General Computer Science 320201 GenCS I & II Lecture ... - Kwarc

i.e. to function as a member of the academic community. Even if you do not want to become
a scientist in the end, you should be aware that many of the people you are dealing with have
gone through an academic education and expect that you (as a graduate of Jacobs) will behave
by these rules.
The Code of Academic Integrity
Jacobs has a “Code of Academic Integrity”
this is a document passed by the faculty (our law of the university)
you have signed it last week (we take this seriously)
It mandates good behavior and penalizes bad from both faculty and students
honest academic behavior (we don’t cheat)
respect and protect the intellectual property of others (no plagiarism)
treat all Jacobs members equally (no favoritism)
this is to protect you and build an atmosphere of mutual respect
academic societies thrive on reputation and respect as primary currency
The Reasonable Person Principle (one lubricant of academia)
we treat each other as reasonable persons
the other’s requests and needs are reasonable until proven otherwise
c○: Michael Kohlhase 6
To understand the rules of academic societies it is central to realize that these communities are
driven by economic considerations of their members. However, in academic societies, the primary
good that is produced and consumed consists in ideas and knowledge, and the primary currency
involved is academic reputation 2 . Even though academic societies may seem as altruistic —
scientists share their knowledge freely, even investing time to help their peers understand the
concepts more deeply — it is useful to realize that this behavior is just one half of an economic
transaction. By publishing their ideas and results, scientists sell their goods for reputation. Of
course, this can only work if ideas and facts are attributed to their original creators (who gain
reputation by being cited). You will see that scientists can become quite fierce and downright
nasty when confronted with behavior that does not respect other’s intellectual property.
One special case of academic rules that affects students is the question of cheating, which we will
cover next.
Cheating [adapted from CMU:15-211 (P. Lee, 2003)]
There is no need to cheat in this course!! (hard work will do)
cheating prevents you from learning (you are cutting your own flesh)
if you are in trouble, come and talk to me (I am here to help you)
We expect you to know what is useful collaboration and what is cheating
you will be required to hand in your own original code/text/math for all assignments
2 Of course, this is a very simplistic attempt to explain academic societies, and there are many other factors at
work there. For instance, it is possible to convert reputation into money: if you are a famous scientist, you may
get a well-paying job at a good university,. . .
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