Course Policies
Academic Integrity
The University has an official policy on academic integrity that will serve as the ultimate authority for arbitrating issues of academic integrity. The main points that are relevant for this course are as follows: on homework and the project, any and all resources are fair game but they must be acknowledged. I expect that every assignment will be turned in with an acknowledgements section explicitly referencing those resources. Even a statement as simple as, “Jane Smith and I had a conversation about this homework after class” would be sufficient, if that was genuinely the only resource that was used. No outside resources will be allowed for the final exam.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is defined as the improper use of another's words or ideas without proper citation. From the official Arts & Sciences academic integrity policy: "Examples include: copying and pasting from the internet, a printed source, or other resource without proper acknowledgement; copying from another student; using direct quotations or large sections of paraphrased material in an assignment without appropriate acknowledgement; submitting the same piece of work in more than one course without the permission of the instructor(s)."
Of course, reading others' work and using it to help inform your own is an essential aspect of science! However, I strongly discourage the use of direct quotation, as this is almost never done in scientific writing. Instead, synthesize what you have learned from your research and state it in your own words. It is important to note what is, and is not, plagiarism. In particular, any statement, whether biological or mathematical, that you could reasonably expect someone in the class to know does not need to be cited. For example, if your project was dealing with HIV, you would not need to cite a reference for the sentence, "HIV is a sexually transmitted disease," but you would definitely need one for, "HIV-infected cells have a half-life of only two days (Klenerman et al. 1996)." Similarly, you would not need a reference for, "We performed a linear stability analysis by studying the eigenvalues of the Jacobian matrix," but you would definitely need one for, "We studied the stability of the delayed system using the LMS scheme (Engelborghs & Roose 2001, 2002)." When in doubt, err on the side of over-referencing versus under-referencing.
Citation style
Citations should be in the AMS style.
Students with disabilities
Any student with disabilities should contact Disability Services. I am happy to help facilitate that interaction if necessary. That office has trained clinicians who will diagnose and document the disability, and can decide what accommodations are best for each individual. I will follow whatever course they recommend.
Email policy
Email can be a pernicious timesink. Because of that, I check email at designated times throughout the day, so I may not reply to your email immediately. During the week, I promise to reply to any email within 24 hours. Any email sent after 6:00pm on Friday may not receive a reply until Monday morning, so plan accordingly!
The University has an official policy on academic integrity that will serve as the ultimate authority for arbitrating issues of academic integrity. The main points that are relevant for this course are as follows: on homework and the project, any and all resources are fair game but they must be acknowledged. I expect that every assignment will be turned in with an acknowledgements section explicitly referencing those resources. Even a statement as simple as, “Jane Smith and I had a conversation about this homework after class” would be sufficient, if that was genuinely the only resource that was used. No outside resources will be allowed for the final exam.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is defined as the improper use of another's words or ideas without proper citation. From the official Arts & Sciences academic integrity policy: "Examples include: copying and pasting from the internet, a printed source, or other resource without proper acknowledgement; copying from another student; using direct quotations or large sections of paraphrased material in an assignment without appropriate acknowledgement; submitting the same piece of work in more than one course without the permission of the instructor(s)."
Of course, reading others' work and using it to help inform your own is an essential aspect of science! However, I strongly discourage the use of direct quotation, as this is almost never done in scientific writing. Instead, synthesize what you have learned from your research and state it in your own words. It is important to note what is, and is not, plagiarism. In particular, any statement, whether biological or mathematical, that you could reasonably expect someone in the class to know does not need to be cited. For example, if your project was dealing with HIV, you would not need to cite a reference for the sentence, "HIV is a sexually transmitted disease," but you would definitely need one for, "HIV-infected cells have a half-life of only two days (Klenerman et al. 1996)." Similarly, you would not need a reference for, "We performed a linear stability analysis by studying the eigenvalues of the Jacobian matrix," but you would definitely need one for, "We studied the stability of the delayed system using the LMS scheme (Engelborghs & Roose 2001, 2002)." When in doubt, err on the side of over-referencing versus under-referencing.
Citation style
Citations should be in the AMS style.
Students with disabilities
Any student with disabilities should contact Disability Services. I am happy to help facilitate that interaction if necessary. That office has trained clinicians who will diagnose and document the disability, and can decide what accommodations are best for each individual. I will follow whatever course they recommend.
Email policy
Email can be a pernicious timesink. Because of that, I check email at designated times throughout the day, so I may not reply to your email immediately. During the week, I promise to reply to any email within 24 hours. Any email sent after 6:00pm on Friday may not receive a reply until Monday morning, so plan accordingly!