Honesty is an intrinsic value that plays an integral role in developing the character of a person. It is something that needs to be inculcated in a person from a very early age, nurtured and reinforced by the environment in which he or she grows in such a manner, that it permeates into and pervades the entire system, be it academics or otherwise. Academic honesty cannot be a mutually exclusive term; rather, it is an extension of the broader value system that enables a student to be ethical, honest and accountable for his/her work.

Our school attaches great importance to this value of honesty, which constitutes the first among the set of eight core values that the word ‘ Heritage’ stands for ( H- honesty, E-excellence, R-respect, I-integrity, T-tolerance, A-accountability, G-generosity, E-empowerment). One of the goals in our school’s mission statement is to create ‘innovative and responsible global citizens’ and to achieve this, we respect the importance of honesty in learning. The school’s academic honesty policy has been developed so that it helps to create an environment that enables students to express their ideas creatively, apply critical thinking skills, act with integrity, honesty and develop a strong sense of fairness, justice and respect for individual and others. The policy will enable students, teachers and all stake holders to understand the expectations of the school in matters of academic honesty and the requisite knowledge and practical skills necessary to fulfill these conditions.

Being academically honest also implies what is considered to be academically dishonest. Our school considers the following to be dishonest practices:-

Students
• Plagiarism:Passing off the ideas or work of another person as one’s own( one may be using another person’s writing/ideas/ project/ survey report, claiming it to be original work or using the ‘cut-copy-paste’ method to download information and then incorporating the same in one’s own work without proper, clear and explicit acknowledgment of the source.
• Collusion: Allowing one’s work to be copied or submitted for assessment by another.
• Duplication of work: Presenting the same work for different assessment components.
• Falsifying data / documents: i)Creating data which is not backed by true research or participation ii) falsifying record iii) falsifying documents by mutilation, addition, deletion of records, letters etc.
• Cheating in examination: Copying from another’s paper, taking unauthorised material into an examination hall, misconduct during examination or taking recourse to unfair means.

What does the school consider to be academic honesty?
The school believes and supports academic honesty at every level of the teaching-learning process. The school insists that while writing work or a project report, students must acknowledge all ideas and work of other persons. The following need to be kept in mind:-
1. If there is a rendition of another person’s words, it must be presented in a new style and grammatically integrated into the writing.
2. All details of CD ROM, email messages, internet sources/ web sites (URL) must be mentioned.
3. Sources of all photographs, maps, newspaper items, illustrations, computer programs, data, graphs, audio-visual material must be cited.
4. In case of books, the author, publication, edition and year must be mentioned. All verbatim quotes, works of art including music, film, dance, theatre arts, visual arts must have the original source documented.
5. Under works consulted section, a list of all resources that have been read and or looked at as a part of the preparation for the assessment task must be provided.
The principles of academic honesty apply equally to all subjects.

Responsibilities of the student
It is the student’s responsibility to ensure that all work submitted for assessment is authentic and that the work or ideas of others are properly cited and acknowledged.

Tips for Students (what to follow) to avoid Plagiarism
• Read the relevant information two or three times. Then express the idea in your own words.
• Review the original source for relevant information and include all that might have been overlooked.
• Analyze the source for the key terms. Attempt to integrate information from several sentences into one sentence using your own words.
• If information is taken from the public domain like internet/ websites has to be recorded including the date when each website is accessed, URL to be given and not only the search engine. The same rules to be followed for copying messages from CD Roms, DVDs, email, journals etc.