Academic integrity standards:
Recommendations for good practice
Julianne East j.east@latrobe.edu.au
Ursula McGowan ursula.mcgowan@adelaide.edu.au
Academic
Integrity
Standards
Project
2010-2012
Academic Integrity Standards Project:
Aligning policy and practice
in Australian universities
http://www.aisp.apfei.edu.au/
Project leader: Tracey Bretag (University of South Australia)
Julianne East (La Trobe University), Margaret Green (University of Wollongong), Colin
James (The University of Newcastle), Saadia Mahmud (University of South Australia),
Ursula McGowan (The University of Adelaide), Lee Partridge (The University of Western
Australia), Ruth Walker and Margaret Wallace (University of Wollongong)
purpose statement
The following is a compilation of information and
recommendations for good practice for achieving
and maintaining academic integrity standards in
learning and teaching practices.
The recommendations are grounded in current literature and
based on analysis of Academic Integrity policies of 39
Australian universities; and staff and student comments from
data gathered within the 6 Academic Integrity Standards
Project (AISP) partner universities.
overview
1. Introduction: AISP research questions and data
2. Current approaches – literature and websites
3. Project data and recommendations
• Core elements of exemplary academic integrity
policy
• Students’ comments
• Staff comments
4. Summary recommendations for good practice
5. Good practice resources
2010-2012
Academic
Integrity
Standards
Project
introduction
AISP research questions
2010-2012
1. What are Australian universities’ policies and
procedures for academic integrity breaches?
2. What responses to breaches of academic
integrity are actually implemented in practice?
3. What is good practice in aligning academic
integrity policy with teaching and learning
strategies?
4. How could a culture of academic integrity be
more effectively fostered in the current Australian
higher education context?
introduction
AISP research question
Focus: research question 3
What is good practice in aligning academic integrity policy
with teaching and learning strategies?
This presentation focuses on the responsibility of the
university to make an institutional commitment to academic
integrity through good teaching and learning practices.
Academic
Integrity
Standards
Project
introduction
AISP project data
2010-2012
• Current approaches: literature and websites
• Analysis of the 39 Australian academic integrity
policies
• Online survey of 15,304 students at six Australian
universities
• 28 Focus groups with students and staff
• Interviews with 28 senior staff
(28 staff: 21 senior decision makers, 6 course coordinators &
academic integrity officers, and 1 teaching & learning developer)
current approaches
academic integrity
Academic integrity understood as:
• an institutional approach – institution upholding standards
• honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility (ICAI)
• policy and practices are aligned
• consistent practices
• scholarly practice – students learning in academic culture
• research skills (e.g. University of Tasmania 2008, McGowan
2010)
• academic literacies (Lea & Street 2006, Wingate 2010)
• an ethical attribute – valued within and beyond the university
• ethical, professional behaviour listed in University ‘Graduate
Attributes’ statements
current approaches
institutional
Fairly and transparently
• deterring
• detecting and
• dealing with plagiarism (JISC 2005)
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/briefingpapers/2005/pub_plagiarism.aspx
International Center for Academic Integrity (ICAI)
www.academicintegrity.org
Four stages of institutional development:
1. no policy and procedures
2. cheating issues: concerns with consistency & fairness of existing practices
3. academic integrity policies and procedures are known but not universally,
supported
4. students take responsibility
http://www.academicintegrity.org/icai/resources-4.php
Academic
Integrity
Standards
Project
current approaches
2010-2012
educative
• The practices of acknowledgement and referencing can be
unfamiliar for students entering university
“concepts of plagiarism are embedded in Australian academic
culture, which explains why university lecturers as members of
this academic culture can “know” what plagiarism is, while
new students by contrast can be concerned and confused”
(East, 2006, p.16)
• The Higher Education Academy JISC Academic Integrity Service
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/academic-integrity
• Plagiarism advice http://www.plagiarismadvice.org/
current approaches
academic literacies
• Students require “acculturation into disciplinary and subject-based discourses and
genres” to become academically literate (Lea & Street, 2006, p. 369).
• Student learning is more effective if academic staff promote students’ academic literacy
“within their regular teaching” (Wingate, 2006, p. 467)
• The AUQA (2009, p. 2) Good Practice Principles note that:
• “Different disciplines have different discourses of academic inquiry”
• “Development of academic language and learning is more likely to occur when it is
linked to need (e.g. academic activities, assessment tasks)”
• Apprenticeship into scholarly writing
• By treating undergraduate education as a research apprenticeship:
“The problems of students whose plagiarism is unintentional would be handled
proactively as part of the education process, rather than as a remedial issue after a
‘breach of integrity’ is identified” (McGowan, 2010, P8)
current approaches
an aligned approach
• an holistic institutional approach (Macdonald & Carroll 2006)
• aligning policy and practice (East 2009)
• Bertram Gallant (2011)
Policy
AI
decisions
Culture of
Academic
integrity
Review of
policy and
process
Teaching
and
learning
Diagram from Bretag et al. (2011b)
project data
& recommendations
The following slides provide excerpts from the AISP project
data from
• 39 Australian University policies
• Student and staff comments
with recommendations for good practice which are
summarised at the end of this presentation
policies
Academic integrity in policies of
39 Australian universities
• a moral issue – values to be upheld; punitive for
misconduct: as deterrent
• scholarly practice – educational: information, referencing
guides, quizzes, learning modules, curriculum embedded:
for the development of competence
• an attribute – as one of the outcomes of university
education
policies
academic integrity statement
Academic integrity is about mastering the art of scholarship.
Scholarship involves researching, understanding and building
upon the work of others and requires that you give credit
where it is due and acknowledge the contributions of others
to your own intellectual efforts. At its core, academic integrity
requires honesty. This involves being responsible for ethical
scholarship and for knowing what academic dishonesty is and
how to avoid it.
(University of Tasmania: Academic Integrity, 2008)
Academic
Integrity
Standards
Project
2010-2012
policies
recommendations
Core elements of exemplary academic
integrity policy
Access easy to locate, read, concise, comprehensible
Approach statement of purpose includes educative
focus; institutional commitment to academic integrity
Responsibility outlines responsibilities for all
stakeholders.
Detail description of breaches, outcomes and processes
Support systems to enable implementation of the policy
Core elements of exemplary
academic integrity policy
Bretag et al. 2011b
student comments
students want
•
•
•
•
more opportunities to practice
more than generic information
discipline-specific targeted support
to be engaged
and
• they notice inconsistencies
student survey comment
“Providing more support to students, rather than
telling us all the consequences of breaching the
academic integrity policy, teach us how to do it
properly! This means doing it more than once” (Bretag
et al. 2013 forthcoming)
recommendation
Teachers provide opportunities for students to
practise and learn through engaging activities and
assessments
student survey comment
“A number of lecturers accept/expect different things
and I think they need to all be on the one playing field
in order for academic integrity to be maintained”
(Bretag et al. 2013 forthcoming)
recommendation
Teachers induct students into discipline specific
writing and referencing practices
student survey comment
“I have heard of a case of a breach of academic
integrity being swept under the carpet, so the
university avoids embarrassment. Needless to say,
policies are useless when the university would itself lie
to avoid a scandal” (Bretag et al. 2013 forthcoming)
recommendation
Universities demonstrate that academic integrity
standards are enacted
student focus group comment
“In attaining knowledge, I think it is good as a student to
distance yourself from what you […] are putting forward. It
reinforces knowledge if you can make clear distinctions between
one idea to another idea to another idea… the notion of
genealogy of knowledge is more interesting. I’ve become much
more interested in referencing having come to this perspective,
whereas before it was just a task” (University E: FG4)
recommendation
Academics present academic integrity as building on
knowledge of others
staff recommendations
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
introducing students to academic integrity
developing academic integrity
the value of integrity as an academic attribute
modelling good practice by staff
taking a systematic approach to dealing with academic
misconduct
taking an educative approach to student errors in academic
integrity scholarship
balancing penalties for academic misconduct, with:
embedding the teaching of academic acknowledgment and
broader academic practices within subjects and courses
staff comments
& recommendations
Underpinning the enactment of these recommendations for
good teaching and learning practice is the need for staff
professional development and other support
“It is not sufficient for the institution to merely place the
additional workload of teaching students about citation and
attribution concepts and mechanics without the need for
staff professional development and also additional time to
fulfil such requirements”
(Sutherland-Smith 2010, p.9)
staff comments
introducing students to academic integrity
“We can't just bring students out and assume they understand what
is appropriate and what isn’t appropriate, and particularly for
international students, but not just international” (Senior decision
maker, Uni D)
“If we do better pre-emptive and we do better formative learning in
the early years, the theory is it shouldn’t happen in later years”
(Senior decision maker, Uni F)
recommendation
Staff provide timely and accessible teaching of what is and isn’t
appropriate
Academic
Integrity
Standards
Project
staff comments
2010-2012
introducing students to academic integrity:
it’s not just a problem for international students
“I think it's time for the sector to move past this notion that
international student's just regurgitate stuff” (Senior manager,
Uni A)
recommendation
Staff provide timely and accessible teaching of what is and isn’t
appropriate to all students
staff comments
developing academic integrity
“And we need to give students examples, we need to say what’s
acceptable, what’s not, this is an example of something’s that’s
not acceptable, here’s an example of something that is. What’s
the difference between the two of them?” (Senior decision
maker, Uni A)
recommendation
Teachers provide examples of texts that can be used to
illustrate the practice and place of acknowledgment in
academic writing
staff comments
developing scholarly practice
“…there’s quite a lot of skill in teaching students about…doing
a conventional development of an argument or an essay, […]
moving from stringing quotes together, with names behind
them, to actually synthesising the ideas and coming up with
your story, and bringing in the quotes, as evidence for
statements that you’re making” (Senior decision maker, Uni A)
recommendation
Teachers demonstrate and provide practice in skills of
scholarly inquiry and using sources to support arguments
staff comments
the value of integrity as an
academic attribute
… this has much greater resonance about what we're doing, how
we're doing it, how we conduct ourselves and a way of being in the
academic world that we should probably promote and one
important part of a much broader education picture
(Senior decision maker, Uni C)
recommendation
Staff promote academic conduct as an important part of higher
education
staff comment
the value of integrity as a professional attribute
“…the importance of students developing their own sense of
professional identity and how they represent themselves as a
professional you know, not to falsely represent their
competencies…” (Senior decision maker, Uni D)
recommendation
Staff connect learning academic integrity standards with
personal integrity and professional identity
staff comments
modelling good practice by staff
“…it is difficult to convince students not to copy […] without
appropriate attribution, when there are instances in the sector
[…] of academic colleagues putting their PowerPoints up which
have been clearly copied without attribution from other
sources” (Senior decision maker, Uni A)
recommendation
Teachers model scholarly practice in the presentations and
resources they use, by giving source information
staff comments
taking a systematic approach
to dealing with academic misconduct
“…the institution in which I work actually does seem to have a
pretty good framework and policy structure for dealing with those
[breaches] and letting you make some judgements along the way,
but also giving you a framework for thinking about it, and also
good appeal systems…people have got options for getting a second
opinion on circumstances” (Senior decision maker, Uni B)
Recommendation
Institutions have fair and systematic processes in place
staff comments
taking an educative approach
to student errors in academic integrity scholarship
“…there was quite a lot of [attention on] breaches early on, but they're
taking those now to the educative sorts of interventions, rather than just
automatically calling it as a breach” (Senior decision maker, Uni A)
“…other things if we teach them how to do something and they don’t get
it right, the penalty is lack of marks not a record that says you’re a cheat”
(Course coordinator, Uni A)
recommendation
Teachers help students learn from errors by giving constructive
feedback, in line with learning objectives and assessment criteria
staff comments
penalising academic misconduct
“…balance between education and punitive, I think you can’t avoid
punitive measures in cases where you’ve done all those right
things, there has to be a sufficient deterrence for those that just
want to game the system…” (Senior decision maker, Uni F)
recommendation
Institutions ensure that a balance exists in their policies, where
both academic integrity education takes place, and misconduct is
penalised to deter cheating
staff comments
embedding the teaching of
academic acknowledgment within subjects and courses
“It’s not a matter of you know one size fits all” (Course coordinator, Uni D)
“In every program there should be a built-in section on academic integrity
for that discipline that every student should be given some overt
instruction about how to do the right thing in terms of referencing, in
terms of whatever it might be for their discipline…journalism has different
expectations than law, for example, than mathematics…” (Course
coordinator, Uni A)
recommendation
Teachers explicitly teach the acknowledgment practices of their
particular subject
staff comments
embed teaching of academic acknowledgment
within subjects and courses
“…there’s no doubt in my mind, it needs to be embedded in courses”
(Senior decision maker, Uni A)
“… we need to make it very clear, within our courses, what our
expectations are about referencing, citations, however you want it,
people do it differently” (Senior decision maker, Uni A)
recommendation
Teachers are explicit about where they teach scholarly practice
within courses
summary recommendations for good practice
1.
2.
3.
4.
Exemplary academic integrity policy
Promoting academic integrity
Teaching scholarship
Managing academic integrity breaches
Academic
Integrity
Standards
Project
2010-2012
1. exemplary academic integrity policy elements
summary recommendations
1. Access: easy to locate, read, concise, comprehensible
2. Approach: statement of purpose includes educative focus;
Institutional commitment to academic integrity
3. Responsibility: outlines responsibilities for ALL stakeholders.
4. Detail: description of breaches, outcomes and processes
5. Support: systems to enable implementation of the policy
2. good practice in promoting academic integrity
summary recommendations
1. institutional messages and practices demonstrate that
academic integrity is expected of all stakeholders
2. good practice is modelled by staff
3. the value of integrity is communicated as an academic
attribute
4. the value of academic integrity is communicated as a
professional attribute
3. good practice in teaching scholarship
summary recommendations
Support provided for academic and sessional staff to:
1. introduce academic integrity concepts to all students
2. embed the teaching of academic inquiry within
subjects and courses
3. use engaging activities to develop effective learning of
research skills and acknowledgment conventions
4. take an educative approach to errors when students
are being inducted into scholarship
4. good practice in managing breaches
summary recommendations
1. penalise genuine misconduct
2. be systematic in dealing with breaches
3. support staff to be able to make appropriate
decisions
good practice resources
AISP (2010 – 2012) Learning activities
http://www.aisp.apfei.edu.au/content/learning-activities
Higher Education Academy JISC Academic Integrity Service (2011). Supporting
academic integrity: Approaches and resources for higher education.
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/academicintegrity/SupportingAcade
micIntegrity_v2.pdf
Carroll & Appleton Plagiarism: A Good Practice Guide
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/plagiarism/brookes.pdf
references
•
Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA), (2009) language proficiency for international
students in Australian universities, Report to the Department of Education, Employment and
Workplace Relations, Canberra.
Link:http://www.innovation.gov.au/HigherEducation/ResourcesAndPublications/Documents/Final_Report-Good_Practice_Principles.pdf
•
Bertram Gallant, T. 2011 Creating the Ethical Academy: A Systems Approach to Understanding
Misconduct and Empowering Change. USA: Routledge.
•
Bretag, T., Mahmud, S., Wallace, M., Walker, R., McGowan, U., East, J., Green, M., Partridge, L.,
& James, C. (2012, in press). ‘Teach us how to do it properly!’ An Australian academic integrity
student survey, paper submitted for review to Studies in Higher Education, 5 April 2012.
•
Bretag, T., Mahmud, S., East, J., Green, M., James, C., McGowan, U., Partridge, L., Walker, R.&
Wallace, M. (2011a) Academic Integrity Standards: A Preliminary Analysis of the Academic
Integrity Policies at Australian Universities. Proceedings of AuQF 2011 pp48-53. See AUQA
Audit archive: Proceedings: http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/127066/201108260004/www.auqa.edu.au/qualityenhancement/publications/occasional/publications/index.html
references - 2
•
Bretag, T., S. Mahmud, M. Wallace, R. Walker, C. James, M. Green, J. East, U. McGowan and L.
Partridge. (2011b). Core elements of exemplary academic integrity policy in Australian higher
education. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 7(2): 3-12
http://www.ojs.unisa.edu.au/index.php/IJEI/article/viewFile/759/574
•
Carroll, J. (2002) A Handbook for Deterring Plagiarism in Higher education.. OCSLD. Oxford Brookes
University
•
Carroll, J. & Appleton, J. (2001) Plagiarism: A Good Practice Guide, Oxford Brookes University
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/plagiarism/brookes.pdf
•
East, J. (2006) The problem of plagiarism in academic culture. International Journal for Educational
Integrity, 2(2), 16 – 28. http://www.ojs.unisa.edu.au/index.php/IJEI/index
•
East, J. (2009) Aligning policy and practice: An approach to integrating academic integrity, Journal of
Academic Language and Learning, 3(1), A38-A51
http://journal.aall.org.au/index.php/jall/article/viewFile/66/62
references - 3
•
Higher Education Academy JISC Academic Integrity Service (2011) Supporting academic integrity:
Approaches and resources for higher education.
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/academicintegrity/SupportingAcademicIntegrity_v2.
pdf
•
Higher Education Academy JISC Academic Integrity Service (2005) Deterring, detecting and dealing
with plagiarism http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/briefingpapers/2005/pub_plagiarism.aspx
•
ICAI (International Center for Academic Integrity). Fundamental values project
http://www.academicintegrity.org/fundamental_values_project/index.php
•
Lea, M. & Street, B. (2006) The ‘academic literacies’ model: Theory and applications, Theory into
Practice, 45(4), 368-377.
•
Macdonald, R. & Carroll, J. (2006) Plagiarism – a complex issue requiring a holistic institutional
approach. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 31(3), 233-245.
•
McGowan, U. (2010) ‘Re-defining academic teaching in terms of research apprenticeship’. In M.
Devlin, J. Nagy and A. Lichtenberg (Eds.) Research and Development in Higher Education: Reshaping
Education, 33 (pp.481-489). http://www.herdsa.org.au/?page_id=1371#M
references - 4
•
McGowan, U. & O'Regan, K. (2008) Avoiding Plagiarism: Achieving Academic Writing. Audio narrated
resource for students and staff. Available at http://www.adelaide.edu.au/learning/staff/plagiarism/
(click on ‘Resources’)
•
Sutherland-Smith, W. (2010) Retribution, deterrence and reform: the dilemmas of plagiarism
management in universities. Journal of Higher Education Policy and management 32(1) 5-16
•
University of Tasmania (2008) Academic integrity http://www.academicintegrity.utas.edu.au/
•
Wingate, U. (2006) Doing away with “study skills”. Teaching in Higher Education 11(4) pp. 457-469
Support for this project has been provided by the
Office for Learning and Teaching, an initiative of
the Australian Government’s Department of
Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.
The views expressed by this project and in this
presentation do not necessarily reflect the views
of the Office for Learning and Teaching.