Academic conduct

At a university like Lund University, as at all universities, originality in academic work is very important. This is true whether you are a student or a researcher. You study the literature and other people's ideas, you discuss with others. But your work must be independent, you write your own essays based on your own thinking. During assessment your own thinking is put to the test. So this is the cardinal point: Every kind of plagiarism or copying of other peoples work, citing without referencing, goes against this fundamental idea of intellectual independence.
—Göran Bexell, former Lund University vice-chancellor, from a YouTube clip entitled "On academic conduct".

In brief, academic honesty means that the work you submit for assessment has to be your own work and not the work of someone else. Copying is not allowed, and you have to use proper attribution and referencing when using the works of others. In many cases, you will be encouraged to collaborate with others to enhance your learning, for example on hand-in exercises. However, the final work which you hand in must be your own, and you are not allowed to lend someone else your work for copying. Finally, you should be aware that all university employees are obliged to report if they suspect that a student is attempting “deception during examinations or other forms of assessment of study performance”.

At the beginning of each course, students at the Department of Astronomy and Theoretical Physics are informed about importance of academic conduct. More general information about academic conduct/integrity/honesty has been published by Lund University Libraries and Academic Writing in English Lund University (AWELU). There you can also find more information about an automatic system called Urkund, which may be used in some courses to detect plagiarism, as well as the official guidelines and regulations on plagiarism.

• Information sheet handed out to all students at the department, PDF
• Guidelines and regulations on plagiarism in first-, second- and third-cycle education at Lund University, PDF
• Lund University Libraries pages about academic integrity
• AWELU pages about academic integrity

If you have any questions, or if something is unclear about what is allowed or not, ask your teachers.