The steps to filing and responding to an academic integrity misconduct claim in the online system are introduced in this brief video and detailed more fully below.

Steps to filing and responding to an academic integrity misconduct claim.

1. The instructor determines there is evidence that academic dishonesty has occurred.

2. The instructor and student meet to discuss the suspected violation. The instructor should document the conversation and submit it as supporting content when filing the allegation online.  

3. If no clear evidence can be provided during the meeting that a violation did not occur, the faculty member logs in and files the violation in the online Academic Integrity system to report the misconduct. (In the online system, faculty have access to a Faculty User Guide and students have access to a Student User Guide.) All information, including course and student identification, etc., must be reviewed and confirmed before submitting as no changes can be made by the instructor after submission. Any necessary changes following submission can only be noted in the online system by the Academic Integrity Unit Administrator. A service indicator “hold” is then placed on the student record and the student will not be able to drop the class.

  • Note: The inability to drop the course only affects the course against which the misconduct has been reported.  If the student wishes to drop other courses during the same semester in which a violation has occurred, they must contact the campus Registrar ([email protected]) to do so. The violation will not affect the ability to drop in future semesters.

4. The instructor must upload supporting documentation of the allegation (as a file, not a link), including documentation of the meeting with the student, to the online report at the time the allegation is submitted. 

  • The support documentation should clearly delineate the violation; for instance, in the case of plagiarism, comparing the work submitted by the student as opposed to the work found not to be of the student’s own making.
  • If supporting documentation is missed or received after the violation has been filed, the additional information must be submitted to Academic Integrity Unit Administrator to be uploaded on behalf of the faculty member.

5. The student then receives an email notification from the Penn State Scranton Academic Integrity team that an academic integrity claim has been submitted by the instructor. It is the obligation of the instructor to inform the student that a violation has been filed and the obligation of the student to check their PSU email and respond to the violation.

  • The student has 7 days to respond to the claim in the online system and provide the required information within the deadline. A Student User Guide is available to students in the online system on how to respond. 
  • Note: In the online reporting system, once an academic integrity violation is submitted by an instructor, notification emails are automatically generated to the student, the Unit Administrator, the Registrar to place the academic dishonesty hold on the course in LionPath, and the campus Student Affairs office for verification of violation status, i.e. first or second, etc.

6. Both faculty and student each have 2 opportunities to respond to the allegation, first at the time of initial filing, and one additional opportunity after the initial response.

  • When the file is in the faculty or student queue, the other party cannot respond further until whoever is due to respond has done so.
  • The Unit Administrator can expire the file if the student does not respond by the deadline and send the file to the Director of Academic Affairs for review.
  • Note: The instructor can grant an extension on the deadline due to unavoidable and valid circumstances, such as illness.  The deadline can only be extended by the Unit Administrator in the system and the instructor would need to advise the permissible length of extension.

7. The student either accepts or contests the allegation.

  • If the student accepts the allegation(s) and sanctions(s), or fails to respond by the deadline, this will end the academic integrity process. The sanction(s) proposed by the faculty member will be applied and the file will be forwarded to the Director of Academic Affairs for review and, once approved, submitted to the University Office of Student Accountability and Conflict Response (OSACR). 
  • If the student chooses to contest the allegation, they can request either a committee or paper review. They will have the opportunity to explain why the behavior was not academic misconduct. The file will be forwarded to the Director of Academic Affairs for review and/or then submitted to the Academic Integrity Committee for review of all evidence for a decision.

8. If found guilty of the violation, the sanction(s) will be imposed and the service indicator “hold” will remain on the student’s course in LionPath.  If found innocent, the sanction(s) will not be imposed and the “hold” will be removed from the student’s course in LionPath. 

  • Note: If an allegation is recorded, the service indicator “hold” will not show on the student’s transcript. However, more egregious or multiple violations in the same course may result in an academic integrity notation on the student transcript for a temporary period of time.

Contact Information

Suzanne Morgan
Academic Integrity Unit Administrator at Penn State Scranton
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 570-963-2510