Academic integrity at Northwestern is based on a respect for individual achievement that lies at the heart of academic culture. Every faculty member and student, both graduate and undergraduate, belongs to a community of scholars where academic integrity is a fundamental commitment.

All students registered for classes at Northwestern must adhere to the University’s standards of academic integrity. Questions about the acceptability of specific behavior should be addressed to the appropriate faculty member or school dean. The following is a non-exhaustive list of types of behavior that violate the standards of academic integrity:

• Cheating: using unauthorized notes, study aids, or information on an examination; altering a graded work after it has been returned, then submitting the work for regrad­ing; allowing another person or resource (including, but not limited to, generative artificial intelligence) to do one’s work and sub­mitting that work under one’s own name; submitting identical or similar papers for credit in more than one course without prior permission from the course instructors
• Plagiarism: submitting material that in part or whole is not entirely one’s own work without attributing those same portions to their correct source;  Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to, the unauthorized use of generative artificial intelligence to create content that is submitted as one's own
• Fabrication: falsifying or inventing any information, data, or citation; presenting data that were not gathered in accordance with standard guidelines defining the approp­riate methods for collecting or generating data and failing to include an accurate account of the method by which the data were gathered or collected
• Obtaining an unfair advantage: stealing, reproducing, circulating, or otherwise gaining access to examination materials prior to the time authorized by the instructor; stealing, destroying, defacing, or concealing library materials with the purpose of depriving others of their use; unauthorized collaborating on an academic assignment; retaining, possessing, using, or circulating previously given examination materials, where those materials clearly indicate that they are to be returned to the instructor at the conclusion of the examination; intentionally obstructing or interfering with another student’s academic work; recycling one’s own work done in previous classes without obtaining permission from one’s current instructor; otherwise undertaking activity with the purpose of creating or obtaining an unfair academic advantage over other students’ academic work
• Aiding and abetting an academic integrity violation​: providing material, infor­ma­tion, or other assistance to another person with knowledge that such aid could be used in any of the violations stated above; providing false information in connection with any inquiry regarding academic integrity; providing (including selling) class materials to websites that sell or otherwise share such materials —  including homework, exams and exam solutions, submitted papers or projects, as well as original course materials (for example, note packets, PowerPoint decks, etc.). In addition to violating Northwestern’s policies on academic integrity, such conduct may also violate University policies related to copyright protection.
• Falsification of records and official documents: altering documents affecting academic records; forging signatures of authorization or falsifying information on an official academic document, grade report, letter of permission, petition, drop/add form, ID card, or any other official University document
• Unauthorized access to computerized academic or administrative records or systems: viewing or altering computer records; modifying computer programs or systems; releasing or dispensing information gained via unauthorized access; interfering with the use or availability of computer systems or information

It is the responsibility of every member of the academic community to be familiar with the specific procedures of his or her school. A student who violates these policies may be subject to sanctions, including but not limited to one or more of the following: a letter of reprimand; a defined period of suspension of one or more quarters; ineligibility for certain awards, honors and special programs; revocation of an awarded degree; expulsion from the University (noted on official transcript); any appropriate combination of the above. Students charged with an academic integrity violation may not change their registration or grading basis in a course in which the charge is pending, or in which a finding of an academic integrity violation has been made. Information on procedures that will be followed in cases of alleged violations of academic integrity may be obtained from the dean’s office of each school. This will include information regarding how decisions may be appealed. A complete statement of the University’s principles regarding academic integrity may be obtained from the Office of the Provost at www.northwestern.edu/provost/policies-procedures/academic-integrity/index.html .