Integrity

General Principles

  • Some assignments may allow you to work with partners. This will be clearly stated on the assignment and will be announced in lecture.
  • The following refers to questions/assignments where partner work is not allowed:
  • You can discuss the assignment with a small group of classmates, but may not write anything down or otherwise record details. (Reasonable exceptions during the meeting are allowed, such as writing on a Zoom whiteboard to show your work, but after the meeting there should be no written record or audio recording.) Once you start writing your solutions, you may not discuss with classmates. Please note at the top of your assignment anyone you discussed the problems with.
  • You may look up definitions, etc. online, but not the specific question.
  • Looking at previous semesters' materials/solutions (without explicit permission) is considered cheating.
  • Using materials from anywhere except previous semesters' solutions (so, other people, web, books, etc.) is allowed with full, detailed citations but will usually result in partial credit, not full points, even for a fully correct solution. You should be explicit and clear about what is your work and what is not. Please still try to rewrite the solution in your own words if you do this. When in doubt, cite your sources!
  • Unsurprisingly, no collaboration is allowed on quizzes or exams.
  • For a quick reference, consider the table below.

This Honesty Matrix is modified from the one created by Prof. Ron Parr in our department.

Legend
Permitted without restrictions or prior permission.
Permitted only with citation (full credit may not be awarded even for correct answers).
Forbidden under any circumstances.
Activity
Consult class textbook or assigned readings
Search the internet on the topic of the assignment for basic definitions, terminology, etc.
Look at/search for solutions to specific problems from an assignment
Look at/search for solutions to similar problems to those from an assignment
Look at code (from any source) that addresses the subject of the assignment
Incorporate code from classmates
Incorporate code from outside of class sources
High level discussions* with classmates
High level discussions* with people outside of class
Explicit help from classmates in writing solutions
Explicit help from people outside class in writing solutions
Proofreading from classmates
Proofreading from outside class
Incorporate text from other sources
Incorporate figures/graphics from other sources
Reuse material from a previous or concurrent class that you took or are taking
Reuse material from a previous or concurrent class that somebody else took or is taking

*High level discussions are discussions about general content that seek to clarify the basic definitions or questions. If the discussion drifts towards answers to specific questions asked on an assignment, then it is no longer a high level discussion and you should push the discussion in another direction. There is some gray in this definition and you have will need to show individual responsibility and judgment to make sure that you get the benefit of clarifying discussions (if permitted) without crossing over the line to cheating and robbing yourself of the important learning experience of thinking through difficult problems yourself.

*Options which refer to people "outside of class" refer to students who took the course in the past year or two and/or have access to the solutions. In other words, cite students who have not taken the course recently, and do not discuss with students who have.

COMPSCI , Duke University, Site based on Professor Carlo Tomasi's 230 website