Ethics

The strength of the university depends on academic and personal integrity.  In this course, you must be honest and truthful.  Ethical violations include cheating on exams, plagiarism, reuse of assignments, improper use of the Internet and electronic devices, unauthorized collaboration, alteration of graded assignments, forgery and falsification, lying, facilitating academic dishonesty, and unfair competition.

As a student at Johns Hopkins University, you pledge to uphold the highest standard of academic integrity and you are expected to follow the University's guidelines regarding ethical behavior.

During the laboratory sessions you must conduct yourself in a professional manner to ensure that you are not the cause of an incident which may in turn harm you, harm your fellow students, or damage the equipment. You must  study and understand the safety procedures handout. You must also follow all rules and regulations related to proper waste disposal to make sure that you do not harm our environment by dumping hazardous chemicals in the sink. If you have any questions about laboratory protocols  please ask the instructor or the teaching assistants for help.

In this particular course you are allowed to discuss the pre-laboratory assignments with other fellow students. However you must do the writeup on your own without collaboration and without  reference to notes taken during the group discussion. During examinations you are expected to work on your own, and in accordance to specific instructions given to you. Weekly laboratory reports as well as final report must be done on your own.

The homework assignments  must be done on your own without consultation or help from the textbook problem solution manuals, problem solutions from students that  have taken the course previous years, or the solutions that have been posted on the course website (for a brief period of time). If you think it is helpful, you  may  check the answers to the problems at the back of the book but NOT in the problem solution manual companion to the textbook.

Report any violations you witness to the instructor.  You may consult the associate dean of students and/or the chairman of the Ethics Board beforehand. 

See the guide on “Academic Ethics for Undergraduates” and the Ethics Board web site (http://ethics.jhu.edu) for more information.