It is contrary to academic integrity and the spirit of intellectual inquiry to present another’s statements or ideas as one's own work (intentionally or unintentionally). To do so is plagiarism or cheating, offenses punishable under the College Area Disciplinary system.
College students must properly acknowledge any other person’s ideas or work, whether by direct quotation or paraphrase, that has influenced or is included the student’s own work product. Proper citation of others’ work helps make clear which original ideas the student contributing to the intellectual exchange and helps locate their work in the larger, ongoing intellectual context.
If a student consults or uses any written or electronic source, directly or indirectly, the source should be identified by author, title, and page number, or by website and date accessed. Students are expected cite even works which they experienced historically that influenced their work. For example, if a student’s thoughts on Plato were influenced by class lecture or discussion, or even a class they took in high school, the student should cite that resource. Similarly, students should cite writings they come across online, such as information accessed as background research or for clarification on a topic, if those writings play a role in the student’s analysis of a particular topic.
Students should carefully review each course’s syllabus to better understand their instructor’s expectations for that course. Students who are confused or unsure about the proper use and acknowledgement of sources for specific assignments should consult their instructors before submitting an assignment.
There are numerous resources across the College designed to help students uphold the University’s high standards for academic integrity, including:
- OCCS’s "Upholding Academic Integrity - Information for Students" document outlines general principles and strategies for avoiding incidents of academic dishonesty. It also explains the process OCCS follows when it receives reports of academic misconduct and FAQs about the implications of being accused of academic dishonesty.
- The University Library Resources, such as their Ask a Librarian online and One-on-One with a Librarian services, can make students’ studies a lot easier and more rewarding, and can provide education and support around correct citations.
- The Academic Skills Assessment Program at Student Wellness helps students improve their academic performance by addressing concerns that can interfere with effective learning and can lead students to be more tempted to cheat.
- Academic Coaching is an individualized service for undergraduate students that supports the College’s mission of a transformative education by inviting students to reflect on their own learning process and build new skills for academic success along the way.
The University has not adopted a single or uniform policy about appropriate AI use in academic settings. Given AI’s foundational value and the varied approaches to AI in the classroom, it is important for students to understand the expectations regarding AI use in each of their courses, programs, and roles at the University. Students should not assume that even the same courses taught by different instructors, or courses within a sequence, have the same rules and expectations for AI use. It is critical that students carefully review each class’s syllabus, pay careful attention to any expectations instructors provide for each assignment, and that they consult their instructor when they are unsure about what is permitted. Students should note that instructors may consider some editing tools, such as Grammarly, to constitute generative AI and prohibited in their course.
Identifying Inappropriate or Disallowed AI Use
Instructors who are evaluating whether a student used AI inappropriately should consider the following:
- Meeting the Objective – Does the student’s work answer the question asked by the assignment? Or are its assertions are off-topic, lacking depth, generic, failing to provide a strong opinion or position, or lacking a personal perspective or reflection.
- Content – Does the assignment include information that is drawn from outside the scope of the course, lectures, assigned readings, or parameters for the assignment? Is there any content that indicates the student may have copied and pasted an answer from AI generated content, like accidentally including the prompt, the student’s instructions to the chatbot, or the chatbot’s explanation for its response?
- Citations – Did the student cite their sources? Are the citations correctly documented, leading to actual sources, and referring only to content or works relevant to the assignment?
- Accuracy – Is the information contained in the student’s work is accurate or might it be a hallucination or a mis-representation? Is quoted content accurate?
- Style – Is the language overly polished, bland, unnecessarily complex, or over-the-top? Does it use too many headings or introductory sentences?
- Formatting – Does the text have varied fonts or font sizes? Is there unusual paragraph alignment, bullet points, headings, or spacing?
- Consistency – How does the work in question compare to the student’s other work in the class?
- Process – If you asked the students to use Google Docs or Version History* to allow you to review how they crafted and typed the assignment, do you notice any process irregularities, like the assignment was typed continuously without any or only minimal editing, chunks of text appear pasted in, or the student spent an unexpectedly short amount of time working on the assignment relative to the work produced?
*Instructors should strongly consider asking their students to use these tools to produce their assignments to discourage cheating and allow for review after the assignment is submitted.
- AI Detector Report – What does the AI detection software like Pangram, which is available to all College instructors, indicate? AI detection software reports be one piece of evidence in a human-led analysis of the authenticity of a student’s work. OCCS can help instructors better understand AI detection reports and their value.
AI Detection with Pangram
The Pangram AI detection tool is available to those who teach at the University, including the College. Particular schools, divisions, and programs may have specific policies or guidance on whether or how to use Pangram. In some areas of the College, instructors have individual discretion to set the rules about AI use in their courses and to decide whether to use Pangram. Not all instructors will choose to use Pangram.
AI detectors, including Pangram, are not perfect, though research from Booth faculty Brian Jabarian and Alex Imas indicates that Pangram is the best tool available (Jabarian & Imas, 2025). Accordingly, instructors and the Office of College Community Standards may use Pangram as one source of supporting information in a transparent, human-led academic integrity process and to guide conversations with students suspected of inappropriate AI use. OCCS is available to assist instructors in interpreting and weighing the results of a Pangram analysis.
Responding to Allegations of Inappropriate AI Use
Students whose instructors question whether they used AI inappropriately should be prepared to meet with their instructor to discuss:
- Content of the paper – the student’s command of the subject matter and whether it is consistent with the student’s work product. Students should be prepared to respond accurately and comprehensively to instructors’ questions about the information presented in their written work.
- Writing and research process - how the student gathered the information, decided what information to include, how much time the student spent on the paper, what resources they consulted, etc.
- Outside assistance – what help the student received while completing the assignment, such as using a writing tutor.
- Editing – whether the student used Grammarly* or other editing software.
- Documentation – evidence that the student did the work themselves, such as notes, version history in Google Docs, version history in Word if the document is saved in the cloud, etc.
- Participation and Attendance – whether the student attended class and was actively engaged, and whether the student’s contributions in class are consistent with their written work.
Citing AI
Students should discuss with their instructors and consult the University of Chicago librarians about how to correctly cite AI sources.
Other Resources
There are useful resources online that can help instructors better recognize and respond to inappropriate AI use. The above list was crafted in part by reviewing the resources below:
It can be frustrating for instructors when students engage in academic dishonesty. It is unfair when instructors must divert their time and attention from teaching to investigate and address instances of academic dishonesty. However, an important part of our students' growth is helping them learn from missteps.
OCCS provides guidance for instructors and reports about how to respond in such circumstances. Instructors should report all possible violations using this online form and may contact OCCS by email for support and advice.
Once OCCS receives a report of concerns about a student’s academic integrity (AI or otherwise), OCCS provides educational and disciplinary interventions as appropriate. Oftentimes, OCCS requires students to participate in programs like Academic Coaching or to meet with a librarian to improve the student’s understanding of academic integrity, citations, and prevent recurrence.
Please note that even if a matter is referred to OCCS, instructors retain sole discretion for determine what, if any, academic penalty to apply in their course.