Scientific misconduct

Cheating refers to any action or negligence on the part of a student that precludes an accurate assessment of the student’s knowledge, understanding and skills and can take many forms, including: 

• Unauthorized use of information, materials, devices, sources or practices in completing academic activities.
• Copying during an exam that should be completed individually.
• Contract cheating
• Attempting to get academic credit in a way that is dishonest, disrespectful, irresponsible, untrustworthy or unfair.
• Misrepresenting a student’s knowledge and abilities.
• Undermining the instructor’s ability to honestly and fairly assess student knowledge and abilities.

For more information about academic misconduct please see the Rules & Regulations of the Examination Boards BMS.

Fraud refers to any action or negligence on the part of a student that precludes an accurate assessment of the student’s knowledge, understanding and skills and can take many forms, including: 

• Identity theft
• Manipulating data
• Falsifying data

For more information about academic misconduct please see the Rules & Regulations of the Examination Boards BMS.

‘free-riding’ is i.e. not or hardly contributing to a group assignment.
Free riders are individuals who decide not to participate in cooperative learning group activities (which often lowers the group’s morale, productivity, and effectiveness) and benefit from other students work.

PREVENTING FREE RIDING AS A STUDENT

For example by:

• At the beginning of the project clearly discussing and registering the distribution of tasks;
• Having, on a regular basis, group meetings to discuss the progress (the distribution of tasks should always be a subject in these meetings) and making notes of this group meetings so points of discussion are visible.

 WHAT ARE THE POSSIBLE CONSEQUENCES OR SANCTIONS OF FREE-RIDING BEHAVIOUR?

• You will not develop sufficient skills to be able to finish your individual assignments;
• You risk receiving a lower grade than your group members;
• The examiner can report the profiting as possible fraud to the Examination Board;
• The examiner can provide you with a new or complementary assignment, this can also be (part of) the sanction of the Examination Board.

 IF YOU NOTICE FREE-RIDING WITHIN YOUR PROJECT GROUP, WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT IT?

• Discuss this matter in a meeting of the project group and use your own skills and knowledge about giving and receiving feedback;
• Confront each other with the registered distribution of tasks and the possible lack of collaboration;
• If no improvement occurs please contact the examiner of the module part in time.

PLEASE NOTE!

Free-riding also happens outside of your study activities. It is very important that you inform the group or project members regarding this matter. This may not be easy, but it is a skill that you will need the rest of your working life.

For more information about academic misconduct please see the Rules & Regulations of the Examination Boards BMS.

Forgery is a criminal act that takes place when a person falsifies something with the intent to deceive another person or entity. E.g. altering a writing with the attempt to defraud another person or entity, the production of fake works that a person claims are genuine, fabricating or the act of devising, fabricating, or counterfeiting a document.

For more information about academic misconduct please see the Rules & Regulations of the Examination Boards BMS.

Plagiarism m is a particular kind of cheating/fraud, which occurs when the student uses someone else’s work or previous work of their own, without correct referencing. This includes, but is not limited to:

• copying or using (parts of) other people's work or AI (original terms, ideas, results or conclusions, illustrations, prototypes) and presenting it as one’s own work; in addition using parts of another text (printed or digital), work generated by AI or previous work of their own without referencing (also if minor changes have been made), is considered to be plagiarism;
• using visual and/or audio materials, test results, designs, software and program codes without referencing, and presenting that as one’s own original work;
• using verbatim citations without clear referencing or without a clear indication of quotation (e.g., by omitting quotation marks, indentation, empty lines, etc.) and thereby creating the false impression that (part of) these citations is/are one’s own original work;
• referring to literature that one has not read oneself (e.g. using references taken from someone else’s work);
• using texts that have been written in collaboration with others without explicitly mentioning this to be the case; or having others – paid or unpaid – write texts for you (ghost writing and/or contract cheating);
• submitting work that has already been published in whole or in part elsewhere (e.g. work from other courses or educational programmes), without references to the original work.

For more information about academic misconduct please see the Rules & Regulations of the Examination Boards BMS.

Tort/unlawful act is acting or not acting, contrary to the regulations or contrary to norms and values. E.g. making pictures during the reviewing of a test, scolding/disrespecting someone (e.g. a teacher, examiner or invigilator).

For more information about academic misconduct please see the Rules & Regulations of the Examination Boards BMS.