Author Guidelines

Integrity matters, an ICAI Blog, is populated with pieces that are authored by multiple people chosen or approved by ICAI for their expertise and ability to effectively communicate that expertise. All blog submissions will be reviewed and edited before publication.

Submission Topics

The ICAI Blog accepts seven main types of submissions:

  1. News Posts – these pieces react to something in the news related to integrity/ethics by describing the event, issue or situation in the news and then suggest what it means for educational institutions (250 words or less)
  2. Instructional Posts – these pieces provide step-by-step instructions on how to do something related to integrity (e.g., “how to create a culture of integrity” or “how to combat contract cheating”) (750 words or less)
  3. Spotlight Posts – these posts highlight a particular person, program or institution that is exemplifying integrity or preferred integrity practices. Authors can write about themselves or their own programs or institutions, or they can write about others. Posts should help readers see lessons learned from the highlight. (500 words or less,)
  4. Visual Posts – these posts are primarily graphical or video in nature as related to integrity/ethics. The author can provide an introductory paragraph, but the graphic/video should stand relatively on its own. Graphics can showcase media already created for us within an institution, or it can showcase a new design (e.g., posters, infographics). (150 words or less)
  5. Research Posts – these posts should focus on research related to integrity/ethics. The post may summarize existing research on a particular area (think mini literature review), highlight/review a research project underway, announce findings from a new research study, or even identify missing knowledge and propose possible research implications (1000 words or less).
  6. Educational Posts – these pieces provide educational materials, lesson plans, or activities that can be used by institutions interested in improving integrity/ethics (1000 words or less)
  7. Editorials/Position Statements – these pieces are written by ICAI Board Members (or by invitation) to state a position on a particular topic or issue related to integrity (750 words or less)

All submissions will be reviewed within 1-2 weeks. Submissions may be reviewed and edited by ICAI and you may be asked to revise your submission. ICAI also reserves the right to reject publishing any submission on a case-by-case basis. Once a submission is posted, the only changes that can be made would be ones that correct errors.

Submission Ownership

Copyright of the material remains with the author but the author grants ICAI infinite license for use and exclusivity for posting in whole. The author can otherwise use the ideas and derivatives as they wish.

Ethical Code

All submissions to the ICAI Blog must be new writings (previously unpublished) and written by the submitter.

To avoid plagiarism, all sources must be cited. However, citations of sources can be made with hyperlinks within the text whenever available. If a hyperlink is not available, provide a footnote source.

Authors must have legal rights to all photos and other graphics and photos/graphics must be cited. If no photo/graphic is submitted, ICAI will find a copyright-free image to use in association with your blog posting.

All postings in the ICAI Blog will be reviewed and edited to ensure that they match the mission and uphold our fundamental values: fairness, honesty, respect, responsibility and trustworthiness. This means that we will not allow any posts that are unfair, dishonest, disrespectful, irresponsible or untrustworthy, because they contain, for example:

  • disparaging or threatening comments that target specific individuals, groups or institutions
  • plagiarism
  • opinions without evidence, facts or accepted truths

The ICAI Blog will not accept submissions that primarily:

  • serve as an advertiser for companies or their products
  • provide reviews of companies or their products

Topics, postings or ideas that may be controversial (e.g., using integrity in the political or business news to provide a commentary on the need to create integrity cultures in school) will be allowed, but they will still need to uphold the fundamental values.

Posts that are deemed off-topic or not of interest to our readers will not be published.

ICAI has the right to refuse any blog submission that fails to uphold the values or be aligned with our mission or at the editors’ sole discretion for any reason. ICAI also has the right to review and edit blog submissions before posting. Finally, ICAI will moderate comments on blogs and retains the right to delete any that do not uphold our values or are not aligned with our mission.