Acceptable Levels of Collaboration
Business school is by nature a collaborative endeavor – especially at Smith, where we’re proud of our warm and supportive community. Sometimes collaboration is encouraged, sometimes it is permitted, and sometimes it constitutes cheating. How does a student know what is okay and what violates the Honor Pledge?
Smith’s Academic Integrity Task Force found that many students are unclear about what kinds of collaboration are acceptable, since this differs between faculty members, courses and individual deliverables within a course. To help students understand what levels of collaboration are acceptable on a particular deliverable, the Task Force developed the following icons and descriptions.
- Open notes. You may use notes from class.
- Discussion with peers, but individual deliverable. You may discuss this deliverable with others, but all the work you turn in must be your own.
- Use of the internet (phone, tablet, desktop). You may use any online resource. However, you must be sure to cite your sources to avoid plagiarism.
- Group creation of deliverable. Everyone in the group should contribute some work to this deliverable.
- Open book. You may use your textbook.
If you don’t see these icons in your syllabi, ask your professor to identify the acceptable levels of collaboration for his or her deliverables.
Your professor should also identify the approved method for citing sources in his or her course. If this information is not in the course syllabus, please ask your professor.