Adopted July 1, 2014. Last revised January 20, 2026
The Computer Science Department seeks to create a friendly and supportive learning environment. We encourage you to work in groups to review course material, complete practice problems, study for exams, and discuss general ideas and approaches to assignments.
However, the work you submit must be completed independently, unless collaboration on a particular assignment is explicitly permitted. Your learning is compromised when you violate this principle. As explained in the Pomona College Student Handbook, this means that the work you turn in must represent only your own work. It must not be based on help from others or information obtained from sources other than those approved by the instructors, including AI tools.
The following discussion reflects our general understanding of academic honesty in the Computer Science Department. Any exceptions or differences will appear in the course syllabus or the instructions for an assignment. Ask your instructor if you are ever unsure about what constitutes acceptable behavior.
1 Collaboration policies
The types of work and the level of expected collaboration vary from course to course and assignment to assignment. In this section, we describe some typical expectations. Instructors will often indicate that an assignment falls into a particular category, occasionally with additional remarks about the use of specific materials or sources. You may freely use any resource that is provided by the instructor for an assignment.
1.1 Individual Work
For work that is to be completed individually, you must not submit work under your own name that is done by, or in collaboration with, someone else. Copying solutions from any source, including the web, AI tools, or students who took previous offerings of the course, is not allowed.
You should not read or possess copies in any form—physical or electronic—of another student's work. There is no legitimate reason for you to possess a copy of another student's assignment, to send a copy of student work from one computer account to another, or to be logged-on to another student's account. Providing your work to another student is also a violation of these policies.
We routinely use software and other tools to detect similarities between submissions and generative AI content. Identical, or nearly identical, submissions will be considered conclusive evidence of plagiarism.
- For programming assignments, you may normally discuss general approaches to assignments, and you may give or receive “consulting” help for specific problems with software or computer programs. You may look at another student's work only when help is requested. In that situation, you take on the role of mentor, and the interaction must be limited to the immediate problem. Two students sitting side-by-side and working through a program step-by-step will certainly produce work that will be considered evidence of unacceptable collaboration.
- On problem sets, you may discuss general ideas and approaches with other students, provided those students are acknowledged by name in your submitted solutions. However, you must write up your submitted solutions on your own, without consulting notes or other artifacts from the group discussion.
- When papers are assigned, they must adhere to the usual levels of academic integrity. The prose must be your own, and all external sources, including AI tools, if permitted, must be properly cited.
1.2 Group Projects
For assignments designated as group projects, your team takes on the role of an individual in the preceding discussion (Section 1.1). Members of a team may communicate with each other, but collaboration with members of a different team is not permitted.
1.3 Exams
As stated in the Pomona College Student Handbook, “Students neither give nor receive assistance with examinations.” Each examination will have a clear statement of what resources are permitted. Any use of material beyond those limits is not allowed. Take-home examinations will have time limits and similarly explicit rules; they are subject to the same policies.
During examinations, you may ask the instructor questions of clarification. The instructor will decide how complete an answer can be given.
2 Use of Course Materials
Course materials are provided solely for students in the class. You are encouraged to use them to the fullest extent, but you may not publish or distribute them to other people or organizations. Additionally, you should never use course materials or assignments as a prompt for an AI tool, unless explicitly allowed by the course policy.
3 Responsibility of Mentors and Graders
Teaching assistants are routinely provided with solution sets to assignments. The solutions are intended to be an aid to effective mentoring and grading. Teaching assistants are not to distribute the solutions, in whole or in part, at any time.
Graders who encounter suspicious similarities between submissions must report those instances to the instructor in the course.
4 Consequences
Failure to abide by our rules will constitute a violation of the College's academic honesty policy and result in severe consequences.
Suspected violations are always reported to the Dean of Students Office. A first offense results in a zero and no less than a half-letter-grade reduction. A second offense is automatically referred to the College's Academic Discipline Board.
See the Academic Honesty Policy in the Pomona College Student Handbook for further information. Students from other Claremont Colleges will be treated according to the procedures of their home campus. Please do not put us, yourself, or anyone else in an unpleasant situation.