of grief.
Comment: Aside from an opening sentence loosely
adapted from the original and reworded more simply, this
entire passage is taken almost word-for-word from the
source. The few small alterations of the source do not
relieve the writer of the responsibility to attribute these
words to their original author. A passage from a source may
be worth quoting at length if it makes a point precisely or
elegantly. In such cases, copy the passage exactly, place it
in quotation marks, and cite the author.
2. Example of lifting selected passages and phrases
without proper acknowledgement (lifted passages are
underlined):
Almost all of Shakespeare's Hamlet can be
understood as a play about acting and the theatre. For
example, in Act 1, Hamlet adopts a pretense of madness
that he uses to protect himself and prevent his
antagonists from discovering his mission to revenge his
father's murder. He also presents truth by means of a
show when he compares the portraits of Gertrude's two
husbands in order to describe for her the true nature of
the choice she has made. And when he leaps in Ophelia's
open grave ranting in high heroic terms, Hamlet is
acting out the folly of excessive, melodramatic
expressions of grief.
Comment: This passage, in content and structure,
is taken wholesale from the source. Although the writer has
rewritten much of the paragraph, and fewer phrases are
lifted verbatim from the source, this is a clear example of
plagiarism. Inserting even short phrases from the source
into a new sentence still requires placing quotations around
the borrowed words and citing the author. If even one phrase
is good enough to borrow, it must be properly set off by
quotation marks. In the case above, if the writer had
rewritten the entire paragraph and only used Alvin Kernan's
phrase "high heroic terms" without properly quoting and
acknowledging its source, the writer would have
plagiarized.
3. Example of paraphrasing the text while maintaining
the basic paragraph and sentence structure:
Almost all of Shakespeare's Hamlet can be
understood as a play about acting and the theatre. For
example, in Act 1, Hamlet pretends to be insane in order to
make sure his enemies do not discover his mission to revenge
his father's murder. The theme is even more obvious when
Hamlet compares the pictures of his mother's two husbands to
show her what a bad choice she has made, using their images
to reveal the truth. Also, when he jumps into Ophelia's
grave, hurling his challenge to Laertes, Hamlet demonstrates
the foolishness of exaggerated expressions of emotion.
Comment: Almost nothing of Alvin Kernan's original
language remains in this rewritten paragraph. However the
key idea, the choice and order of the examples, and even the
basic structure of the original sentences are all taken from
the source. Although it would no longer be necessary to use
quotation marks, it would absolutely be necessary to place a
citation at the end of this paragraph to acknowledge that
the content is not original. Better still would be to
acknowledge the author in the text by adding a second
sentence such as"Alvin Kernan provides several examples from
the play where these themes become more obvious"and then
citing the source at the end of the paragraph. In the case
where the writer did not try to paraphrase the source's
sentences quite so closely, but borrowed the main idea and
examples from Kernan's book, an acknowledgment would still
be necessary.
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