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[jackit]

Actually, I have an article published in Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society which is an expanded version of a paper from a class.  The professor who taught the class is my co-author.

I only got a B on the paper.

Surely, you needled Said Professor over this very point?

[mouseman]

Actually, I have an article published in Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society which is an expanded version of a paper from a class.  The professor who taught the class is my co-author.

I only got a B on the paper.

Surely, you needled Said Professor over this very point?

Nah, it was deserved - the concept, data, and analysis were good, but the paper was badly written.  It took a long time, and much effort, from both of us to get it to a point where it was publishable.  He did, however see the potential in the paper, and pushed me to proposed that I make it into a manuscript.  He helped me in innumerable other ways as well, when my a**hole Master's Adviser was making my life hard.

But is the BRCPS a class, Mouseman?

No, but it's classy ;-) 

Of course my point was that using unpublished material from a class in a publication is quite acceptable.  Said professor is one of the most ethical scientists I know.  Other people have actually complained about his rigidity on ethical matters, so if he had no problem with this, than I am sure that there is no ethical issue whatsoever.

[commcycle]

I would check your university's code of "ethics" or honor that defines the ins-and-outs of what it considers to be unethical.  Using any past coursework to fulfill other courses' requirements is usually on there as "unethical" - though I'm not sure if that applies to a disseratation.

This is exactly what prompted my question in the first place! My university's code of academic integrity forbids the practice of using one paper to fulfill requirements in more than one class. Dissertations or theses are not specifically mentioned. This issue has sparked an interesting debate among my fellow grad students, most of whom think that the dissertation would be an exception to the integrity rule.

I am certain my own institution exempts dissertations from self-plagiarizing, such as in a class. For one thing, dissertation material can be published (such as a conference or journal paper). Self-plagiarizing for classes in is quite a different animal.