10
Lying is a bad habit to get in to. Slippery slope and all that. It is also unnecessary in a case like this, but there won't be a penalty as no one but you will know. There are even good reasons to use a late date for some things like web resources, since you point to the most recent resource.
And, it has nothing to do with plagiarism.
9
There have been boycotts at university level, but not boycotts of the kind you're thinking of.
Example as happened at Syracuse University, which led to a rankings slide before they decided to care again.
5
As cases of academic misconduct go, falsifying the date of access to a resource for such a stupid reason certainly would not be the biggest case ever, but it would still be a considered to be misconduct. Intentionally falsifying information about sources is a giant red flag for more general academic dishonesty --- it shows that the researcher is willing to ...
4
It is hard to predict long term effects, but it is fairly common, in the US at least, for such behavior to be punished locally but no long term record communicated outside, even if it is kept.
Some places (most?) keep records for repeat offenders to be caught, but it may be that only the university will ever know unless you broadcast it. There may be no ...
3
I think it would only be misconduct if you tried to publish the revised data without comment and without permission. And, citation is needed, of course.
But, for purposes of teaching it is good to let the students know the original source, but sufficient to label the revision as "extracted from ..." or "revised from ...", or similar.
Some ...
3
With hindsight, did I do the right thing to discourage this practice of irrelevant self-citation
Not necessarily. Citation is not a prize or a favour. It's a scientific tool to help the reader or to justify the claims. Therefore, it is certainly right to discourage the practice of irrelevant citations. But if your concern is only irrelevant self-citation, ...
2
Lots of nuance required here and these sorts of questions are triggering for some. What you suggest is possibly a violation of copyright law in the technical sense, but, assuming you delete the downloaded copy after a reasonable period it isn't likely unethical. Or not seriously so. Note that law and ethics don't always conform perfectly.
After all, for a ...
2
I understand you to have aspired to something, to have made a forgivable mistake in the way you pursue your aspiration, to have been found out, to have apologized, to understand the morals of it, and to have accepted the consequences.
Do not think you are unusual: we all "have skeletons in our cupboards". Therefore do not take on a burden of guilt ...
2
Do not lie.
If you are an academic, people will assume you procrastinated until they see you work ahead many times.
Access dates in references are among the least important things about your academic writing.
1
Your question is very specific in a way that makes it unlikely to be useful to anyone but yourself, so let’s generalize it a bit. You are really asking whether it’s a big deal in an academic context to lie a pointless lie about a matter that has no significance whatsoever. For example, if I submit an assignment and write my name as “Dan Balthasar Romik III”, ...
1
The underlying issue here seems to be that you either (a) are engaging in this thought exercise over a trifling matter as a way of further procrastinating, or (b) have an outsized fear of being judged for procrastination. In reality, no-one is going to notice. If they do notice, they are not going to conclude that you procrastinated. And finally and most ...
1
Let me say first that I think you should strive for integrity in any academic work. Lying is never acceptable, regardless of whether or not there are any consequences.
Having said that, I think you are worried about the wrong thing here. Procrastinating is not necessarily a problem in itself, as long as one is meeting deadlines and producing quality work. ...
1
If you changed the dataset in any way, you should at the very least mention that you did so. And you should make sure that you are complying with the terms of any legal license under which the dataset is made public.
I don’t think you have an ethical duty to explain why you removed the variable, assuming it’s for a good faith, ethical reason. (E.g., an ...
1
Hmm, interesting and nonobvious question. I’d say it’s mostly ethical.
My reasoning is as follows: if the publisher’s business model relies on a significant number of sales of their textbooks going to readers who buy the book but end up disappointed that it didn’t fit their needs and wishing they could undo the purchase, then that business model is itself ...
1
This is a tough question. I'm not sure. I think there are some clear-cut subcases:
If you intend to pirate it but then find it on, say, amazon's "look inside" feature, review it there, and decide based on that - no, that's fully ethical. The author (or publisher or other designated person) intended you to have access to this material for the ...
1
I would disagree with your professor. Cheaters don't just harm themselves. They harm other students. Consider that there are a finite number of seats for university admission, and a finite number of scholarships and jobs which are decided upon by merit by way of grades.
Cheaters essentially jump ahead in rank above others that worked hard for their grades....
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