15.99.03.R0.01 Scholarly Misconduct

Effective: September 1, 1996

Supplements System Policy: System Policy 15.99

1. Texas A&M University-Commerce (A&M-Commerce) expects its faculty and staff to uphold the highest standards of integrity and honesty in all their academic work. Scholarly misconduct will not be tolerated. As used in this procedure statement, scholarly misconduct is defined in Section 50.12 of the National Institute for Health (NIH) Guide for Grants and Contracts, Volume 18 No. 30, September 1, 1989, as “fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, or other practices that seriously deviate from those that are commonly accepted within the academic community for proposing, conducting or reporting research. Scholarly misconduct does not include honest or inadvertent error, or differences in interpretation or judgments of data.” Plagiarism is defined as intentionally passing off the ideas, research, creative endeavors, or words of another as one’s own.

2. Instances of scholarly misconduct involving a faculty member at A&M-Commerce should be reported directly to the vice president for academic affairs (vpaa), who will refer the matter to an ad hoc committee for investigation and an advisory opinion. The committee shall be appointed by the vpaa and shall consist of the head of the department/immediate supervisor of which the accused is a member, the graduate dean, and three full-time tenured faculty members. This committee shall forward its advisory opinion regarding guilt or innocence, seriousness of the offense, and a recommendation of appropriate action to the vpaa. The vpaa shall forward the committee’s advisory opinion with his/her own recommendation to the president of the university, who will make a final determination in the matter.

3. Any faculty member against whom an unfavorable judgment is rendered shall have the right of due process through the University advisory and hearing committees as outlined in The Texas A&M University System Policy 12.01 and A&M-Commerce Procedure A12.01 of the university grievance procedure applicable to faculty.


References: Prior ETSU Policies B-7 approved August 26, 1994; B-21; and B-81; Procedure A15.06

Contact for Interpretation: Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs