Academic Integrity
Academic Dishonesty, in whatever form, belies the stated philosophy of West Liberty University “to promote the development of the intellectual, cultural, social, physical, emotional, moral, and vocational capacities of all persons within its sphere of influence.” Individuals who commit acts of academic dishonesty violate the principles which support the search for knowledge and truth. The academic community has established appropriate penalties and disciplinary action for such behavior.
1. Types of Academic Dishonesty
- Cheating: Engaging in or attempting to engage in dishonest practices to gain an unfair academic advantage. Examples: Using unauthorized resources (e.g., hidden notes or devices) during exams; having someone else take a test on your behalf; submitting work completed by another individual or service; using contract cheating services or online platforms to produce assignments; or misusing AI tools (such as language models or code generators) to complete assignments without proper disclosure or instructor approval.
- Fabrication: Inventing, falsifying, or misrepresenting data, sources, or information in academic work, or failing to adhere to accepted standards of research integrity. Examples: Altering or fabricating data in lab experiments; creating fictitious citations or sources; misrepresenting AI-generated content as original research or factual evidence; or using AI tools to generate false references, results, or narratives in academic submissions.
- Collaboration: Assisting others in engaging in scholarly wrongdoing. Examples: Stealing and distributing tests, etc.; permitting another to use a research paper/design; and/or permitting another to copy from his/her paper during an exam.
- Destruction of Reference Sources and/or denying others access to learning materials. Example: Destruction of journal articles in the library’s collection; stealing of books and other materials from the library or other sources.
- Plagiarism: Representing the words or ideas of another as one’s own. Examples: Not citing direct quotations; not acknowledging a paraphrase.
- Misrepresentation of statistics
2. Penalties
A student who violates the academic integrity policy may be subject to one or more of the following penalties:
a. A faculty member may award a failing grade on an assignment; lower a course grade or award a failing course grade.
b. The University may place the student on probation.
c. The University may suspend the student.
d. The University may expel a student from a program or the University.
Procedures for Handling Academic Integrity Cases
As soon as it is reasonable after discovery of the offense, the faculty member will discuss the incident with the student. A condensed written explanation of the charges / incident and the specific penalty being administered or recommended is to be filed with the Provost’s Office within five (5) working days using the online form for that purpose available through the Provost’s SharePoint page. The Provost’s Office will provide copies of the report to the appropriate academic administrators.
-Cases of academic dishonesty where the imposed penalty is one of those listed in Section 2.a will be resolved between the faculty member and the student. In such cases the student maintains the right to appeal the course grade per WLU Policy.
If the faculty member is recommending one of the penalties listed in the previous section, the proposed penalty may be initiated by the appropriate Chair, Program Director, or Program Coordinator after consultation with the faculty member and appropriate Dean.
In cases of multiple, separate incidents of academic dishonesty by the same student, the Provost may initiate one of the penalties from Sections 2.b, 2.c or 2.d.
When a penalty from Section 2.b, 2.c or 2.d is administered, the student has the right to appeal per the Academic Probation and Suspension Appeals Policy and Procedure.