Academic misconduct refers to actions that result in undue advantages to an individual student or violate the principles of academic integrity. Academic misconduct includes, but is not limited to: plagiarism, handing in work that does not belong to the student, inventing or falsifying data, cheating on examinations, contract cheating (paying someone to write your paper), and increasingly, submitting AI-generated work without appropriate permission from your professor or institution.
Penalties range from a grade reduction to expulsion, depending on the severity and institution. Most universities have a formal misconduct policy that outlines what is and is not permitted. With the availability of many AI writing tools, many institutions are rapidly updating their policies. Our post on how many students are using AI to write papers covers current trends. Quetext's Plagiarism Checker and AI Detector help students verify their work before submission.