Academic Integrity
Note: If you are a SHHS student about to undertake a Stage 6 course (Preliminary {Year 11} & HSC) and you are required to complete the All My Own Work course, please click here for the ALL MY OWN WORK course. Only do this if you have been directed to by your teacher or Mr Jones in the library.
This page explores the fundamentals of Academic Integrity to help you develop a broad understanding of the philosophy of learning, acting and writing with honesty, fairness and respect. If you need to go straight to creating in-text citations and a reference list, click the button bellow:
What are the Fundamentals of Academic Integrity?
The International Center for Academic Integrity (ICAI) defines academic integrity as a commitment to six fundamental values: honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility, and courage. By embracing these fundamental values, teachers and students create effective scholarly communities where integrity is a touchstone. Without them, the work of teachers, learners, and researchers loses value and credibility. More than merely abstract principles, the fundamental values serve to inform and improve ethical decision-making capacities and behaviour. They enable academic communities to translate ideals into action ("The Fundamental Values of Academic Integrity," 2021) (TFVOAI, 2021).
Academic Integrity Glossary
ACADEMIC DISHONESTY*
Behaviours from individuals that intentionally go beyond the limits of ethical standards of academic behaviour held by our community in common as sound research or scholarship.
ACADEMIC ETHICS
Moral values that are recognised and abided by the academic community.
ACADEMIC FRAUD
Actions that are intended to deceive for unfair advantage by violating academic regulations.
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY*
Compliance with ethical principles, standards, practices and consistent the academic integrity values of SHHS that serves as guidance for making decisions and taking actions in education, research and scholarship.
ACADEMIC MISCONDUCT
Any action or attempted action that undermines academic integrity and may result in an unfair academic advantage or disadvantage for any member of the academic community or wider society.
AGGREGATOR
Someone who includes proper citation in the paper, but the paper contains almost no original work.
ANONYMOUS WORK
(1) A work where the author cannot be identified.
(2) A work where the author is intentionally anonymised.
AUTHOR
A person (either individual or organisation) who created or contributed to the creation of original work.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A list of sources that inform and/or support the claims made in the work.
BLIND PEER REVIEW*
A peer review is the process by which a piece of research, such as a journal article, book, or academic work is assessed by others – a researcher’s fellow peers – who are suitably qualified and able to judge the piece of work under review in terms of novelty, soundness and significance. In general, it is a critique of submitted work. A blind peer review process of a submitted work is where some or all parties involved are not identified to reduce bias for, or against, authors or peer reviewers.
CHEATING
Actions that attempt to get any advantage by means that undermine values of integrity.
CITATION
A note in the text using a recognised referencing style which identifies the source of an idea or fact and acts as a link to a more detailed reference in the Bibliography or References section of the work.
PLAGIARISM
An act of submitting and / or publishing another's work, word-for-word, as one's own.
(To be finished)
All definitions in this glossary have been copied or adapted from the European Network for Academic Integrity (ENAI) glossary page (https://www.academicintegrity.eu/wp/glossary/). If you copy any of the definitions above you are required to give credit to:
Glossary. (2021). ENAI. https://www.academicintegrity.eu/wp/glossary/
"*" A star at the end of the word indicates that the definition has been adapted from the original definition from ENAI.
Academic Integrity and SHHS
The core values of Smith's Hill High School are expressed by the student representative council in the word EnRICH, representing Endeavour, Respect, Integrity, Compassion and Harmony, the essence of the school. It's worth really considering and comparing the schools' values as compared to ICAI's description of academic integrity as a commitment to six fundamental values:
Compare these two columns. Can you see commonalities? What does this tell you about these two educational institutions?
They may not be exact matches, but it does point towards when you work with academic integrity, as described by ICAI, you are taking significant steps towards working with the values that are held high by SHHS students and staff.
Following is a brief exploration of these values of academic integrity listed and described by ICAI. The following text is taken directly from their publication "The Fundamental Values of Academic Integrity"(2021)
Honesty - defined
hon·es·ty
noun
The quality of being honest, free from fraud or deception, legitimate, truthful
Honesty forms the indispensable foundation of integrity and is prerequisite for full realisation of trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility.
Honesty - embodied
Ways to demonstrate honesty:
Be truthful
Give credit to the owner of the work (i.e., musician, author, artist, speaker etc.)
Keep promises
Provide factual evidence
Aspire to objectivity, consider all sides and one's own potential preconceptions
Trust - defined
trust
noun
The assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something
The ability to rely on the truth of someone or something is a fundamental pillar of academic pursuit and a necessary foundation of academic work.
Trust - embodied
Ways to demonstrate trust:
Clearly state expectations and follow through
Promote transparency in values, processes, and outcomes
Trust others
Give credence
Encourage mutual understanding
Act with genuineness
Fairness - defined
fair·ness
noun
The quality or state of being fair, especially fair or impartial treatment, lack of favouritism toward one side or another
Impartial treatment is an essential factor in the establishment of ethical communities because it reinforces the importance of truth, ideas, logic, and rationality.
Fairness - embodied
Ways to demonstrate fairness:
Apply rules and policies consistently
Engage with others equitably
Keep an open-mind
Be objective
Take responsibility for your own actions
Respect - defined
re·spect
noun
High or special regard, esteem; the quality or state of being esteemed
Respect in academic communities is reciprocal and requires showing respect for oneself as well as others. Respect for self means tackling challenges without compromising your own values. Respect for others means valuing the diversity of opinions and appreciating the need to challenge, test, and refine ideas.
Respect - embodied
Ways to demonstrate respect:
Practice active listening
Receive feedback willingly
Accept that others’ thoughts and ideas have validity
Show empathy
Seek open communication
Affirm others and accept differences
Recognise the consequences of our words and actions on others
Responsibility - defined
re·spon·si·bil·i·ty
noun
The quality or state of being responsible; moral, legal, or mental accountability; reliability, trustworthiness
Upholding the values of integrity is simultaneously an individual duty and a shared concern. Every member of an academic community—each student, staff, faculty member, and administrator—is accountable to themselves and each other for safeguarding the integrity of its scholarship, teaching, research, and service.
Responsibility - embodied
Ways to demonstrate responsibility:
Hold yourself accountable for your actions
Engage with others in difficult conversations, even when silence might be easier
Know and follow institutional rules and conduct codes
Create, understand, and respect personal boundaries
Follow through with tasks and expectations
Model good behaviour
Courage - defined
cour·age
noun
The mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty
Courage differs from the preceding fundamental values by being more a quality or capacity of character. However, as with each of the values, courage can be practiced and developed. Courage often is interpreted as a lack of fear. In reality, courage is the capacity to act in accordance with one’s values despite fear
Courage - embodied
Ways to demonstrate courage:
Be brave even when others might not
Take a stand to address a wrongdoing and support others doing the same
Endure discomfort for something you believe in
Be undaunted in defending integrity
Be willing to take risk and risk failure
Honour Code
Smith's Hill High School embodies a spirit of mutual trust and intellectual honesty that is central to the very nature of learning, and represents the highest possible expression of shared values among the members of the school community. The core values underlying and reflected in the Honour Code are:
Academic honesty is demonstrated by students when the ideas and the writing of others are properly cited; students submit their own work for tests and assignments without unauthorised assistance; students do not provide unauthorised assistance to others; and students report their research or accomplishments accurately.
Respect for others and the learning process to demonstrate academic honesty.
Trust in others to act with academic honesty as a positive community-building force in the school.
Responsibility is recognised by all to demonstrate their best effort to prepare and complete academic tasks.
Fairness and equity are demonstrated so that every student can experience an academic environment that is free from the injustices caused by any form of intellectual dishonesty.
Integrity of all members of the school community as demonstrated by a commitment to academic honesty and support of our quest for authentic learning.
Take a Step Back... Is This Part of Your Ideal Self?
Let's jump back for a moment and take a wider view...
We have a whole page dedicated to learning about Goal Setting, there is an interesting section (hidden in the FAQ dropdown) titled "Ideal Self Goal Setting". It is drawn from the work of Richard Cash, he specialises in working with high potential and gifted students. Basically, a great strategy to help in personal development is to stop occasionally and think about who you want to become? When you think about yourself in the future, how would you describe the characteristics of your ideal self? Typically, this might include a set of characteristics such as compassionate, creative, dedicated, dependable, giving, kind, loyal, sensitive, and trustworthy.
Stop for a moment and think about the six fundamentals of academic integrity that we have been considering: honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility, and courage. Are these ideal self goals (characteristics) that you might set for yourself?
Students often ask how can you work towards developing these ideal self characteristics? When you research and write for formal assessment tasks you have an opportunity to embrace these fundamental values of academic integrity whilst building towards your ideal self goals. It may be difficult at first learning and implementing academic integrity practices such as in-text citations and referencing, but it will get easier with practice and you can consider it worthwhile steps towards your ideal self goals.
References
The Academic Integrity guides on this website are informed by, and in part copied from, guides prepared by the International Center for Academic Integrity (ICAI). This organisation exists to promote academic integrity and ethics in schools and in society at large. Information copied from their website is done so legally under their Creative Commons Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). Content on this page identified as copied or adapted from ICAI remains under Creative Commons Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).
Assignment Skills. (2021). 26. Retrieved 4th November, from https://libguides.library.curtin.edu.au/ld.php?content_id=47814322
Integrity, T. I. C. f. A. (2021). The Fundamental Values of Academic Integrity. Retrieved 24/06/2021, from https://academicintegrity.org/images/pdfs/20019_ICAI-Fundamental-Values_R12.pdf
The Fundamental Values of Academic Integrity. (2021). Retrieved 24/06/2021, from https://academicintegrity.org/images/pdfs/20019_ICAI-Fundamental-Values_R12.pdf