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Academic Integrity Syllabus Statements

Including a statement on academic integrity in your course syllabus underscores the importance you place on it from the very beginning of your course. These statements clearly convey your expectations regarding academic integrity and guide students on how to meet them. Additionally, they provide links to relevant policies and resources, further enhancing students’ awareness of academic integrity and connecting them to the academic services and support available at York.

This page includes various syllabus statements that can be included within your course syllabi and/or posted onto eClass throughout the term to serve as reminders of academic integrity expectations. These statements can also act as a springboard for discussion throughout the term. You can incorporate the statements directly, or use the statements on this page as examples to create your own that reflect the needs of your course, discipline and students.

Syllabus statements on this page are grouped in three categories:

  • General syllabus statements for undergraduate and graduate courses
  • Syllabus statements related to the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI)
  • Syllabus statements for specific types of academic misconduct

General Statements for Graduate and Undergraduate Courses

These statements are applicable to a range of undergraduate and graduate contexts.

Syllabus Statement for Undergraduate Courses

Academic integrity is a fundamental and important value of York University. To maintain a fair and honest learning environment, students in this course are responsible for understanding and upholding academic integrity in all of their academic activities. To better understand expectations, familiarize yourself with the Senate Policy on Academic Conduct. To learn more about how to demonstrate academic integrity in your courses and to access related resources and support, visit the Academic Integrity website.  

The Faculty of Graduate Studies (FGS) at York University is committed to upholding a culture of academic excellence and academic integrity. Graduate students are expected to demonstrate honesty and responsibility in all of their academic endeavours, including writing, research, and publishing. A key expectation for you as a graduate student is to apply scholarly citation practices to properly acknowledge the words and ideas of others, and to acknowledge your own work in order to avoid engaging in self-plagiarism. Graduate students should understand the ethical implications of using generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) and are encouraged to seek clarification from your instructors/advisor/thesis or dissertation supervisor about the potential use of these tools in graduate work. When conducting research, students are expected to demonstrate integrity in ways that align with best practices in research, for example, by avoiding improper research practices, dishonesty in publication, abuse of confidentiality, and by ensuring that research data is not fabricated or falsified. To help familiarize you with academic integrity expectations, graduate students are expected to complete the Faculty of Graduate Studies Open Access Graduate Academic Integrity Resource which explains the importance of academic integrity and provides instruction on how to avoid engaging in different types of academic misconduct. For more information about academic integrity expectations at York, please review the Senate Policy on Academic Conduct.

Sample Syllabus Statements Regarding the Use of GenAI

To select the appropriate statements for your courses regarding the use of GenAI, consider if/how you would like students to use GenAI for their assessments (i.e. no use permitted, use permitted for some assessments, use permitted for some assessments). Additionally, consider ways that students can be transparent about the use of these tools.

Option 1:

The use of generative artificial (GenAI) tools in the preparation or completion of homework, assignments, tests, exams or any other form of assessment in this course is not permitted. Using AI-based tools tools for any part of an assessment may be treated as a breach of cheating as outlined in York University’s Senate Policy on Academic Conduct.

Option 2:

In this course, every element of each course assessment must be fully prepared by the student themselves. The use of generative AI is not permitted, and its use may be treated as a breach of academic conduct. For more information, please refer to York University’s Senate Policy on Academic Conduct.

Note: If not permitting use, let students know how to proceed when they find themselves in a situation where the deadline is approaching, and they are concerned that they cannot meet it. Instead of resorting to GenAI, what are some alternatives in your course? Some examples include:

  • Asking for an extension
  • Doing their best and submit anyway
  • Accepting a lower grade
  • Using other tools, such as citation generators or project management apps
  • Connecting to resources at York

Option 1 (some assessments):

For some of the assessments in this course, the use of GenAI tools is permitted. The use of these tools should aim to expand your understanding of course material and deepen your learning instead of serving as a replacement for your efforts. Assessment guidelines for each individual assessment will provide information on whether students can use these tools, how these tools may be used, and how to be transparent about their use. For more information about academic integrity expectations at York, please refer to the Senate Policy on Academic Conduct.

Option 2 (all assessments):

For each of the assessments in this course, the use of GenAI tools is permitted. The use of these tools should aim to expand your understanding of course material and deepen your learning instead of serving as a replacement for your efforts. Assessment guidelines for each individual assessment will provide information on how these tools may be used, and how to be transparent about their use. For more information about academic integrity expectations at York, please refer to the Senate Policy on Academic Conduct.

Including Options

In the syllabus statement or on the assessment guidelines, consider including any of the following options:

  • Providing citation resources to students and explain that AI output needs to be cited whenever students paraphrase, use direct quotations, or when they incorporate information they’ve sourced from using the tool.
  • Limiting the use GenAI tools so that students are using them only at preliminary stages (e.g., to brainstorm assignment ideas​, produce an outline, etc.)
  • Requiring that students fact-check AI-generated output
  • Requiring that students evaluate AI-generated output
  • Asking students to submit an appendix* that specifies: 
    • which tool was used
    • how this tool was used (e.g., to generate ideas, research, explain concepts, summarize)
    • how the output was integrated into submitted work
    • what was learned through interactions with the AI tool
*Using Checklists

To promote transparency, consider requiring students to provide details on how they utilized the tool for each assessment or activity. You can streamline this process by using template checklists, where students simply check off relevant items to disclose information about their interactions with AI-based tools and submit as an appendix.

You can use any or all of these three forms, and change them to suit your discipline, students and/or assessments.

FormDescription
1. Declaration of AI-Based Tool Usage (.docx format)

Declaration of AI-Based Tool Usage (PDF format)		This form asks students to identify the tool they used and to communicate the way(s) in which they used it to aid in their learning.
2. Appropriate Use Statement (.docx format)

Appropriate Use Statement (PDF format)		This form asks students to review the steps involved in using AI tools appropriately to ensure that the work they submit is aligned with these expectations.
3. AI-Based Tools: Evaluation and Reflection (.docx format)

AI-Based Tools: Evaluation and Reflection (PDF format)		This form guides students in fact-checking and critically evaluating AI-generated output while encouraging reflection on what they have learned through their interactions with these tools.

Syllabus Statements for Specific Types of Academic Misconduct

These syllabus statements include messaging about the different types of academic misconduct that may cause confusion for students, and include information on how students can avoiding engaging in each.

Group messaging platforms, such as Discord or WhatsApp, can be helpful tools that connect students and support learning. However, such tools can lead to academic integrity violations when students share or use answers to homework tasks, quizzes, tests, or exams, or when students collaborate on individual assignments. According to York’s Senate Policy on Academic Conduct, these behaviours may lead to a penalty. Moderators of these groups are required to clearly communicate the group’s purpose and to remind students of the expectations for academic integrity. Being a member of such a group is not violating the Academic Conduct Policy or any other university policy. However, if you witness academically dishonest behaviour, it is strongly recommended that you leave the group. If you are unsure whether the behaviour is a violation of academic integrity, check with your TA or instructor. For detailed information about expectations, please refer to York’s Senate Policy on Academic Conduct.

According to homework sites (such as Chegg), their services are intended to support students’ understanding of course material. Despite this, cheating occurs on tests and exams when students post their test or exam questions to these sites during the assessment in order to obtain answers from one of their experts. Using the answers provided is a breach, according to York’s Senate Policy on Academic Conduct. If you’re struggling with course material, understanding expectations, or in any other way, reach out to your instructor or TA instead of relying on homework help sites to acquire assessment answers. For authorized resources and sources of help at York, please visit Academic Integrity Student Resources.

Contract cheating occurs when a third party completes a student’s work, and the student then submits that work as their own. Third parties can include: freelance academic writers or tutors, online essay writing companies, friends, classmates, or family members. Contract cheating is considered to be a serious type of academic misconduct that carries severe penalties. Besides penalties imposed by the university, contracting a third party to complete academic work carries the additional risks of identity theft and blackmail. If you are unsure whether a certain resource is a legitimate source of help, check with your TA or instructor. For authorized resources and sources of help at York, please visit Academic Integrity Student Resources.  As well, for detailed information about expectations for academic integrity, please refer to York’s Senate Policy on Academic Conduct.

Unauthorized collaboration occurs when students work together on assessments without their instructor’s permission. This can include working together to solve homework problems, comparing their homework, sharing test or exam answers, collaborating to complete assignments, or having someone else write or revise an assignment. Sometimes collaborating on assessments with other students is acceptable, yet at other times, individual effort is required. This can vary by course, instructor, or assessment. Even when it comes to group assignments, individual work may be required at different stages. If you are unsure whether collaborating on assigned work is permitted or the extent of collaboration that is acceptable, review the instructions for that assessment, and/or ask your instructor or TA. Please note that even when collaboration on an assessment is permitted, it is never acceptable copy someone else’s work or allow them to copy yours. For detailed information about expectations for academic integrity, please refer to York’s Senate Policy on Academic Conduct.

Plagiarism is defined as appropriating of the work of another without properly acknowledging it. This work can be published, unpublished or posted electronically, attributed or anonymous (Senate Policy on Academic Conduct, section 5.2b). There are a number of acts that are considered to be plagiarism, for example:

  • copying content word-for-word from a source without proper citation;
  • paraphrasing from a source without proper citation
  • submitting work you have already submitted for another course without the instructor’s approval (also known as self-plagiarism);
  • patch-writing, which involves rewording another’s work by changing some of the words and/or sentence structure, which you submit as your own;
  • having a third party complete work in whole then submitting it as one’s own (also known as contract cheating).

Although plagiarism is often thought to involve words and ideas, it can also involve drawings, paintings, photographs, programming code, statistics, presentations, musical scores, among other types of work. Even if the act of plagiarism was unintentional, you can still receive a penalty. To avoid plagiarism, keep good track of any outside sources you use, and ensure that you cite each source properly. For more help on how to avoid plagiarism, contact the Library, Writing Centre, or your instructor or TA.

For information about content sharing sites, including a syllabus statement, please refer to this page: https://copyright.info.yorku.ca/students-reuse-of-teaching-materials-from-york-courses-2/.

If you have any suggestions for additional statements, or if you would like assistance with adapting an existing statement, please contact academicintegrity@yorku.ca.