why is academic honesty important essay

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Central to any academic writing project is crediting (or citing) someone else' words or ideas. The following sites will help you check your understanding of academic writing expectations.

Academic integrity is truthful and responsible representation of yourself and your work by taking credit only for your own ideas and creations and giving credit to the work and ideas of other people. It involves providing attribution (citations and acknowledgments) whenever you include the intellectual property of others—and even your own if it is from a previous project or assignment. Academic integrity also means generating and using accurate data.

Responsible and ethical use of information is foundational to a successful teaching, learning, and research community. Not only does it promote an environment of trust and respect, it also facilitates intellectual conversations and inquiry. Citing your sources shows your expertise and assists others in their research by enabling them to find the original material. It is unfair and wrong to claim or imply that someone else’s work is your own.

Failure to uphold the values of academic integrity at the GSD can result in serious consequences, ranging from re-doing an assignment to expulsion from the program with a sanction on the student’s permanent record and transcript. Outside of academia, such infractions can result in lawsuits and damage to the perpetrator’s reputation and the reputation of their firm/organization. For more details see the Academic Integrity Policy at the GSD. 

The GSD’s Academic Integrity Tutorial can help build proficiency in recognizing and practicing ways to avoid plagiarism.

• Avoiding Plagiarism (Purdue OWL) A useful summary includes tips on how to avoid accidental plagiarism, includes a useful list of what does (and does not) need to be cited, and suggests best practices for research and writing.
• How Not to Plagiarize (University of Toronto) Concise explanation and useful Q&A with examples of citing and integrating sources.
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2.4 Understanding Academic Honesty and APA Citations

Questions to consider:.

• What is academic Integrity and academic honesty?
• Why is understanding the academic honesty policy so important as a college student?

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Define academic honesty and common forms of academic dishonesty
• Identify common scenarios that can lead to academic dishonesty, and possible consequences
• Identify strategies for avoiding plagiarism
• Outline the consequences of Breach of Academic Honesty procedure at Centennial College

Shortcutting Prohibited by Stephen Coles is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 2.0 license.

Academic Honesty and Dishonesty

At most educational institutions, “academic honesty” means demonstrating and upholding the highest integrity and honesty in all the academic work that you do. In short, it means doing your own work and not cheating, and not presenting the work of others as your own.

The following are some common forms of academic dishonesty prohibited by most academic institutions:  Refer to the college’s Academic Honesty and Plagiarism Policy

Cheating can take the form of looking over someone’s shoulder during an exam, or any forbidden sharing of information between students regarding an exam or exercise.

Deception is providing false information to an instructor concerning an academic assignment. Examples of this include giving a dishonest excuse when asking for a deadline extension, or falsely claiming to have submitted work.

Fabrication

Fabrication is the falsification of data, information, or citations in an academic assignment. This includes making up citations to back up arguments or inventing quotations.

Plagiarism, as defined in the 1995 Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary, is the “use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one’s own original work.” (source: https://guides.libraries.emory.edu/ ) In an academic setting, it is seen as the adoption or reproduction of original intellectual creations (such as concepts, ideas, methods, pieces of information or expressions, etc.) of another author (whether an individual, group, or organization) without proper acknowledgment. This can range from borrowing a particular phrase or sentence to paraphrasing someone else’s original idea without citing it. Today, in our networked digital world, the most common form of plagiarism is copying and pasting online material without crediting the source.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYhGPHAnFak

To Access the Video Transcript: 1. Click on “YouTube” on the bottom-right of the video. This will take you directly to the YouTube video. 2. Click on the More Actions icon (represented by three horizontal dots) 3. Click on “Open Transcript”

Common Forms of Plagiarism

According to “The Reality and Solution of College Plagiarism” created by the Health Informatics department of the University of Illinois at Chicago, there are ten main forms of plagiarism that students commit:

• Submitting someone else’s work as their own.
• Taking passages from their own previous work without adding citations.
• Rewriting someone’s work without properly citing sources.
• Using quotations, but not citing the source.
• Interweaving various sources together in the work without citing.
• Citing some, but not all passages that should be cited.
• Melding together cited and uncited sections of the piece.
• Providing proper citations, but failing to change the structure and wording of the borrowed ideas enough.
• Inaccurately citing the source.
• Relying too heavily on other people’s work. Failing to bring original thought into the text.

As a college student, you are now a member of a scholarly community that values other people’s ideas. In fact, you will routinely be asked to reference and discuss other people’s thoughts and writing in the course of producing your own work. That’s why it’s so important to understand what plagiarism is and steps you can take to avoid it.

Avoiding Plagiarism

Below are some useful guidelines to help you avoid plagiarism and show academic honesty in your work:

• Quotes: If you quote another work directly in your work, cite your source.
• Paraphrase: If put someone else’s idea into your own words, you still need to cite the author.
• Visual Materials: If you cite statistics, graphs, or charts from a study, cite the source. Keep in mind that if you didn’t do the original research, then you need to credit the person(s) or institution, etc. that did.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fk4dop-Zhc

The easiest way to make sure you don’t accidentally plagiarize someone else’s work is by taking careful notes as you research. If you are doing research on the Web, be sure to copy and paste the links into your notes so can keep track of the sites you’re visiting. Be sure to list all the sources you consult.

Lastly, if you’re in doubt about whether something constitutes plagiarism, cite the source or leave the material out. Better still, ask for help. Use the college’s Library Guide to learn more about APA citation . Taking the time to seek advice is better than getting in trouble for not attributing your sources. Be honest about your ideas, and give credit where it’s due.

Consequences of Plagiarism

In the academic world, plagiarism by students is usually considered a very serious offense that can result in punishments such as a failing grade on the particular assignment, the entire course, or even being expelled from the institution. Individual instructors and courses may have their own policies regarding academic honesty and plagiarism; statements of these can usually be found in the course syllabus or online course description.

Strengthen your understanding by participating in the following self paced activity.

Centennial College Library resource on Academic Honesty and Integrity

APA Citation

Welcome to Centennial’s APA (American Psychological Association) Style Library Guide. Access the resources below to understand how to use the APA citation style accurately.

APA style Examples

APA style parts of a reference (colour coded samples)

Key Takeaways

• Being dishonest can have major consequences that can affect you as a college student and also your life beyond college.
• “Everyone cheats” and “It’s no big deal at my college” cannot justify the act of cheating.
• When you cheat, you are primarily cheating yourself.

Attributions and References

Academic Integrity for Students  by Centennial College Libraries is licensed under a  CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license unless otherwise stated

This chapter contains adaptations from:

Bruce, L. (2016). College Success. Provided by: Lumen Learning. Book URL: https://www.coursehero.com/study-guides/collegesuccess-lumen/ Section URL: https://www.coursehero.com/study-guides/collegesuccess-lumen/academic-honesty/ License: CC BY: Attribution

CC LICENSED CONTENT, SHARED PREVIOUSLY

Image of shortcutting sign.  Authored by : Stephen Coles.  Located at :  https://www.flickr.com/photos/stewf/15338443102/ .  License :  CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike

Academic Dishonesty.  Provided by : Wikipedia.  Located at :  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_dishonesty#cite_note-22 .  License :  CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike

Plagiarism.  Provided by : Wikipedia.  Located at :  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagiarism .  License :  CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike

Fundamentals for Success in College Copyright © 2022 by Priti Parikh, Centennial College is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Exploring Academic Integrity in Your Research: A Tutorial

• 2 - Scholarly Conversation
• 3 - Scholarly Conversation & Justice
• 4 - LACE at the University of Oregon
• 5 - Academic Discourse
• 6 - Student Responsibilities
• 7 - Academic Discourse & Student Success

2 - Academic Honesty

• 3 - Academic Honesty
• 4 - Academic Dishonesty
• 5 - Academic Dishonesty
• 6 - Academic Dishonesty
• 7 - Academic Dishonesty
• 8 - Academic Dishonesty
• 9 - Academic Dishonesty
• 10 - Academic Dishonesty
• 11 - Plagiarism
• 12 - Plagiarism
• 13 - Paraphrasing
• 14 - Paraphrasing
• 15 - Consequences
• 16 - Consequences
• 17 - Review
• 2 - Attribution
• 3 - Citations
• 4 - Citations
• 5 - Plagiarism
• 6 - Plagiarism
• 7 - To Cite or Not?
• 8 - To Cite or Not?
• 9 - To Cite or Not?
• 10 - To Cite or Not?
• 11 - To Cite or Not?
• 12 - To Cite or Not?
• 13 - Citation Styles
• 14 - Citation Styles
• 15 - Citation Management
• 16 - Citation Management
• 2 - Copyright
• 3 - Copyright
• 3.5-Copyright
• 4 - Copyright
• 5 - Copyright
• 6 - Fair Use
• 7 - Fair Use
• 8 - Permissions
• 9 - Permissions
• 10 - Resources
• 11 - Review
• More Resources

What is academic honesty?

Academic honesty ensures acknowledgement of other people’s hard work and thought.  The International Center for Academic Integrity defines it as “a commitment, even in the face of adversity, to six fundamental values: honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility, and courage. From these values flow principles of behavior that enable academic communities to translate ideals to action.”

Different cultures and traditions often have distinct definitions of what behaviors constitute academic honesty. For example, in some cultures, it is considered a sign of respect to use the exact wording of a well-known thinker, and attribution is considered unnecessary. However, that is not an accepted practice for scholars in the United States.

To learn more about cultural differences with regards to academic honesty, check out this book: Howard, Rebecca Moore. Standing in the Shadow of Giants : Plagiarists, Authors, Collaborators . Stamford, Conn.: Ablex Pub., c1999.

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Academic Honesty: Definition and Importance

Importance of academic honesty, viewpoints of students and faculty, causes of academic dishonesty, strategies to ensure academic honesty.

Bibliography

Educational institutions are the places where students are taught to build their values, moral integrity, and strength of character. As such it is very important that academic honesty is inculcated in them through rules, regulations, and guidelines. Academic honesty has become the focus of discussion among educators in recent times due to increased possibilities of cheating, making use of new technology such as the Internet and wireless.

Academic honesty is ensuring a moral code of behavior in the educational context. Academic dishonesty is a widely prevalent problem. According to a study by McCabe and Trevino (1993), based on 6,096 undergraduate students from 31 colleges in the United States, almost 75% of the students admitted to engaging in some form of academically dishonest activity during their college days; about 50% confessed to cheating in examinations or indulging in plagiarism, and slightly more than 50% admitted to cheating on homework assignments. Such prevalence of dishonesty within the academic circle can only be seen as a sign of declining ethical standards or a sign of a faulty educational system.

Thesis: Academic dishonesty is widely prevalent today and it can be tackled only through integrated efforts of students, faculty, the administrative board, and the society at large.

Pavela’s (1978) definition of academic dishonesty has been widely accepted. According to Pavela, academic dishonesty consists of cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, and facilitating academic dishonesty. Cheating refers to the acts of using crib notes, copying during the test, and indulging in unauthorized collaboration on homework assignments. Fabrications refer to inventing false information such as making up sources for the bibliography or reporting fictitious results for a lab experiment.

Plagiarism refers to using paper written by another student and passing it off as one’s own, buying a paper from some source, or using the work of other people within one’s paper without properly referencing it. Facilitating academic dishonesty involves knowingly helping a fellow student through some form of academic dishonesty. More activities might be added to the list proposed by Pavela (Whitley Jr. and Spiegel, 2002). Academic dishonesty can include misrepresentation by telling lies to an instructor, failure to contribute to a group project, and hindering others from completing their work.

It is important to have an academically honest environment because all students who come to college or school deserve to have an unpolluted learning environment where they will be independently judged on their performance. Educational institutions have the obligation to model and uphold integrity for future generations. Good scholarship and learning can happen only when they are based on a clear sense of academic honesty and responsibility.

When high standards of honesty are not maintained within the campus, faculty members are defrauded, students are subjected to unfair treatment, and society becomes deprived of its moral strength. Babson College brochure says that “academic dishonesty violates the most fundamental values of an intellectual community and depreciates the achievements of the entire college community”. Rutgers University points out the importance of academic honesty by saying that “Academic freedom is a fundamental right in any institution of higher learning. Honesty and integrity are necessary preconditions of this freedom”.

Students are often unaware of what constitutes academic honesty. They generally believe that it is acceptable to use: old test papers as long as they are not stolen, shortcuts such as reading an abbreviated version of the assigned work, and help from others. They also believe that some minor forms of plagiarism and conning teachers are acceptable. It is a significant finding that many students believe that facilitating academic dishonesty is justified when the intent is to help a friend.

McCabe (1992) found that 26% percent of the students, who confessed to helping a friend cheat, had never cheated themselves. Faculty members sometimes excuse some seemingly dishonest activities if they are done accidentally, or due to ignorance of proper behavior or uncertainty over what is allowed or when it approximates proper behavior (Whitley Jr. and Spiegel, 2002).

Students thus tend to take a more tolerant view of academic dishonesty than faculty members. However, both the students and the faculty feel that intentional dishonesty is a more severe ethical violation than opportunistic dishonesty (Whitley Jr. and Spiegel, 2002). Intentional dishonesty is when a student conspires with another student to copy during a test. Opportunistic dishonesty is when the chance to copy comes up when a student leaves his paper or notebook exposed (Whitley Jr. and Spiegel, 2002). However, there are always differences in the way people perceive what is cheating and what is not.

College students cite several reasons as to why they indulge in academic dishonesty. Cochran, Wood, Sellers, Wilkerson, and Chamlin (1998) have found that low self-control is one of the major causes of academic dishonesty, based on a study at the University of Oklahoma. Students have also confessed that alienation is another triggering factor. Due to alienation, college students often appeal to higher loyalties to groups such as campus secret cults, fraternities, etc. (Lambert et al, 2003). Sometimes students cheat for the simple reason to get good grades (Coston and Jenks, 1998). It has been the reason cited by students most frequently (Kibler et al, 1988).

Studies show that factors that cause students to engage in academic dishonesty are of three groups: personal traits of the students who cheat, the situation and the reasons students give for cheating (Kibler, 1993). Specifically, among several reasons which students give for academic dishonesty, concern about grades has been mentioned most frequently (Aluede et al, 2006). That is, pressure to get good grades makes most students engage in acts of academic dishonesty

Researchers have found that the following factors encourage academic dishonesty: competition, pressure to get good grades, excessively demanding environment, inefficient faculty, the leniency of the faculty, peer pressure, and a diminishing sense of morality and values among students (Aluede et al, 2006).

To protect the students from indulging in dishonest activities, colleges should enforce changes at the institutional level. They must provide environments that nurture the moral development of the students. Whenever students do indulge in such behavior, they must be forced to face the moral implications of their behavior and made to understand that “effective learning depends largely on honesty, respect, rigor and fairness” (Kibler, 1994).

Colleges generally communicate about academic dishonesty through student handbooks, brochures, or orientation exercises. It would be more effective if higher education managers undertake an ethos of promoting academic integrity and thereby create a campus environment that promotes academic honesty (Kibler, 1994). Erica B. Stern and Larry Havlicek (1986:140) have suggested that smaller classes and closer monitoring of students discourage students from indulging in acts of academic dishonesty. However, neither students nor faculty involved in their study believed that an honor code or trust system would reduce cheating on examinations.

Pino and Smith (2003) suggest that one way of rebuilding academic integrity and reducing the incidences of academic dishonesty is to foster the development of an academic ethic among college students. The academic ethic refers to “learned behavior” that involves giving studies the highest priority over leisure activities, studying regularly and in an intense fashion (Rau and Durand 2000:23). Pino and Smith (2003) hold that procrastination from watching too much television can increase the likelihood of academic dishonesty in order to make up for a lost time. However, those with an academic ethic are much less likely to procrastinate and would therefore be less vulnerable to the temptation of engaging in academic dishonesty.

Academic honesty is the sum value of individual and collective honesty within the educational institution and has to be taught, role-modeled, and rewarded. Students generally desire to be honest. By creating an environment that does not facilitate cheating it is possible to ensure academic honesty at all levels. Students, administrators, and parents must be supportive of efforts to eliminate, discover, and sanction academic dishonesty. Ultimately, only by creating an academic ethic, academic dishonesty may be prevented.

Aluede, Oyaziwo; Omoregie, O. Eunice and Osa-Edoh, I. Gloria (2006). Academic Dishonesty as a Contemporary Problem in Higher Education: How Academic Advisers Can Help. Reading Improvement. Volume: 43. Issue: 2.

Cochran, J. K., Chamlin, M.B., Wood, P.B., & Sellers, C.S. (1999). Shame, embarrassment and formal sanction threats: Extending the deterrence/rational choice model to academic dishonesty. Sociological Inquiry. Volume 69. 91-105.

Coston, C. T. M., & Jenks, D. A. (1998). Exploring Academic Dishonesty among Undergraduate Criminal Justice Majors: A Research Note. American Journal of Criminal Justice. Volume 22. 235-248.

Kibler, W.C. (1993). Academic dishonesty: A student developmental dilemma. NAPSA Journal. Volume 30. 252-267.

Kibler, W.C. (1994). Addressing academic dishonesty: What are institutions of higher education doing and not doing? NAPSA Journal. Volume 31. 92-101.

Kibler, W.C., Nuss, E.M., Paterson, B.G., & Pavela, G. (1988). Academic integrity and student development: Legal issues, policy perspectives. College Administrators Publications. Asheville, NC.

Lambert, E.G., Hogan, N.C., & Barton, S.M. (2003). Collegiate academic dishonesty revisited: What have they done, how often have they done it, who does it, and why did they do it. Electronic Journal of Sociology.

McCabe, D. L., & Trevino, L. K. (1997). Individual and Contextual Influences on Academic Dishonesty: A Multicampus Investigation. Research in Higher Education. Volume 38. 379-396.

McCabe, D.L. & Pavela, G. (1997). The principal pursuit of academic integrity. AAHE Bulletin. Volume 50. Issue 4. 11-12.

McCabe, D.L. (1992). The influence of situational ethics on cheating among college students. Sociological Inquiry. Volume 62. Issue 3. 356-374.

Pavela, G. (1978). Judicial review of academic decision- making after Horowitz. School Law Journal. Volume 55. Issue 8. 55-75.

Pino, W. Nathan and Smith, L. William (2003). College Students and Academic Dishonesty. College Student Journal. Volume: 37. Issue: 4. 490+.

Rau, W., & Durand, A. (2000). The Academic Ethic and College Grades: Does Hard Work Help Students to “Make the Grade”? Sociology of Education. Volume 73. 19-38.

Stern, E. B., & Havlicek, L. (1986). Academic Misconduct: Results of Faculty and Undergraduate Student Surveys. Journal of Allied Health. Volume 15. 129-142.

Whitley Jr., E. Bernard and Spiegel, K. Patricia (2002). Academic Dishonesty: An Educator’s Guide. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Mahwah, NJ.

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Promoting Academic Integrity 

While it is each student’s responsibility to understand and abide by university standards towards individual work and academic integrity, instructors can help students understand their responsibilities through frank classroom conversations that go beyond policy language to shared values. By creating a learning environment that stimulates engagement and designing assessments that are authentic, instructors can minimize the incidence of academic dishonesty.

Academic dishonesty often takes place because students are overwhelmed with the assignments and they don’t have enough time to complete them. So, in addition to being clear about expectations and responsibilities related to academic integrity, instructors should also invite students to  plan accordingly and communicate with them in the event of an emergency. Instructors can arrange extensions and offer solutions in case that students have an emergency. Communication between instructors and students is vital to avoid bad practices and contribute to hold on to the academic integrity values. 

The guidance and strategies included in this resource are applicable to courses in any modality (in-person, online, and hybrid) and includes a discussion of addressing generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT with students. 

On this page:

What is academic integrity, why does academic dishonesty occur, strategies for promoting academic integrity, academic integrity in the age of artificial intelligence, columbia university resources.

• References and Additional Resources
• Acknowledgment

Cite this resource: Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning (2020). Promoting Academic Integrity. Columbia University. Retrieved [today’s date] from https://ctl.columbia.edu/resources-and-technology/resources/academic-integrity/

According to the  International Center for Academic Integrity , academic integrity is “a commitment, even in the face of adversity, to six fundamental values: honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility, and courage.” We commit to these values to honor the intellectual efforts of the global academic community, of which Columbia University is an integral part.

Academic dishonesty in the classroom occurs when one or more values of academic integrity are violated. While some cases of academic dishonesty are committed intentionally, other cases may be a reflection of something deeper that a student is experiencing, such as language or cultural misunderstandings, insufficient or misguided preparation for exams or papers, a lack of confidence in their ability to learn the subject, or perception that course policies are unfair (Bernard and Keith-Spiegel, 2002).

Some other reasons why students may commit academic dishonesty include:

• Cultural or regional differences in what comprises academic dishonesty
• Lack or poor understanding on how to cite sources correctly
• Misunderstanding directions and/or expectations
• Poor time management, procrastination, or disorganization
• Feeling disconnected from the course, subject, instructor, or material
• Fear of failure or lack of confidence in one’s ability
• Anxiety, depression, other mental health problems
• Peer/family pressure to meet unrealistic expectations

Understanding some of these common reasons can help instructors intentionally design their courses and assessments to pre-empt, and hopefully avoid, instances of academic dishonesty. As Thomas Keith states in “Combating Academic Dishonesty, Part 1 – Understanding the Problem.” faculty and administrators should direct their steps towards a “thoughtful, compassionate pedagogy.”

The CTL is here to help!

The CTL can help you think through your course policies and ways to create community, design course assessments, and set up CourseWorks to promote academic integrity. Email [email protected] to schedule your 1-1 consultation .

In his research on cheating in the college classroom, James Lang argues that “the amount of cheating that takes place on our campuses may well depend on the structures of the learning environment” (Lang, 2013a; Lang, 2013b). Instructors have agency in shaping the classroom learning experience; thus, instances of academic dishonesty can be mitigated by efforts to design a supportive, learning-oriented environment (Bertam, 2017 and 2008).

Understanding Student’s Perceptions about Cheating 

It is important to know how students understand critical concepts related to academic integrity such as: cheating, transparency, attribution, intellectual property, etc. As much as they know and understand these concepts, they will be able to show good academic integrity practices.

1. Acknowledge the importance of the research process, not only the outcome, during student learning.

Although the research process is slow and arduous, students should understand the value of the different processes involved during academic writing: investigation, reading, drafting, revising, editing and proof-reading. For Natalie Wexler, using generative Artificial Intelligence tools like ChatGPT as a substitute of writing itself is beyond cheating, an act of self cheating: “The process of writing itself can and should deepen that knowledge and possibly spark new insights” (“‘ Bots’ Can Write Good Essays, But That Doesn’t Make Writing Obsolete” ).

Ways to understand the value of writing their own work without external help, either from external sources, peers or AI, hinge on prioritizing the process over the product:

• Asking students to present drafts of their work and receive feedback can help students to gain confidence to continue researching and writing.
• Allowing students the freedom to choose or change their research topic can increase their investment in an assignment, which can motivate them to conduct their own writing and research rather than relying on AI tools. 

2. Create a supportive learning environment

When students feel supported in a course and connected to instructors and/or TAs and their peers, they may be more comfortable asking for help when they don’t understand course material or if they have fallen behind with an assignment.

Ways to support student learning include:

• Convey confidence  in your students’ ability to succeed in your course from day one of the course (this may ease student anxiety or  imposter syndrome ) and through timely and regular feedback on what they are doing well and areas they can improve on. 
• Explain the relevance  of the course to students; tell them why it is important that they actually learn the material and develop the skills for themselves. Invite students to connect the course to their goals, studies, or intended career trajectories. Research shows that students’ motivation to learn can help deter instances of academic dishonesty (Lang, 2013a). 
• Teach important skills  such as taking notes, summarizing arguments, and citing sources. Students may not have developed these skills, or they may bring bad habits from previous learning experiences. Have students practice these skills through exercises (Gonzalez, 2017). 
• Provide students multiple opportunities to practice challenging skills  and receive immediate feedback in class (e.g., polls, writing activities, “boardwork”). These frequent low-stakes assessments across the semester can “[improve] students’ metacognitive awareness of their learning in the course” (Lang, 2013a, pp. 145). 
• Help students manage their time  on course tasks by scheduling regular check-ins to reduce students’ last minute efforts or frantic emails about assignment requirements. Establish weekly online office hours and/or be open to appointments outside of standard working hours. This is especially important if students are learning in different time zones. Normalize the use of campus resources and academic support resources that can help address issues or anxieties they may be facing.  (See the Columbia University Resources section below for a list of support resources.)
• Provide lists of approved websites and resources  that can be used for additional help or research. This is especially important if on-campus materials are not available to online learners. Articulate permitted online “study” resources to be used as learning tools (and not cheating aids – see McKenzie, 2018) and how to cite those in homework, writing assignments or problem sets. 
• Encourage TAs (if applicable) to establish good relationships  with students and to check-in with you about concerns they may have about students in the course. (Explore the  Working with TAs Online  resource to learn more about partnering with TAs.)

3. Clarify expectations and establish shared values

In addition to including Columbia’s  academic integrity policy  on syllabi, go a step further by creating space in the classroom to discuss your expectations regarding academic integrity and what that looks like in your course context. After all, “what reduces cheating on an honor code campus is not the code itself, but  the dialogue about academic honesty that the code inspires. ” (Lang, 2013a, pp. 172)

Ways to cultivate a shared sense of responsibility for upholding academic integrity include: 

• Ask students to identify goals and expectations  around academic integrity in relation to course learning objectives. 
• Communicate your expectations  and explain your rationale for course policies on artificial intelligence tools, collaborative assignments, late work, proctored exams, missed tests, attendance, extra credit, the use of plagiarism detection software or proctoring software, etc. It will make a difference to take the time at the beginning of the course to explain differences between quoting, summarizing and paraphrasing. Providing examples of good and bad quotation/paraphrasing will help students to know what constitutes good academic writing. 
• Define and provide examples  for what constitutes plagiarism or other forms of academic dishonesty in your course.
• Invite students to generate ideas  for responding to scenarios where they may be pressured to violate the values of academic integrity (e.g.: a friend asks to see their homework, or a friend suggests using chat apps during exams), so students are prepared to react with integrity when suddenly faced with these situations. 
• State clearly when collaboration and group learning is permitted  and when independent work is expected. Collaboration and group work provide great opportunities to build student-student rapport and classroom community, but at the same time, it can lead students to fall into academic misconduct due to unintended collaboration/failure to safeguard their work.
• Discuss the ethical, academic, and legal repercussions  of posting class recordings, notes and/or class materials online (e.g., to sites such as Chegg, GitHub, CourseHero – see Lederman, 2020).
• Partner with TAs  (if applicable) and clarify your expectations of them, how they can help promote shared values around academic integrity, and what they should do in cases of suspected cheating or classroom difficulties

4. Design assessments to maximize learning and minimize pressure

High stakes course assessments can be a source of student anxiety. Creating multiple opportunities for students to demonstrate their learning, and spreading assessments  throughout  the semester can lessen student stress and keep the focus on student learning (see  Darby, 2020  for strategies on assessing students online). As Lang explains, “The more assessments you provide, the less pressure you put on students to do well on any single assignment or exam. If you maintain a clear and consistent academic integrity policy, and ensure that all students caught cheating receive an immediate and substantive penalty, the benefit of cheating on any one assessment will be small, while the potential consequences will be high” (Lang, 2013a and Lang, 2013c). For support with creating online exams, please please refer to our  Creating Online Exams resource .

Ways to enhance one’s assessment approach:

• Design assignments  based on authentic problems in your discipline. Ask students to  apply  course concepts and materials to a problem or concept. 
• Structure assignments into smaller parts  (“scaffolding”) that will be submitted and checked throughout the semester. This scaffolding can also help students learn how to tackle large projects by breaking down the tasks. 
• Break up a single high-stakes exam  into smaller, weekly tests. This can help distribute the weight of grades, and will lessen the pressure students feel when an exam accounts for a large portion of their grade. 
• Give students options  in how their learning is assessed and/or invite students to present their learning in creative ways (e.g., as a poster, video, story, art project, presentation, or oral exam).
• Provide feedback prior to grading  student work. Give students the opportunity to implement the feedback. The revision process encourages student learning, while also lowering the anxiety around any one assignment. 
• Utilize multiple low-stakes assignments  that prepare students for high-stakes assignments or exams to reduce anxiety (e.g., in-class activities, in-class or online discussions)
• Create grading rubrics and share them  with your students and TAs (if applicable) so that expectations are clear, to guide student work, and aid with the feedback process.  
• Use individual student portfolio folders  and provide tailored feedback to students throughout the semester. This can help foster positive relationships, as well as allow you to watch students’ progress on drafts and outlines. You can also ask students to describe how their drafts have changed and offer rationales for those decisions.
• For exams , consider refreshing tests every term, both in terms of organization and content. Additionally, ground your assignments by having students draw connections between course content and the unique experience of your course in terms of time (unique to the semester), place (unique to campus, local community, etc. ), personal (specific student experiences), and interdisciplinary opportunities (other courses students have taken, co-curricular activities, campus events, etc.). (Lang, 2013a, pp. 77).

Since its release, ChatGPT has raised concern in universities across the country about the opportunity it presents for students to cheat and appropriate AI ideas, texts, and even code as their own work. However, there are also potential positive uses of this tool in the learning process–including as a tool for teachers to rely on when creating assessments or working with repetitive and time-consuming tasks.

Possible Advantages of ChatGPT

Due to the novelty of this tool, the possible advantages that might present in the teaching-learning process should be under the control of each instructor since they know exactly what they expect from students’ work. 

Prof. Ethan Mollick teaches innovation and entrepreneurship at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and has been openly sharing on his Twitter account his journey incorporating ChatGPT into his classes. Prof. Mollick advises his students to experiment with this tool, trying and retrying prompts. He recognizes the importance of acknowledging its limits and the risks of violating academic honesty guidelines if the use of this tool is not stated at the end of the assignment.

Prof. Mollick uncovers four possible uses of this AI tool, ranging from using ChatGPT as an all-knowing intern, as a game designer, as an assistant to launch a business, or even to “hallucinate” together ( “Four Paths to the Revelation” ). For Prof. Mollick, ChatGPT is a useful technology to craft initial ideas, as long as the prompts are given within a specific field, include proper context, step-by-step directions and have the proper changes and edits.

Resources for faculty: 

• Academic Integrity Best Practices for Faculty (Columbia College & School of Engineering and Applied Sciences)
• Faculty Statement on Academic Integrity (Columbia College)
• FAQs: Academic Integrity from Columbia Student Conduct and Community Standards 
• Ombuds Office for assistance with academic dishonesty issues. 
• Columbia Center of Artificial Intelligence Technology

Resources for students: 

• Policies from Columbia Student Conduct and Community Standards
• Understanding the Academic Integrity Policy (Columbia College & School of Engineering and Applied Sciences)

Student support resources:

• Maximizing Student Learning Online (Columbia Online)
• Center for Student Advising Tutoring Service (Berick Center for Student Advising)
• Help Rooms and Private Tutors by Department (Berick Center for Student Advising
• Peer Academic Skills Consultants (Berick Center for Student Advising)
• Academic Resource Center (ARC) for School of General Studies
• Center for Engaged Pedagogy (Barnard College)
• Writing Center (for Columbia undergraduate and graduate students)
• Counseling and Psychological Services
• Disability Services

For graduate students: 

• Writing Studio (Graduate School of Arts and Sciences)
• Student Center (Graduate School of Arts and Sciences)
• Teachers College

Columbia University Information Technology (CUIT) CUIT’s Academic Services provides services that can be used by instructors in their courses such as Turnitin , a plagiarism detection service and online proctoring services such as Proctorio , a remote proctoring service that monitors students taking virtual exams through CourseWorks. 

Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) The CTL can help you think through your course policies, ways to create community, design course assessments, and setting up CourseWorks to promote integrity, among other teaching and learning facets. To schedule a one-on-one consultation, please contact the CTL at [email protected] . 

References 

Bernard, W. Jr. and Keith-Spiegel, P. (2002).  Academic Dishonesty: An Educator’s Guide . Mahwah, NJ: Psychology Press.

Bertram Gallant, T. (2017).  Academic Integrity as a Teaching and Learning Issue: From Theory to Practice .  Theory Into Practice,  56(2), 88-94.

Bertram Gallant, T. (Ed.). (2008).  Academic Integrity in the Twenty-First Century: A Teaching and Learning Imperative .  ASHE Higher Education Report . 33(5), 1-143. 

Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning (2020).  Creating Online Exams . 

Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning (2020).  Working with TAs online . 

Darby, F. (2020).  7 Ways to Assess Students Online and Minimize Cheating .  The Chronicle of Higher Education.  

Gonzalez, J. (2017, February).  Teaching Students to Avoid Plagiarism . Cult of Pedagogy, 26.

International Center for Academic Integrity (2023).  Fundamental Values of Academic Integrity .

International Center on Academic Integrity (2023).  https://academicintegrity.org/

Keith, T. Combating Academic Dishonesty, Part 1 – Understanding the Problem. The University of Chicago. (2022, Feb 16).

Lang, J.M. (2013a).  Cheating Lessons: Learning from Academic Dishonesty . Harvard University Press.

Lang, J. M. (2013b).  Cheating Lessons, Part 1 .  The Chronicle of Higher Education. 

Lang, J. M. (2013c).  Cheating Lessons, Part 2 .  The Chronicle of Higher Education. 

Lederman, D. (2020, February 19).  Course Hero Woos Professors . Inside Higher Ed. 

McKenzie, L. (2018, May 8).  Learning Tool or Cheating Aid?   Inside Higher Ed.

Marche, S. (2022, Dec 6). The College Essay is Dead. The Atlantic.

Mollick, E. (2023, Jan 17). All my Classes Suddenly Became AI Classes. One Useful Thing.

Mollick, Ethan. (2022, Dic 8). Four Paths to the Revelation. One Useful Thing.

Wexler, N. Bots’ Can Write Good Essays, But That Doesn’t Make Writing Obsolete. Minding the Gap.

Additional Resources

Bretag, T. (Ed.). (2016). Handbook of Academic Integrity. Singapore: Springer Publishing.

Ormand, C. (2017 March 6).  SAGE Musings: Minimizing and Dealing with Academic Dishonesty . SAGE 2YC: 2YC Faculty as Agents of Change.

WCET (2009).  Best Practice Strategies to Promote Academic Integrity in Online Education .

Thomas, K.  (2022 February 16). Combating Academic Dishonesty, Part 1 – Understanding the Problem. The University of Chicago. Academic Technology Solutions.

______. (2022 February 25). Combating Academic Dishonesty, Part 2: Small Steps to Discourage Academic Dishonesty. The University of Chicago. Academic Technology Solutions.

______.  (2022 April 28). Combating Academic Dishonesty, Part 3: Towards a Pedagogy of Academic Integrity. The University of Chicago. Academic Technology Solutions.

______.  (2022 June 7). Combating Academic Dishonesty, Part 4: Library Services to Support Academic Honesty. The University of Chicago. Academic Technology Solutions.

Acknowledgement

This resource was adapted from the faculty booklet  Promoting Academic Integrity & Preventing Academic Dishonesty: Best Practices at Columbia University  developed by Victoria Malaney Brown, Director of Academic Integrity at Columbia College and Columbia Engineering, Abigail MacBain and Ramón Flores Pinedo, PhD students in GSAS. We would like to thank them for their extensive support in creating this academic integrity resource.

Want to communicate your expectations around AI tools?

See the CTL’s resource “Considerations for AI Tools in the Classroom.”

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Study Skills and Classroom Success

Academic honesty.

I would prefer even to fail with honor than win by cheating. —Sophocles

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Define academic honesty and common forms of academic dishonesty
• Identify common scenarios that can lead to academic dishonesty, and possible consequences
• Identify strategies for avoiding plagiarism

Academic Honesty and Dishonesty

At most educational institutions, “academic honesty” means demonstrating and upholding the highest integrity and honesty in all the academic work that you do. In short, it means doing your own work and not cheating, and not presenting the work of others as your own.

The following are some common forms of academic dishonesty prohibited by most academic institutions:

Cheating can take the form of crib notes, looking over someone’s shoulder during an exam, or any forbidden sharing of information between students regarding an exam or exercise. Many elaborate methods of cheating have been developed over the years—from hiding notes in the bathroom toilet tank to storing information in graphing calculators, pagers, cell phones, and other electronic devices. Cheating differs from most other forms of academic dishonesty, in that people can engage in it without benefiting themselves academically at all. For example, a student who illicitly telegraphed answers to a friend during a test would be cheating, even though the student’s own work is in no way affected.

Deception is providing false information to an instructor concerning an academic assignment. Examples of this include taking more time on a take-home test than is allowed, giving a dishonest excuse when asking for a deadline extension, or falsely claiming to have submitted work.

Fabrication

Fabrication is the falsification of data, information, or citations in an academic assignment. This includes making up citations to back up arguments or inventing quotations. Fabrication is most common in the natural sciences, where students sometimes falsify data to make experiments “work” or false claims are made about the research performed.

Plagiarism, as defined in the 1995 Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary , is the “use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one’s own original work.” [1]  In an academic setting, it is seen as the adoption or reproduction of original intellectual creations (such as concepts, ideas, methods, pieces of information or expressions, etc.) of another author (whether an individual, group, or organization) without proper acknowledgment. This can range from borrowing a particular phrase or sentence to paraphrasing someone else’s original idea without citing it. Today, in our networked digital world, the most common form of plagiarism is copying and pasting online material without crediting the source.

Common Forms of Plagiarism

According to “The Reality and Solution of College Plagiarism” created by the Health Informatics department of the University of Illinois at Chicago, there are ten main forms of plagiarism that students commit:

• Submitting someone else’s work as their own.
• Taking passages from their own previous work without adding citations.
• Rewriting someone’s work without properly citing sources.
• Using quotations, but not citing the source.
• Interweaving various sources together in the work without citing.
• Citing some, but not all passages that should be cited.
• Melding together cited and uncited sections of the piece.
• Providing proper citations, but failing to change the structure and wording of the borrowed ideas enough.
• Inaccurately citing the source.
• Relying too heavily on other people’s work. Failing to bring original thought into the text.

As a college student, you are now a member of a scholarly community that values other people’s ideas. In fact, you will routinely be asked to reference and discuss other people’s thoughts and writing in the course of producing your own work. That’s why it’s so important to understand what plagiarism is and steps you can take to avoid it.

Avoiding Plagiarism

Below are some useful guidelines to help you avoid plagiarism and show academic honesty in your work:

• Quotes: If you quote another work directly in your work, cite your source.
• Paraphrase:  If put someone else’s idea into your own words, you still need to cite the author.
• Visual Materials: If you cite statistics, graphs, or charts from a study, cite the source. Keep in mind that if you didn’t do the original research, then you need to credit the person(s) or institution, etc. that did.

The easiest way to make sure you don’t accidentally plagiarize someone else’s work is by taking careful notes as you research. If you are doing research on the Web, be sure to copy and paste the links into your notes so can keep track of the sites you’re visiting. Be sure to list all the sources you consult.

There are many handy online tools to help you create and track references as you go. For example, you can try using  Son of Citation Machine . Keeping careful notes will not only help you avoid inadvertent plagiarism; it will also help you if you need to return to a source later (to check or get more information). If you use citation tools like Son of Citation, be sure to check the accuracy of the citations before you submit your assignment.

Lastly, if you’re in doubt about whether something constitutes plagiarism, cite the source or leave the material out. Better still, ask for help. Most colleges have a writing center, a tutoring center, and a library where students can get help with their writing. Taking the time to seek advice is better than getting in trouble for not attributing your sources. Be honest about your ideas, and give credit where it’s due.

Consequences of Plagiarism

In the academic world, plagiarism by students is usually considered a very serious offense that can result in punishments such as a failing grade on the particular assignment, the entire course, or even being expelled from the institution. Individual instructors and courses may have their own policies regarding academic honesty and plagiarism; statements of these can usually be found in the course syllabus or online course description.

Activity: Gather Campus Resources

• Indiana University has a clever list of different types of plagiarism. Their names for different types of plagiarism can help you learn how to avoid situations of academic dishonesty. Go to this link and read through the various examples.  Jot down a few notes on examples that are new to you.
• Start by finding information about plagiarism in one of your courses. You may find information on the course syllabus and/or the course Web site. You may want to bookmark this information or make a note to yourself. Knowing your rights as a student may help if there is a misunderstanding.
• Stepchyshyn, Vera, and Robert S. Nelson. Library Plagiarism Policies . Chicago: College Library Information Packet Committee, College Libraries Section, Association of College and Research Libraries, 2007. Print. P. 65. ↵
• Academic Honesty. Provided by : Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution
• Image of shortcutting sign. Authored by : Stephen Coles. Located at : https://flic.kr/p/pnpwKy . License : CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
• Academic Dishonesty. Provided by : Wikipedia. Located at : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_dishonesty#cite_note-22 . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
• Plagiarism. Provided by : Wikipedia. Located at : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagiarism . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike

Academic Integrity

Select Section

Why is Academic Integrity Important?

Academic integrity is a fundamental value and is paramount to your success as a student. Protecting the ASU community from violations of academic integrity is everyone’s responsibility.

Academic Integrity Violations negatively impact:

You as a student.

If you cheat in a course or another academic exercise, you are taking away your opportunity to learn, develop and improve your skills, and obtain an educational degree that reflects your own academic achievements.

The ASU community

ASU is an intellectual community focused on teaching, research and the values of the New American University. The creation, transmission, sharing and applying of knowledge are central activities of the community. Cheating violates fundamental values of the university community.

Future employers, clients or patients

Cheating can hurt the people you will work with in the future. You are preparing for careers where you will provide services to others—legal, journalistic, medical, research, etc. If you do not learn how to do this work, you have cheated your future employers and clients of a knowledgeable professional.

Keon McGuire, Assistant Professor in Mary Lou Fulton Teacher College, shares why academic integrity is important. We want your time spent here at ASU to be enriching, engaging and full of wonderful educational experiences that prepare you for your future.

What is a violation of the academic integrity policy?

Academic dishonesty falls into five broad areas that include but are not limited to:

• Cheating on an academic evaluation or assignment.
• Plagiarizing.
• Academic deceit, such as fabricating data or information.
• Aiding academic integrity policy violations and inappropriately collaborating.
• Falsifying academic records.

What are the consequences?

At Arizona State University, academic honesty is expected of all students in all examinations, papers, academic transactions and records. The possible sanctions include, but are not limited to: appropriate grade penalties, loss of registration privileges, disqualification and dismissal. ASU strictly adheres to the academic integrity policy.

This policy sets forth the ASU Student Academic Integrity Policy and appeal procedures.

View full policy

Additional policies to be aware of:

Student code of conduct.

Violations of the ASU Student Code of Conduct, other than the provision concerning academic dishonesty, are more generally considered inappropriate behavior. The  Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities  reviews and sanctions these matters. If a student violates both the academic integrity provision and additional provisions of the Student Code of Conduct, both the college and the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities will review the matter. Each independently makes determinations concerning violations and appropriate sanctions.

Misconduct in Research

For graduate students and undergraduates involved in research, there can be overlapping areas between Academic Integrity Policy violations, responsible conduct of research and research misconduct. The five areas listed above describe the kinds of Academic Integrity Policy violations and are handled under the ASU Student Academic Integrity Policy by faculty members, colleges and the provost.

If a student is working on a federally-funded research project, some of these items may also be considered  misconduct in research . Misconduct is defined as:

Fabrication, falsification, plagiarism and other practices that seriously deviate from those that are commonly accepted within the academic community for proposing, conducting or reporting research. Instances of honest error and honest differences in interpretations or judgments of data are not considered misconduct. (From RSP 004:  Definitions )

A student who violates both ASU’s Misconduct in Research Policy and Student Academic Integrity Policy will be reviewed by both the college and the Office of Knowledge Enterprise Development's  Office of Research Integrity and Assurance  (ORIA). Each independently makes determinations concerning violations and appropriate sanctions.

In addition, some actions might be considered violations of the norms of responsible conduct of research, but not Academic Integrity Policy violations or misconduct in research. Many of these incidents fall into the general category of “collaborator disputes.” For example, if a doctoral graduate of ASU continued a line of research begun at ASU in a new lab external to ASU, and the ASU mentor objected, generally speaking the matter would be addressed as a collaborator dispute, rather than as an Academic Integrity Policy violation or misconduct in research. Many conflicts over appropriate authorship credit on publications also fall into this area.

What Is Academic Integrity, and Why Is It Important?

• Posted on March 24, 2023

Have you ever heard the phrase “honesty is the best policy”? It’s a saying that holds true in all aspects of life, including academics.

Academic integrity is about being honest, fair, and responsible in your academic work and studies. In simpler terms, academic integrity means doing your work without cheating or plagiarizing.

In today’s digital age, where students can access a wide range of tools such as Automatic Paraphrasing Tools (APTs) to generate their work, it’s easy to violate academic integrity. But this kind of behavior compromises your credibility and puts you at risk of severe consequences.

For instance, employers who value honesty and integrity may check your academic records to see if you’ve adhered to the honor code and avoided academic misconduct.

So, how can you avoid such risks? The answer is simple: always do your work and give credit where credit is due. In this guide, we’ll go over everything you should do to build a reputation of integrity that will serve you well throughout your life.

What Is Academic Integrity?

 Academic integrity is a set of core values that address the importance of honesty, fairness, and responsibility in academic work. Simply put, academic integrity is avoiding any form of academic misconduct, such as plagiarism, cheating, and passing off someone else’s work as your own.

This way, you can uphold the clear standards set in place by the higher education systems to ensure that academic work is done properly.

But if you’re unsure what constitutes academic misconduct, check your school’s regulations, which usually cover the sanctions associated with all types of academic misconduct.

Academic Honesty vs. Academic Dishonesty

Academic honesty is all about being truthful and doing your work. This means that when you submit an assignment, you should ensure that your ideas and words are your own and not copied from someone else’s work.

On the flip side, academic dishonesty is when you engage in deceptive practices like cheating on exams, plagiarizing content from the internet, or falsifying grades and documents. Let’s go over both of these concepts in detail:

What Is Academic Honesty?

In a nutshell, academic honesty is about being truthful and fair when it comes to your education. These values are at the heart of every educational institution and something every student should strive to uphold.

Suppose you want to learn how you can uphold academic honesty. In that case, you can find excellent resources at ‘The International Center for Academic Integrity,’ a non-profit organization that provides resources like syllabuses and revision materials to help students maintain high standards for integrity in academic work.

What Is Academic Dishonesty?

Academic dishonesty is about doing things that go against the rules of academic integrity. This can include cheating, plagiarism , falsifying information, and breaking copyright laws .

Thankfully, academic institutions are doing their part to help students stay on the right track. They’re introducing academic integrity courses that outline what kind of behavior is considered dishonest and what type of misconduct students should avoid.

But what happens if you do break the rules? Well, violating academic integrity policies can lead to some severe consequences. It could result in being expelled from the institution, damaging your academic reputation, and even losing funding.

Types of Academic Misconduct and Academic Dishonesty

The table below shows the common types of academic misconduct:

How To Maintain the Fundamental Values of Academic Integrity

Here are some tips to help you maintain academic integrity:

Perform an academic search: Instead of relying solely on Google, visit your local library and browse through books and journals to learn more about your topic and get background information.

Look for credible sources: Academic integrity involves using sources from reputable authors. So be sure to use accurate and valuable sources.

U se relevant evidence: Once you’ve found a credible source, use evidence that supports your claims and is relevant to your topic.

•       Cite credible sources: It’s important to accurately cite any information you’ve used in your academic work to avoid plagiarism.
•       Provide an original academic voice: Simply citing credible information is not enough. Your work must be original and showcase your unique voice and ideas.
•       Avoid all forms of plagiarism: Plagiarism can take many forms, not just direct copying, and pasting. So be sure to properly cite any outside information you’ve used in your work.

Additionally, using Quetext can help you uphold academic integrity by identifying potential plagiarism and ensuring your work is original and properly cited.

So, if you’re a student or academic writer, why not give Quetext a try? It’s fast, affordable, and can give you peace of mind when it comes to your work’s originality!

Sign Up for Quetext Today!

Click below to find a pricing plan that fits your needs.

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Using Sources, Avoiding Plagiarism, and Academic Honesty

A key expectation of academic work is that what you submit is your own, and that you appropriately source words and ideas that are not your own. Since academic writing involves building on the ideas of others, knowing how to integrate that material with your own thinking is a fundamental skill for success. Writers who simply haven’t practiced that skill may find themselves submitting papers with unintentional plagiarism (which is by far the most common). The resources below explain what plagiarism is, and how to avoid it through careful use of source material, rhetoric, and citations. Please feel free to email us with any thoughts or suggestions!

What is Plagiarism?

Put simply, plagiarism is when you claim the words or ideas of others as your own. Since all work you submit during an academic program is presumed to be yours, even leaving out a citation can lead to unintentional plagiarism. Avoiding plagiarism means knowing how to integrate sources correctly into your writing, understanding the rules of the style guide you’re using, and having a big-picture understanding of academic honesty: the “why” behind all those seemingly arbitrary rules.

• Antioch University Plagiarism Policy

Integrating Sources

Any time you use someone else’s words or ideas (which you do in most academic papers), you need to be careful to track them through your research and drafting phases, attribute them in your writing phases, and ensure they are correctly cited during your final polishing phases. Integrating sources well starts with research–taking good notes, actively synthesizing as you read, and making sure you put other people’s words in quotes in your notes are all ways to avoid accidental plagiarism down the line. As you start to write, you’ll want to use quotations, paraphrases, and syntheses to describe other people’s ideas. Each integrates sources in a different way, and academic writers need to know how to do all three, and when each is appropriate. As you finish your paper, you need to able to include citations in a consistent and appropriate format so that readers of your work can locate the source you used for a given idea. In academic writing, it is expected that your work fits into an ongoing conversation; citing your sources helps your readers know who contributed before you, and how you used their ideas. Reading and Doing Research

• Active Reading Strategies
• Critical Reading Exercises
• Gathering Information
• Evaluating Research Generally
• Evaluating Empirical Research
• The Art of Integrating Sources
• Using Quotations
• A Short Guide to Paraphrasing

Style and Citations

Regardless of your field and specialty, you can rest assured that you will need to cite your sources and abide by the rules of a style guide. These resources focus on helping you manage those expectations, especially around the particulars of things like APA style.

• Citation Managers
• Antioch Seattle MA Psych Style Guidelines
• An Overview of APA Style
• Common Mistakes in APA Style

Other Resources:

• Visit the American Psychological Association website for updated information regarding APA style and formatting guidelines for writing in the psychology and social sciences.
• Visit the Modern Language Association website for updated information regarding MLA style and formatting guidelines for writing in the humanities.

  Academic Honesty

Part of academic writing is also managing your time and working sufficiently in advance to do your work well. If you are working at the last minute or find yourself committed, you may find yourself tempted to leave out a citation, to appropriate a quote, or even to copy and paste text from a source without attribution. While everyone understands the desperation that can lead to academic dishonesty, the choice to engage in intentional plagiarism is a serious breach of conduct with serious consequences. In an academic program, it can lead to your being put on academic probation or kicked out of the University. Beyond student writing, plagiarism can cause you to lose all credibility in your field and destroy your academic or professional career.

Healthy Approaches to Plagiarism: A Collaborative Response

Dorothy Capers,  AUS PsyD Student & Anne Maxham, Ph.D., Director of Writing Support   Plagiarism today goes beyond the flagrant taking of another’s piece of writing and turning it as your own. With the internet, facile copying and pasting of others’ words can wreak havoc on your academic integrity.

Caveat Scriptor!

(Writer Beware!)

Overview: Plagiarism is fundamentally the act of taking others’ words and using them as your own. The range of what identifies as plagiarism is complex: it may be intentional or unintentional; it may be in the form of paraphrases without citing the source, or word for word (seven or more words in sequence from the original source); or padding your writing with longer passages without citations. Being charged with “academic dishonesty” or “plagiarism” is a gut-wrenching experience that no student wants to risk. The impact of being questioned about your authenticity can result in losing confidence as a writer and even have you doubt your purpose in studying at the university. Beyond the emotional effects, other consequences can be dire, and sometimes result in failing the class, being put on academic probation, and worst of all expulsion from the university. All writers need to take precautions and make efforts to ensure that your writing is “all yours” and that you properly cite others’ words and ideas. One scenario of why it can happen to anyone: Many of us now compose directly on the computer and frequently have multiple documents opened at any given time. We “read” to find information to use in our writing. Frequently, we jump from online articles to our own document, copying and pasting material. At times, we’re writing papers with quick deadlines, and we might rush through this all-important step of first understanding the article content. Rather than fully “digesting texts,” we read for important information and key points to include in the paper. Our notes become lifted passages from texts rather than summarizing in our own words. We research and read for “context” rather than the “content”; that is, we read to finish our writing rather than fully understanding the topic or content. What you can do: To avoid unintentional plagiarism, stop long enough in your reading to think about what the author is saying. Put it in your own words. There’s an inherent danger in copying text and pasting into your own notes. And in doing so, writers can naively create a “fertile environment” for plagiarism to occur.  And it happens not just in academia. Take a look at what happened to well-known authors, and the consequences can ruin a career. Or musicians and the long lawsuits that follow. Remember, James Frey and the scandal after Oprah had selected his Million Little Pieces as one of her “reads”? Oprah felt betrayed and used. Her anger was palpable when she publicly lambasted him in her program: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewC-KIe5qng http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/2011/1208/5-famous-plagiarism-and-fraud-accusations-in-the-book-world/Alex-Haley And recently, Neil Gorsuch was accused of plagiarizing parts of his book: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/gorsuch-writings-supreme-court-236891 So, we’ve developed this resource to help students take proactive measures to be academically honest. Before we move into the nitty gritty, we have some fundamentals:

• First, create a “working bibliography” of your resources. Put a number or a letter next to each and use that notation next to your quotes & paraphrases. That way, the sources for all quotes/paraphrases are identified.
• Cite all direct quotes, paraphrases, statistics, and unique ideas. Take the extra time to put quotation marks around words that are not yours. And don’t forget to post the page number of all direct quotes.
• direct quotes = citation
• paraphrases = citation
• statistics = citation
• unique concepts = citation
• when in doubt = citation
• If you’re not sure, you should seek writing support with your writing center or the VWC.

The Academic Conversation For those who want to write original work, learning how to enter the academic conversation is fundamental. While the academy is a place for active debate, most of us read materials given to us as passive “voyeurs” of a text. Of course, this is saying something about the implicit/explicit power dynamic between the faculty member and the student. Do we read to highlight what we think the faculty member wants us to read? Or do we read to wrestle with ideas? Frankly, given the reality that most of us read multiple texts each week, we’re lucky if we “digest” even one text.  The fact that most of us read – or submit a text— seldom questioning its content, style, or the intent of the author shows that we may be disempowered in the academic enterprise. Many students don’t realize that writing forces a reader to “digest” the material and to summarize as well as validate assertions by referring to the experts. So, active reading is essential in bringing the reader into the discourse. Since there are deep and multiple connections between reading and writing, we all need to learn and use strategies of active, critical reading (See the VWC Resources: “ Active Reading Strategies” and “ Critical Reading Exercises” )

If we think about academic reading and writing as a conversation, students have to carry the researchers forward in the conversation, even those with opposing views. Writing a paper is entering the conversation in an attempt to inform the reader of your unique learning through summarizing, paraphrasing, and citing other researchers. Ways to ensure Academic Authenticity: Validating that your writing is authentically yours and accurately reflecting your understanding of the topic begins early in your writing process.  Before writing, verify that you understand the assignment. Ask questions and request examples from the faculty member. Remember, what your instructors wants in an assignment is most important for your success. If you don’t understand, ask classmates and go to the writing center for additional support. Taking Notes: Take “real notes”: Don’t just lift full lines or passages from your reading. Be sure to write all notes in your own words, or put quotes around texts. If you’ve paraphrased, you still need to cite. So, put ( ) and the author, date, pg number. Defining the goals of your literature review will guide both your reading and your note-taking.   Peg Single Boyle, author of Demystifying Dissertation Writing (2009), offers a clear approach to “Citable Notetaking”:

• Pre-read your articles before taking notes
• Keep track of what’s summarized, paraphrased, or quoted.
• Choose  consistent formats for your notes. For example: If more than one article set up a spreadsheet to identify authors, article theme and quotes and paraphrases. This will help with putting your outline together when you start to write  (p 55-78).

The Virtual Writing Center has other resources available at the top of this page to help guide you to academic success. Tutorials: Want to see how much you know or don’t know about plagiarism? Spend a productive hour watching the tutorials and then take the “Certification Test” at the Indiana University resource: Tutorial: https://www.indiana.edu/~academy/firstPrinciples/tutorials/index.html Test: https://www.indiana.edu/~academy/firstPrinciples/certificationTests/index.html Finally: As a member of a discipline, you’re responsible to learn the style sheet of your field of practice (APA, Chicago, MLA, etc.).  Use online resources and manuals relevant to your field. If you’re unclear, seek help and work one-one with Mentor/VWC.  If you want professional help, go to the AU Writers’ Exchange (wex.antioch.edu).  Also review this handy checklist for APA Style that was designed for writers to refer to prior to submitting their papers. Writing support is designed to help students. With friendly student peer consultants, you may talk about your writing and get the support you need. You’re not alone.    References Boyle, P.S. (2009).  Demystifying dissertation writing. Stylus Pub: New York.

Resources for Faculty

• Responding to Plagiarism
• Plagiarism Checklist for Faculty

Academic Resources: Bronwyn T. Williams (2008). Trust, betrayal, and authorship: Plagiarism and how we perceive students.   Journal of Adolescent and and Adult Literacy 51 :4, 350 – 354. Abstract: Emotional responses to plagiarism are rarely addressed in professional literature that focuses on ethics and good teaching practices. Yet, the emotions that are unleashed by cases of plagiarism, or suspicions of plagiarism, influence how we perceive our students and how we approach teaching them. Such responses have been complicated by online plagiarism-detection services that emphasize surveillance and detection. My opposition to such plagiarism software services grows from the conviction that if we use them we are not only poisoning classroom relationships, but also we are missing important opportunities for teaching.

Howard, R., & Robillard, A. (2008). Pluralizing plagiarism : Identities, contexts, pedagogies . Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook. Pluralizing Plagiarism offers multiple answers to this question — answers that insist on taking into account the rhetorical situations in which plagiarism occurs. While most scholarly publications on plagiarism mirror mass media’s attempts to reduce the issue to simple black-and-white statements, the contributors to Pluralizing Plagiarism recognize that it takes place not in universalized realms of good and bad, but in specific contexts in which students’ cultural backgrounds often play a role. Teachers concerned about plagiarism can best address the issue in the classroom — especially the first-year composition classroom — as part of writing pedagogy and not just as a matter for punishment and prohibition. . . “–Back cover.

Price, M. (2002). Beyond “Gotcha!”: Situating plagiarism in policy and pedagogy. College Composition and Communication, 54 (1), 88-115 Abstract:Plagiarism is difficult, if not impossible, to define. In this paper, I argue for a context-sensitive understanding of plagiarism by analyzing a set of written institutional policies and suggesting ways that they might be revised. In closing, I offer examples of classroom practices to help teach a concept of plagiarism as situated in context.

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Bauer Academic Honesty

What is academic integrity and why is it important, what is academic integrity.

Having integrity means doing the right thing, even when no one is looking. It means upholding the academic honesty policies set forth by the University and the Bauer College.

It means doing your own work even if your friend offers you help on a take-home exam. It means writing your own papers and properly citing your resources. It means taking an online quiz without the help from your textbooks or friends, if the quiz is supposed to be taken that way. Also, it could mean reporting someone you suspect has cheated on an exam or other assignment.

Having integrity means believing in the principles and standards of our community and making sure your behavior is consistent with those principles and standards.

Why is academic integrity important?

Having academic integrity is important for several reasons. First, having academic integrity means that others can trust you. The people with whom you deal know that they can rely on you to act honestly and to do what you say you will do. When people know that you believe in doing the right thing, and that your behavior is consistent with that belief, they trust you.

Additionally, trust is one of the key characteristics of a successful leader. These individuals develop good reputations by being honest, fair, and trustworthy, for example. Individuals who are successful in business understand the benefits of acting with integrity.

Our world (including the business community) is based on our ability to trust each other. Therefore, developing good ethical habits now, while you are in college, will help you as you enter the workplace and face ethical issues (which most certainly will happen).

Second, having academic integrity is important because it provides value to your degree. Employers prefer to hire graduates whom they believe to have high personal integrity. They would rather invest in developing the human capital of someone who will be a positive influence on the organization and on someone whom they can trust to carry out the company’s mission.

Finally, having academic integrity is important because it can offer you peace of mind knowing that you believe in doing the right thing, and always try to act consistently with those beliefs. Acting with integrity can reduce a lot of unnecessary stress in your life, making you happier, healthier, and more productive.

Note: Students who commit academic honesty violations are prohibited from being employed at Bauer and from admission into certain special academic programs.

Academic honesty policies

The University’s academic honesty policies can be found at: http://www.uh.edu/provost/policies-resources/honesty/index.php

Bauer Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct: http://www.bauer.uh.edu/business-ethics/bauer-code-of-ethics.php

Honor Pledges

All students may be asked to sign an Honor Pledge before taking exams or submitting assignments or other graded work.

Bauer Ethics Advocates

The Bauer Ethics Advocates are students and faculty members appointed by the Dean of the Bauer College to promote an ethical culture within the college. Ethics Advocates are charged with the following responsibilities:

• Assisting in Bauer Code revisions and approval processes;
• Facilitating distribution of the Bauer Code to all segments of the Bauer College communities;
• Assisting in the development and distribution of Bauer business ethics programs and informational materials; and
• Representing the Bauer College at business ethics functions sponsored by the Bauer College.

For information on becoming an Ethics Advocate, contact the Dean’s Office.

Navigating the policies

How to avoid academic honesty violations.

Unfortunately, “accidentally” violating the academic honesty policies can result in the same consequences as “intentionally” violating the academic honesty policies.

Here are some ways to avoid accidental violations:

• Understand what constitutes cheating and plagiarism.  Read the posted Academic Honesty policies, as well as your course syllabus and/or assignment instructions carefully.  When in doubt, ask your instructor if the action is appropriate.
• Give yourself enough time to research and write your papers, and to study for exams.  When you wait until the last minute to write your papers or study for an exam, you are under more stress and more tempted to violate the academic honesty policies.
• Associate yourself with students you believe to be highly ethical.  It helps to have a network of students who encourage honest behavior!
• Here are some everyday rules you can use to help you make the best decisions in your academic career (and professional life):
• Is this against any laws, rules, or organizational policies?
• What would the world be like if everyone did it?
• Would I be embarrassed if my parents or grandparents, the university, or employer found out?
• How would I feel if someone did the same thing to me?
• What kind of person do I want to be, and does this behavior represent that type of person? In other words, if I want to be known as an honest person, does this action represent honesty?
• Does this action benefit or harm more people?

Academic Honesty Policy and Procedures, Frequently Asked Questions

http://www.uh.edu/provost/policies-resources/honesty/index.php

UH student contact for Waiver of Automatic College Hearing or procedural questions:

Dean of Students Office Kamran Riaz, Associate Dean of Students Email: [email protected] Phone: 832-842-6183

Avoiding plagiarism and cheating

• Plagiarism - http://guides.lib.uh.edu/content.php?pid=107113
• Plagiarism video from Rock Ethics Institute - http://rockethics.psu.edu/education/principles/vignettes/plagiarism.shtml
• Exam cheating and reporting video from Rock Ethics Institute - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdxXU_tn2R0
• Plagiarism - http://www.plagiarism.org/
• Best practices - http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/589/05/

Resources for writing papers

• Paraphrasing tutorial - http://tlt.its.psu.edu/plagiarism/tutorial/paraphrase
• Quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing - http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/563/1/
• Deciding if something is common knowledge - http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/589/01/
• Example essay properly paraphrased and cited - http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/563/03/

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9.7: Academic Honesty

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Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Define academic honesty and common forms of academic dishonesty
• Identify common scenarios that can lead to academic dishonesty, and possible consequences
• Identify strategies for avoiding plagiarism

Academic Honesty and Dishonesty

At most educational institutions, “academic honesty” means demonstrating and upholding the highest integrity and honesty in all the academic work that you do. In short, it means doing your own work and not cheating, and not presenting the work of others as your own.

The following are some common forms of academic dishonesty prohibited by most academic institutions:

Cheating can take the form of crib notes, looking over someone’s shoulder during an exam, or any forbidden sharing of information between students regarding an exam or exercise. Many elaborate methods of cheating have been developed over the years—from hiding notes in the bathroom toilet tank to storing information in graphing calculators, pagers, cell phones, and other electronic devices. Cheating differs from most other forms of academic dishonesty, in that people can engage in it without benefiting themselves academically at all. For example, a student who illicitly telegraphed answers to a friend during a test would be cheating, even though the student’s own work is in no way affected.

Deception is providing false information to an instructor concerning an academic assignment. Examples of this include taking more time on a take-home test than is allowed, giving a dishonest excuse when asking for a deadline extension, or falsely claiming to have submitted work.

Fabrication

Fabrication is the falsification of data, information, or citations in an academic assignment. This includes making up citations to back up arguments or inventing quotations. Fabrication is most common in the natural sciences, where students sometimes falsify data to make experiments “work” or false claims are made about the research performed.

Plagiarism, as defined in the 1995 Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary , is the “use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one’s own original work.” [1]  In an academic setting, it is seen as the adoption or reproduction of original intellectual creations (such as concepts, ideas, methods, pieces of information or expressions, etc.) of another author (whether an individual, group, or organization) without proper acknowledgment. This can range from borrowing a particular phrase or sentence to paraphrasing someone else’s original idea without citing it. Today, in our networked digital world, the most common form of plagiarism is copying and pasting online material without crediting the source.

Common Forms of Plagiarism

According to “The Reality and Solution of College Plagiarism” created by the Health Informatics department of the University of Illinois at Chicago, there are ten main forms of plagiarism that students commit:

• Submitting someone else’s work as their own.
• Taking passages from their own previous work without adding citations.
• Rewriting someone’s work without properly citing sources.
• Using quotations, but not citing the source.
• Interweaving various sources together in the work without citing.
• Citing some, but not all passages that should be cited.
• Melding together cited and uncited sections of the piece.
• Providing proper citations, but failing to change the structure and wording of the borrowed ideas enough.
• Inaccurately citing the source.
• Relying too heavily on other people’s work. Failing to bring original thought into the text.

As a college student, you are now a member of a scholarly community that values other people’s ideas. In fact, you will routinely be asked to reference and discuss other people’s thoughts and writing in the course of producing your own work. That’s why it’s so important to understand what plagiarism is and steps you can take to avoid it.

Avoiding Plagiarism

Below are some useful guidelines to help you avoid plagiarism and show academic honesty in your work:

• Quotes: If you quote another work directly in your work, cite your source.
• Paraphrase:  If put someone else’s idea into your own words, you still need to cite the author.
• Visual Materials: If you cite statistics, graphs, or charts from a study, cite the source. Keep in mind that if you didn’t do the original research, then you need to credit the person(s) or institution, etc. that did.

The easiest way to make sure you don’t accidentally plagiarize someone else’s work is by taking careful notes as you research. If you are doing research on the Web, be sure to copy and paste the links into your notes so can keep track of the sites you’re visiting. Be sure to list all the sources you consult.

There are many handy online tools to help you create and track references as you go. For example, you can try using  Son of Citation Machine . Keeping careful notes will not only help you avoid inadvertent plagiarism; it will also help you if you need to return to a source later (to check or get more information). If you use citation tools like Son of Citation, be sure to check the accuracy of the citations before you submit your assignment.

Lastly, if you’re in doubt about whether something constitutes plagiarism, cite the source or leave the material out. Better still, ask for help. Most colleges have a writing center, a tutoring center, and a library where students can get help with their writing. Taking the time to seek advice is better than getting in trouble for not attributing your sources. Be honest about your ideas, and give credit where it’s due.

Consequences of Plagiarism

In the academic world, plagiarism by students is usually considered a very serious offense that can result in punishments such as a failing grade on the particular assignment, the entire course, or even being expelled from the institution. Individual instructors and courses may have their own policies regarding academic honesty and plagiarism; statements of these can usually be found in the course syllabus or online course description.

Activity: Gather Campus Resources

• Indiana University has a clever list of different types of plagiarism. Their names for different types of plagiarism can help you learn how to avoid situations of academic dishonesty. Go to this link and read through the various examples.  Jot down a few notes on examples that are new to you.
• Start by finding information about plagiarism in one of your courses. You may find information on the course syllabus and/or the course Web site. You may want to bookmark this information or make a note to yourself. Knowing your rights as a student may help if there is a misunderstanding.

https://assessments.lumenlearning.com/assessments/904

• Stepchyshyn, Vera, and Robert S. Nelson. Library Plagiarism Policies . Chicago: College Library Information Packet Committee, College Libraries Section, Association of College and Research Libraries, 2007. Print. P. 65. ↵

Contributors and Attributions

• Academic Honesty. Provided by : Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution
• Image of shortcutting sign. Authored by : Stephen Coles. Located at : https://flic.kr/p/pnpwKy . License : CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
• Academic Dishonesty. Provided by : Wikipedia. Located at : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_dishonesty#cite_note-22 . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
• Plagiarism. Provided by : Wikipedia. Located at : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagiarism . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike

Library Connect

Library tip of the week: Academic Integrity – why it is so important

• by The Library
• posted March 25, 2024

Pexels: Andy Barbour

‘At Griffith University, academic integrity means acting with the values of honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility in learning.’

Academic integrity is an extension of your own moral code and an integral part of education and learning. In order to make sure you are developing your own skills and that you are prepared for challenges in the workplace, you must approach your studies and degree with your own efforts.   

View our Academic integrity page .  

What are some examples of Academic misconduct?  

• cheating   
• fabrication of results/falsification  
• misrepresentation   
• solicitation   
• plagiarism   

Sometimes you may commit academic misconduct by accident – most often by incorrect or lack of referencing.  

Be aware, how can the Library help?  

Check out the Library’s Academic integrity matters webpage so you can:  

• work through the Academic success and integrity tutorial    
• register for l ibrary workshop s to focus on these skills  
• complete the Academic integrity module     
• cite AI tools correctly with our Using generative AI ethically and responsibly module .  

If you are still unsure, our librarians and learning advisers are available for one-on-one assistance. Use our Request form to book a consultation.  

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Avoiding Plagiarism: What is Academic Honesty?

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Academic Honesty

Academic Honesty is an umbrella term that includes a number of actions and activities prohibited at the University and in all professions.  It is important to keep in mind that academic honesty is both an ethical and moral issue.  Additionally copyright law is also a legal issue. 

Creative Commons

Common Violations of Academic Honesty

Stealing all of someone else’s creative work. Throwing them out of the driver’s seat and replacing their name with yours and driving off with it to submit to your professor as though it was your own.  Right?

Wrong!  In games it might be fun to drive with great abandon, in real life, GTP will land you in plagiarism prison.  You won’t like it there.

A beat from here a rhythm from there, plus a dash of somebody’s techo-funk.  Mix it altogether and you are a musical genius.  Right? 

Wrong! There may be a little bit more latitude in the audio arts.   Drawing from multiple sources without acknowledging any of them and saying they are all yours, however, is plagiarism. 

AVOID BY: Keeping track of your sources Citing, even when in doubt

Wrong! True genius don’t copy other’s ideas.  They create their own.  After college, your boss or client will not be impressed with your cutting and pasting. One of the reasons you are in school is to learn how to think up your own ideas and be able to support and express them.

AVOID BY: Paraphrasing Using sources as evidence not content Managing your time effectively

Wrong! Plagiarism is not just using someone else’s words, it is using someone else’s ideas and a few cosmetic changes will not change that!

AVOID BY: Paraphrasing Summarizing Creating your own ideas

It’s your paper. You wrote it!  You did a good job.   You got an “A” in another class with it too!  Why not just turn it in again for a new class with a different professor?  Seems legit.  Right?

Wrong! It is indeed your work.  But re-handing in an assignment from another class still constitutes plagiarism, self, plagiarism, copying from yourself.  You are in college to learn new things and explore new ideas.  Don’t cheat yourself of that opportunity.

AVOID BY: Extensively revising previous papers Plan ahead to have time to write that extra paper Exploring similar topics

Don’t need a hesitation, to make a good citation. Roll on up and make a magical mystery citation! Fictional sources will cover your every need! An “A+” is practically guaranteed!  Right?

Wrong!   With apologies to the Beatles; magical mystery citations, the ones that are simply made up, is saying you got your information from a source that simple does not exist.  One might close with: Except your professor is coming to take your grade away. Coming to take it away today…

AVOID BY: Use real sources Do not make up sources

Oops, everyone makes mistakes.  Failing or forgetting to cite a source, unfortunately, looks exactly the same as intentional plagiarism.  This is a tough one.  Right?

Correct!  This can be a costly mistake.

AVOID BY: Using RefWorks or another citation manager to help you keep track of your sources Proofreading you assignment before submitting it Proofread it again Have someone else proofread it for you

Oops, everyone makes mistakes.  Getting one source mixed up for another is an easy mistake to make.  Unfortunately, it looks like you are giving credit to someone other than the rightful source.  This is another case where an accident can look just like and intentional act of academic dishonesty.  Right?

Correct! This too can be a costly mistake.

AVOID BY: Using RefWorks or another citation manager to help you keep track of your sources Knowing your sources well enough to know who said what Proofreading you assignment before submitting it.

A quote here, a paraphrase there, a summary too.  Plus a few more quotes.  All correctly cited too.  These authors are soooo good. Much better than me.  Just as Dr. Frankenstein created his monster out of the best parts available, I will stitch this paper together with a few transitional sentences.  Right? Wrong!   Drawing on the ideas of others is good.  BUT, they need to support and back your ideas, not be the substitute for your ideas.

AVOID BY: Being brave enough to express yourself Looking for evidence to back you up not just cite instead of your ideas

Vice President Al Gore said,  “During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country’s economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system.”   Many of his political opponents took what he said out of context and said he claimed to have invented the Internet. It was close to what he said, so it was okay, right?

Wrong!  Picking a small piece of information and twisting it to support your point of view misrepresents  the source and shows you have nothing better to support your argument.

AVOID BY: Being honest Being true to your sources Using better resources

Why write your own paper, when you can get someone to write it for you?  Your friend, significant other, or an “essay assistance service, ” aka term paper mill can do all the research and writing for you.  Right?

Wrong!   Just because you can have a friend, significant other, or even a term paper for hire site write your paper, doesn’t mean you should.  In fact you should not under any circumstance have anyone else doe your work!

AVOID BY: Do your own work Write your own paper

How can anyone remember all this stuff?  With test stress I forget everything.  I will just make some little notes to myself to help me along. Right?

Wrong!   In a test everyone is considered to be equally prepared.  Making cheat sheets gives you an unfair advantage over your classmates and deprives you of really learning a topic.

AVOID BY: Studying daily Practicing the material regularly so you understand it

                                  Unauthorized  Collaboration 

I get by with a little help from my friends.  They really like me and I would do anything for them.  Sharing papers, answers, and/or assignments is okay, as long as it is between friends.  Right?

Wrong! Unless your professor has divided the class up into study groups for specific assignments, you, and you alone, are responsible for doing your own work.  However well intentioned, having your friends do your work for you or supply you with answers deprives you of a learning opportunity

AVOID BY: Doing your own work Using the ASC Not doing someone else’s work for them, no matter how good they are to you.  Plagiarism.org. (n.d.).  Types of plagiarism.  Retrieved from  http://www.plagiarism.org/plagiarism-101/types-of-plagiarism/

Why Cite Sources in Your Academic Writing?  :   A maturely reasoned essay from Yale University Citing Sources: Why & How to Do It :  An instructive video from the Oregon School Library Information System

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The Importance of Academic Honesty Essay

Introduction.

Academic dishonesty is any form of misconduct that is associated with formal education in all levels and it is practiced from the lowest form of formal education, in most countries being elementary school, to the highest form of education in most countries being the university. It is the practice of being involved in plagiarism, fabrication, cheating, sabotage and deception in relation to education. Plagiarism is the illegal use of other people’s ideas or works to gain in education examinations and term papers (Students’ Society of McGill University, 2001).

Fabrication is the practice giving false information or data in any education related exercises. Deception is the giving of false information in regards to education especially practiced by students on teaching on why the students did not do a certain exercise or task pertaining to education. Cheating on the other hand is the attempt of obtaining help especially during examinations and it can be performed by a student who willingly tries to help somebody or who willingly accepts somebody’s help. Cheating also involves the use of illegal materials during examinations time. Sabotage is the illegal practice of hindering other students and concerned people from accessing information meant to help them to accomplish certain education related goals like completion of an assignment (Center for Academic Integrity, 1999).

An honest students protects and preserves the award earned after a successful education breakthrough, like a university student protecting and preserving the degree he or she has earned in that institution. It is also important because it also protects and preserves the integrity of the student who is involved in honest practices in his or her endeavors in education. This is also a good avenue for preparing students to become responsible citizens in the future (Students’ Society of McGill University, 2001).

The efforts made by both the institution and the students to promote academic honesty mostly results in the creation of a good environment for the students’ learning and this environment play a crucial role in the character of the students in the future life. This can be basically translated into the statement that when students and the institutions put in place efforts of promoting academic honesty, the result will be in the better and responsible citizens the students will become in the future. This acts as the basis of good citizenship and which is full of integrity and honesty. This is because even after the contents of a course is wrong forgotten; the principals of honesty and responsibility will still be instilled in the students as they approach adulthood (Bernardi, 2004).

In addition education experts have pointed out that students who are sincere in their academic works especially in documentation benefit from the factor that correct documentation also results in a courtesy which the students find helpful in accessing the sources and the documents. This means that honest students will have an easy access to materials that will help them in their studies and hence excel without the need for cheating or plagiarizing other peoples’ works. The information that is accessed by this students also tends to be accurate and not misleading as those works dishonest students often get to use (Beemsterboer, 2003).

Academic honesty also helps the students in evading such things as penalties and the disgrace that comes with being discovered that you have been involved in illegal practices related to education. The penalties are sometimes very harsh and it is not worth the risk of being caught in an act of academic dishonesty. Most cases that have been reported indicate that the students receive severe punishments which may also result in discontinuation of education from that point on. However, one of the benefit that is accrued to honesty is that the student will never be found in such a situation and hence they records are straight from day one to the last day (Center for Academic Integrity, 1999).

Honest students who have worked hard and have not been involved in cheating or fabricating also find themselves adapting quickly and easily to their employments unlike those students who were involved in dishonest practices during their education. This is because these students have already learned enough of their training m1aterials and hence they can easily adapt to their field of operation when employment is afforded to them. The students who have been dishonest may find it difficult to come into terms with their respective employment. This is because the student may find that some of the things they are required to have a knowledge in, they do not have a clue of them because instead of studying their were involved in dishonesty which limits the exposure of students to their respective fields (Students’ Society of McGill University, 2001).

Honesty students have the advantage of having the opportunity to do well in their examinations in conditions that may require strict supervision by the examiners. This means that honest students who do not rely on cheating may have the advantage of passing an exam that is strictly supervised because the students have the ability to the exams on their own without any help whatsoever. On the other hand, dishonest students may find it difficult to do an exam under similar conditions because in the first place they have not fully prepared for the examination. This is because initially the students have relied on cheating for their past exams and hence they may not have the confidence of doing an examination without cheating (Beemsterboer, 2003).

• Beemsterboer, P. L., & Turner, S. P. (2003). Enhancing academic integrity: Formulating effective honor codes. Journal of Dental Education, 67, 1122-1129.
• Bernardi, R. A., Metzger, R. L., Bruno, R. G. S., & Hoogkanp, M. A. W. (2004). Examining the decision process of students; cheating behavior: An empirical. Study. Journal of Business Ethics, 50 , 397-408.
• Center for Academic Integrity, “The Fundamental Values of Academic Integrity “, Duke University, 1999.
• Students’ Society of McGill University, ” Academic Mission Statement.” 2001.
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IvyPanda. (2021, October 14). The Importance of Academic Honesty. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-importance-of-academic-honesty/

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Bibliography

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Academic Honesty: Why It Matters in Psychology

In psychology, academic honesty is about so much more than getting in trouble..

Posted April 17, 2021 | Reviewed by Abigail Fagan

• All colleges and universities have academic honesty policies with serious consequences.
• Websites that pay to write student papers violate academic honesty and are becoming more abundant and aggressive.
• Academic honesty is inherently psychological, involving questions of curiosity, trust, morality, and future orientation.

The other day, while looking for a free plagiarism checker to use in addition to the one provided by my institution, I came across a website blatantly selling papers to students. This particular site promises, for a high fee per page, to write students completely unique papers that won’t get caught as plagiarism. They’ll even write your Ph.D. dissertation for you (uh…good luck defending that).

All professors are familiar with these sites. The fact that students are paying others to produce work for them is not a secret, at all. Most of us have caught students doing this, or versions of it, and though it’s exhausting and demoralizing, we’ve learned to deal with it semester after semester.

What is academic honesty?

This behavior falls under the heading of “academic honesty.” All colleges and universities have academic honesty policies that address issues like plagiarism and cheating, including serious consequences for violating them. I, for one, am particularly adept at detecting copy/paste/change-a-few-words plagiarism. Frankly, half the time it’s obvious because it’s incomprehensible. As many professors will commiserate, if I wasn’t so good at detecting it, life would be much easier.

Most of us on the policy enforcement side can relate stories with versions of, “But I bought the paper! I didn’t plagiarize, the person who wrote it did! I shouldn’t be held responsible!” In fact, I receive more and more pushback like that every semester: “My cousin wrote the paper for me and I had no idea she plagiarized! She should get in trouble, not me!”

Where does academic dishonesty come from?

We certainly understand that issues like plagiarism may come from lack of confidence in one’s writing skills, being unprepared for college, pressure, inaccessible resources, and the like, but overall, I’ve found it to be a matter of buy-in. Either students buy in to the concept of academic honesty or they don’t, and this has implications beyond school.

How is academic honesty linked to psychology?

I’m less concerned with magically convincing students to follow academic honesty policies than I am in getting them to think about why it is important in the context of psychology. Though I am indeed a prevention practitioner, I’m not naïve enough to think I can change someone’s mind about the value of academic honesty. I am, however, hopeful that those studying psychology will consider the following connections (and then some):

• Learning – You’re not learning much if you’re not doing the work. I once listened to an NPR story about students purchasing papers in which a student said, “I feel like I am doing my own work because I’m using my own money.” Come on. Psychology is all about learning. It’s a topic in every introductory psychology course. It’s usually an entire chapter in introductory psychology textbooks. We have classes specifically focused on it. One of the foundations of learning is that the learner be…involved.
• Morality – “What is moral?” students ask. I can’t answer that, but I am pretty confident that cheating is not. Again, this is a topic that is usually covered in introductory psychology and then over and over again in developmental psychology, social psychology, and more. You’ll even find “moral psychology” as its own field. Psychologist Lawrence Kholberg asked if subjects would steal a drug. Today, he could ask if you’d buy a term paper.
• Future orientation – Personality psychology research suggests that those with a “future orientation” tend to have better outcomes than those with a “present orientation.” The idea is that if you have a future orientation, you tend to, well, look to the future and anticipate future outcomes more than those who are focused solely on the present. While a concern with consequences is associated with mortality (e.g. Kholberg’s theory), the ability or tendency to envision potential consequences is associated with a future orientation. Could there be a more psychological question than, “Is it worth it?”
• Conscientiousness and trust – Conscientiousness is a core personality trait. Trust is essential in development and relationships. Academic dishonesty violates trust and displays low conscientiousness.
• Human services – Students often take psychology because it’s required for medical careers, careers involving working with children, and other human service careers. Go back to the first point about learning. I once had a nurse who tried to inject Heparin directly into my muscle. I had to fight to get her to inject it subcutaneously, as directed. When you work in a hospital, on a general surgery floor, not knowing where to safely inject a blood thinner is alarming. When you don’t do your own work, you don’t have a chance to learn and for a discipline preparing students to work with humans, especially children, everything associated with academic honesty, all of the above, is essential.
• Personal fable – Simply put, this component of David Elkind’s adolescent egocentrism theory suggests that adolescents tend to think they are special and unique. “It might happen to you, but it won’t happen to me.” I can’t tell you how many students are shocked and very angry when caught. In fact, I once read a Twitter thread from professors about the very real dangers associated with catching plagiarism. Many students are still in adolescence , and thinking you’re an exception who won’t get caught is a sure sign.
• Entitlement and violence – Speaking of anger, the idea that you’re special is linked to entitlement , a very psychological concept. In fact, those who study education research “academic entitlement,” in which students feel they should get a good grade just because they attended class or just because they turned in work. Having worked in domestic and sexual violence for a very long time, I know that entitlement is often coupled with violence, as challenges to one’s sense of entitlement frequently result in anger and aggression . Linking homework to violence seems incredible, but it’s a very real possibility.
• Behavioral consistency – As much as we may want to, professors generally can’t share information about other students with other professors. There’s no, “Hey, watch out for this student, they told me their cousin is doing all their homework for them.” However, all academic honesty policies do require some level of reporting to campus administration and they know about behavioral consistency, another psychological concept. This concept suggests that people tend to behave in a consistent manner; they behave in ways that match their past behavior. Need I say more?

One of the main reasons for academic honesty is scientific integrity. I didn’t address it above because, frankly, I find that’s not a very convincing argument, especially when these “pay for us to do your homework” sites target students so aggressively. I found a few more of these sites and recently used their online chat tool. Before I disclosed that I am a professor, and subsequently got kicked off, every single one guaranteed that my professor and my institution “wouldn’t find out.” That’s appalling, not just for the reasons above, but because we do find out, and it can ruin a student’s entire academic career .

Psychology is fascinating and fun. Why wouldn’t you want to learn it, anyway?

Ashley Maier teaches psychology at Los Angeles Valley College.

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Home — Essay Samples — Education — Academic Dishonesty — Why is Academic Honesty so Important?

Why is Academic Honesty so Important?

• Categories: Academic Dishonesty Cheating

About this sample

Words: 679 |

Published: Dec 3, 2020

Words: 679 | Page: 1 | 4 min read

Works Cited:

• Foster Wallace, D. (2005). This is water: Some thoughts, delivered on a significant occasion, about living a compassionate life. Little, Brown.
• Gardner, J. (2011). "This is Water" by David Foster Wallace. The New York Review of Books, 58(10), 51-52.
• Gunnarsson, B. L. (2016). Persuasive language and thought-provoking arguments in David Foster Wallace's “This Is Water” commencement speech. Argumentation and Advocacy, 53(3), 214-229.
• Lynch, J. J. (2017). “This Is Water” by David Foster Wallace: A rhetorical analysis. Journal of the Western States Communication Association, 45(1), 21-36.
• Maxwell, J. C. (2013). Developing the leader within you. HarperCollins Leadership.
• Pinker, S. (2014). The sense of style: The thinking person’s guide to writing in the 21st century. Penguin Books.
• Ramage, J. D., Bean, J. C., & Johnson, J. (2018). Writing arguments: A rhetoric with readings. Pearson.
• Ramage, J. D., Bean, J. C., & Johnson, J. (2020). The Allyn & Bacon guide to writing. Pearson.
• Vallor, S. (2018). Technology and the virtues: A philosophical guide to a future worth wanting. Oxford University Press.
• Williams, J. M. (2014). The world beyond your head: On becoming an individual in an age of distraction. Penguin Books.

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Ask a Psychologist

Helping students thrive now.

Angela Duckworth and other behavioral-science experts offer advice to teachers based on scientific research. To submit questions, use this form or #helpstudentsthrive. Read more from this blog.

Why Teachers Need to Be Honest With Students

• Share article

What do teachers need to know about honesty?

If you want to develop strong relationships, honesty is fundamental. I answered questions about this topic for Character Lab as a Tip of the Week :

Let’s start with the basics. Why is honesty so important?

For thousands of years, honesty has been held up as a really important character trait by different philosophical traditions, religious traditions, across multiple cultures. A second, more practical, reason for caring about honesty is that if we want to get things done in the world, we need to form trusting relationships. People need to be able to take what we say at face value. And that has implications for forming good partnerships and marriages and being an active and successful participant in social life. So there are real consequences to being honest or dishonest.

A third reason is that we desire honesty. My colleagues and I asked people in a study a few years ago, what are the characteristics of someone you respect, someone you like? The number one pick is honesty. A lot of other traits are important, like being compassionate and being fair. But honesty comes out on top.

If everyone thinks honesty is important, why is it so hard?

It’s interesting, right? What’s most distinctive about honesty is that, in some cases, people lie because there’s tension with another action that also seems moral. For example, when you’re giving feedback to your child or a student, you want to be honest because otherwise, they aren’t going to learn. But you also want to be mindful of their self-esteem, so you have the motivation to be kind and compassionate. You want to find a balance between benevolence and honesty.

There’s also the famous philosophical case of the “Nazi at the door.” Imagine this scenario: You’re hiding people, and Nazi soldiers knock on your door and ask, “Are you hiding people?” What do you do? The moral thing to do is to lie, but then you’re lying. So how do you resolve that paradox? You have these situations where being honest may not be the right thing to do. Thankfully, many of us don’t have to deal with these sorts of moral dilemmas often.

What do you think researchers know about honesty that most people get wrong?

We all see these high-profile instances of people cheating or lying that make the news. A classic example is Bernie Madoff, who ran a Ponzi scheme and defrauded people. Or Tiger Woods, with his history of marital infidelity. When people read news stories like these, they assume that because these famous figures are lying, you can’t trust people. And that belief can be corrosive. If you go around the world thinking that most people will not be truthful with you, you’re going to be distrustful. It’s going to prevent you from fostering human connection, real human bonds. But in our research, we’re finding that most people are honest in their everyday life.

A skeptic might say that people will tell researchers they’re honest just to make themselves look good.

In our recent research, we’ve been using experience-sampling methods—we can send people messages and ask them how honest they are being right now. And there are certain contexts where people are more willing to say they’ve been dishonest. I think that’s really cool because it shows that people are actually willing to acknowledge that, sometimes, they engage in behavior that could be considered immoral.

For example, if you ask people, “In the last hour or so, were you in a situation where you had to deliver unpleasant news or where you were motivated to avoid something you didn’t want to do?” When you ask people whether they were in a specific situation like that, some people are happy to say, “Yes, I was in that situation, and no, I didn’t tell the truth.” But research is finding that, for the most part, we’re honest with our partners. We’re honest with our friends.

The opinions expressed in Ask a Psychologist: Helping Students Thrive Now are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.

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Essay on Honesty for Students and Children

 500+ words essay on honesty.

Honesty implies being truthful. Honesty means to develop a practice of speaking truth throughout life. A person who practices Honesty in his/her life, possess strong moral character. An Honest person shows good behavior, always follows rules and regulations, maintain discipline, speak the truth, and is punctual. An honest person is trustworthy as he always tends to speak the truth.

Honesty is the Best Policy

A major component for developing moral character is Honesty. Honesty helps in developing good attributes like kindness, discipline, truthfulness, moral integrity and more. Lying, cheating, lack of trust, steal, greed and other immoral attributes have no part in Honesty. Honest people are sincere, trustworthy and loyal, throughout their life. Honesty is valuable and it is the habit of utmost importance. There are famous quotes, said by a great personality like “Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom”. It holds good due to its ability to build, shape and motivate integral values in one’s life.

Benefits of Honesty

Honesty is always admirable in the family, civil society, friends and across the globe. A person with honesty is respected by all. For one to build the character of Honesty entirely depends on his/her family values and ethics and his/her surrounding environment. Parents showing honest behavior and character in front of their children create an impact on the children and we say “Honesty lies in their genes”. Honesty can also be developed practically which requires proper guidance, encouragement, patience, and dedication.

An honest person is always known for his/her honesty just like a sun is known for its eternal light and unlimited energy. It is a quality which helps a person to succeed in life and get much respect. It gives identification to the moral character of a person. Dishonest people may easily get trust and respect from other people. However, they lose that forever whenever they get caught.

Being dishonest is a sin in all the religions, however, people practice it for their short time benefits and selfishness. They never become morally strong and their life becomes miserable. An honest person moves freely in society and spread his/her fragrance in all directions. Being honest is never mean to bear the bad habits of others or bear ill-treated activities. Everyone has rights to reveal and take action against what is going wrong with him.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Importance of Honesty in Life

Honesty plays an important role in everyone’s life and it is a character which is visible with open eyes like an open book. Having considered as an Honest person, by society is one of the best compliment one can dream of in his/her entire life. It is the real character a person earns in life by being sincere and dedicated towards it. Lack of honesty in society is doom. It is due to the lack of proper interpersonal relationship between parents-children and students-teachers. Honesty is a practice which is built slowly and patiently, firstly at home and then school. Hence home and school are the best places for a child to develop Honesty since his/her growing times.

Home and school are the places where a child learns moral ethics. Thus, the education system should ensure to include some essential habits and practices to keep a child close to morality. Children must be instructed right from the beginning and their childhood to practice honesty. Youths of any country are the future of that country so they should give better opportunities to develop moral character so that they can lead their country in a better way.

For all human problems, Honesty is the ultimate solution. Corruption and various problems are everywhere in society. It is because of the decreasing number of honest people. In today’s fast and competitive world, we have forgotten about moral and integral ethics. It is very important and necessary for us to rethink and remodel, that we bring the honesty back in society so that everything goes in a natural manner.

Moral ethics of a person is known through Honesty. In a society, if all the people seriously practice getting honest, then society will become an ideal society and free of all the corruptions and evils. There will be huge changes in the day-to-day life of everyone. It can happen very easily if all the parents and teachers understand their responsibilities towards the nation and teach their children and students about moral ethics.

People should realize the value of honesty in order to manage social and economic balance. Honesty is an essential requirement in modern time. It is one of the best habits which encourages an individual and make capable enough to solve and handle any difficult situation in his/her life. Honesty acts as a catalyst in strengthening our will power to face and fight any odds in life.

FAQs on  Essay on Honesty

Q.1. What are the basic principles that were followed by Gandhiji?

Ans: The six principles followed by Gandhiji were Truth, Non-Violence, Simplicity, Faith, Selflessness, and Respect for an Individual.

Q.2. Who gave the proverb, “Honesty is the Best Policy”? Ans: Benjamin Franklin one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, gave the proverb, “Honesty is the Best Policy”.

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