Intellectual Property and Academic Integrity Guidelines
By Alan Liu for his students at UC Santa Barbara
Professor Liu reports all cases of plagiarism and other academic dishonesty in his courses to the UCSB Office of Student Conduct without exception.Copyright
- UCSB Library’s “Copyright and Fair Use Guide”
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about Copyright (U.S. Copyright Office)
- Copyright Basics (U.S. Copyright Office) [PDF]
Copyright of Instructor’s and Student’s Materials
- Instructor lectures and course materials, including syllabi and course web pages, lectures slides, exams, outlines, and similar materials, are protected by U.S. copyright law and by University policy. The instructor is the exclusive owner of the copyright in those materials he creates, excluding quoted or reproduced materials under copyright by others or available through an open license. Students may take notes and make personal copies of course materials for their own use. Except for materials shared publicly by the instructor online, students may not reproduce, distribute, or display through online posting, uploading, or other means the course’s lectures and other materials in any way without the instructor’s express prior written consent. Students also may not purport to give permission to others to do so. Failing to respect the instructor’s intellectual property rights (and those of others whose materials he shows to students strictly for instructional use in a classroom or pedagogical setting limited to his students, and which he does not share publicly in any way exceeding the allowances of fair use law) may subject a student to conduct proceedings under the UC Santa Barbara Student Code of Conduct.
- Similarly, students own the copyright in their own original papers and other writing or created materials. If the instructor is interested in posting a student’s materials on the course website or elsewhere, the instructor will ask for the student’s permission.
Fair Use
- Copyright and Fair Use FAQ (Stanford U. Libraries)
- Detailed statement from the U.S. Copyright Office on “Reproduction of Copyrighted Works by Educators and Librarians” [PDF]
Plagiarism (and Other Academic Dishonesty)
- Plagiarism (along with other forms of academic dishonesty) is one of the most serious offenses in an academic community. The UCSB Office of Student Conduct defines “cheating, “”plagiarism,” “furnishing false information,” “collusion,” and “misuse of course materials” in its short online guide on Academic Integrity. Excerpts from the guide:
Excerpted from Academic Integrity
(UCSB Office of Student Conduct, 2025)
- Taking credit for any work you did not create including, but not limited to, books, articles, methodology, results, compositions, images, lectures, computer programs, internet postings, or utilizing artificial-intelligence programs without prior approval from instructor
- Copying any work you did not create without indicating that the information is copied and properly citing the source of the work
- Creating false citations that do not correspond to the information you have used
- Unauthorized use of artificial-intelligence programs to complete course work
- Working together on graded coursework without instructor permission or beyond the limits set by the instructor
- Providing or obtaining unauthorized assistance on graded coursework
- Looking at, copying, or attempting to copy from another student, allowing another student to copy, or unauthorized collaboration with another student
- Using any unauthorized material such as notes, cheat sheets, or electronic devices during an exam
- Talking, texting, or communicating during an exam
- Submitting altered graded assignments or exams for additional credit
- Bringing pre-written answers to an exam
- Having another person take an exam for you, or taking an exam for another student
- Signing an absent student in for attendance, or allowing a fellow student to do the same for you
- Unexcused exit and re-entry during an exam period
Use of AI (Generative Artificial Intelligence Tools such as ChatGPT)
Generative artificial-intelligence tools such as ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude, Gemini, Llama, and others based on “large language models” (and related text-to-image generators like DALL-E, Midjourney, or Stable Diffusion) are exciting new instruments for producing discourse and contributing to knowledge.
Low-level, routine, preparatory, and other “helper” uses of such tools are fine in Professor Liu’s courses for writing and other coursework — e.g, using AI at initial stages of summarizing readings; helping understand works, authors, and their contexts; suggesting ideas to explore; improving your prose; and others. For an excellent guide to such uses in English literature courses and similar courses, see Liza Long, “Using Generative Artificial Intelligence Tools in Litrerary Analysis” (2024). Used properly in these preparatory or assistive ways, AI can be a learning tool that complements other habits of learning in priming you to write a well-informed, thoughtful, insightful, creative, and original essay or other assignment.
However, more high-level, non-routine, and “auto-pilot” uses of AI tools that essentially replace you as the author or creator may not be used in Professor Liu’s courses unless explicitly allowed as one stage of an assignment or given explicit approval by the instructor or a TA. High-level, non-routine, or auto-pilot uses of AI of this sort include, for example, using ChatGPT or similar tools to generate whole assignments or substantial parts of assignments in ways that do not require real knowledge, input, creativity, or judgment by you. Because one of the defined missions of universities is to credential students as individuals, the unapproved or undocumented use of such tools in such high-level, non-routine, or fully automatic ways is a form of academic dishonesty.
Documentation of substantial uses of AI: Where AI tools are used substantially, whether in routine/preparatory ways or in non-routine ways (the latter approved as part of an assignment or by the instructor or TA), they must be cited in your paper or other assignment. For suggestions on how to cite ChatGPT and similar tools in MLA, APA, and Chicago citation styles, see here and here.
Also, for any substantial use of such tools, there must be a note or other explanation accompanying the assignment about how you used the tool. This can take the form of a paragraph or note at the end or your essay titled, for example, “How I Used AI” or “AI Disclosure Statement.”
The general principle is that full disclosure costs you nothing (except minor effort) and protects you from possible allegations of dishonesty. Until society reaches consensus on whether, to what degree, and how legitimately to use AI in work one claims as one’s own — that is, for which a person gains benefits but also is held responsible — full disclosure is good policy.
