Academic Integrity and Citing Sources

Become a part of our LALS intellectual community

Welcome to UCSC! We can't wait to incorporate your valuable insights and ideas into our collective intellectual community. Please read below to understand more of what we mean when we say "academic integrity" in campus materials like syllabi and websites.

You are a member of an academic community at one of the world’s leading research universities. Universities like ours create knowledge that has a lasting impact in the world of ideas and on the lives of others; such knowledge can come from an undergraduate paper as well as the research of an internationally known professor. One of the most important values of an academic community is the balance between the free flow of ideas and respect for the intellectual property of others. Researchers don’t use one another’s research without attribution because we want to recognize the foundational work we have drawn on in order to create new knowledge; scholars and students always use proper citations in papers; professors may not circulate or publish student papers without the writer’s permission; and students may not circulate or post materials (handouts, exams, syllabi— any class materials) from their classes without the written permission of the instructor.

Any test, paper, or report submitted by you and that bears your name is presumed to be your own original work that has not previously been submitted for credit in another course unless you obtain prior written approval to do so from your instructor. In all of your assignments, including your homework or drafts of papers, you may use words or ideas written by other individuals in publications, web sites, or other sources, but only with proper citation (generally, quotation marks or an indented quotation) and correct attribution.

If you are not clear about the expectations for citing sources, completing an assignment, or taking a test or examination, be sure to consult the library website on citing sources (https://guides.library.ucsc.edu/citesources), and if you are still confused, seek clarification from your instructor or TA before turning in your assignment.

Excerpted from UC Santa Cruz Center for Innovations in Teaching and Learning (CITL) Sample Syllabus Language: Academic Integrity.