When I came to the University of Georgia as an international student from Germany in 2010, I had not heard about the concept of academic integrity or an academic honesty policy before. The only thing I had heard from a friend who had studied abroad in the United States before me was: “Be careful. The Americans are much more serious about cheating than we are.”

Of course, we were not allowed to cheat in school and university in Germany, and the consequences could have been as severe as they can be at American institutions, but I don’t remember ever having had an explicit conversation with a German teacher or professor about how to be academically honest. There was no academic honesty policy, no Office of Academic Honesty, and no official institutional process for dealing wi...

If you listen to conversations around support and processes it is surprizing how often the phrase ‘cheat sheet’ is used. What appears to be intended by using the term ‘cheat sheet’ is to represent something that is a quick reference guide or list of shortcuts to make a system, process, or action more streamlined and easier to understand. There are websites devoted to collections of quick reference guides, and one is unfortunately called www.cheat-sheets.org but states that its’ purpose is to provide “All cheat sheets, round-ups, quick reference cards, quick reference guides and quick reference sheets in one page.” However, by using the term ‘cheat sheet’ to refer to a seemingly innocuous list or diagram we are tacitly ...

Es ya desde enero del 2014 que la Universidad Panamericana (UP) trabaja en distintos esfuerzos para promover la integridad académica dentro de sus aulas. La integridad académica ha sido primordial para la UP debido a su filosofía educativa, que está fundamentada en el humanismo cristiano y que tiene entre sus principios institucionales la tarea de brindar una formación ética y de inculcar el valor del trabajo bien hecho. 

El camino ha sido largo y los logros no se han dado de un día para otro. El Talent, Centro de Profesores1 de la UP, del cual formo parte, ha hecho una gran labor para impulsar la integridad académica en la universidad. Desde los primeros años de la iniciativa sobre integridad académ...

During our 2022 virtual conference, ICAI was thrilled to bring back the annual awards to recognize individuals and institutions who have gone above and beyond in the work of academic integrity.  During the awards ceremony in which we also celebrated the 30th anniversary of ICAI, we recognized the nominees and the winners of five different awards.

The Waldvogel Exemplar of Integrity Award recognizes one individual for demonstrating courage and perseverance in championing the ideals of academic integrity in the face of opposition and adversity. It is intended for an individual who has demonstrated the sixth fundamental value - courage - to champion the ideals of academic integrity in building a culture of integrity.

This year we had two nom...

Plagiarism remains at the forefront of academic misconduct and academic integrity conversations. Unfortunately, the behavior is often described differently by institution and discipline. With so many policies on plagiarism, it can be challenging to find resources that best address the behaviors. Over the last year, I have worked with incredible authors, including ICAI members and scholars Courtney Cullen, Sarah Elaine Eaton, Jen Simonds, and Salim Razi. These and several other authors helped develop a student success resource, offering standard definitions of academic integrity and various forms of academic misconduct, such as plagiarism. The objective was simple: to work together to create a definition and guidance that capture misconduct more universally while supporting student succe...

In thinking about your policy, some questions may come to mind:

When was your academic misconduct policy last revised? Who was involved in the revision process? How many stages of reviewing took place? What new elements were introduced that were not previously considered in the earlier version? Were the changes related to process? Were they focused on updating language to make it more accessible? Were they to modernize the policy? How often should we review academic misconduct policies? What makes for revisions that are well informed? What makes for revisions that are well received by the campus community? How do you create buy-in from stakeholders when considering revision...

The recent unprovoked invasion by Russia into Ukraine has caused members of the International Center for Academic Integrity (ICAI) to take a moment to reflect on the work that our Ukrainian colleagues have been doing to enhance the culture of integrity within their institutions and communities. 

Through workshops and webinars across Ukraine, members of ICAI have spent the past several years in collaboration with the National Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance in Ukraine to educate leaders about integrity within the institution of higher education as well as their communities. Many discussions have revolved around the six fundamental values of academic integrity (and integrity in general): honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility, and courage.  It is...

Imagine yourself outside, in the summer, tending to your garden. You may be pruning back a rose bush, rotating the soil, adding fertilizer, planting seeds, or watering. You tend to each plant with the specific type of care, soil and water levels it needs. You perhaps even enjoy a casual conversation with your favorite plant, spending a bit of extra time with it.

You do this because you know that flowers can’t bloom and plants can’t grow without essential elements. You might even do this because you enjoy seeing things come to life, grow and flourish. Perhaps you do it because gardening provides you with a working meditation, and while you’re cultivating the garden, you are cultivating your mind.

Academic Integrity is not dissimilar to our garden plants. It requires...

In the last few years, academic integrity and misconduct have become hot topics at colleges and universities around the world. There has been coverage in the academic industry press and the broader media including the New York Times, Financial Times, and major US network news. ICAI remains at the forefront of research and practice in academic integrity and as part of our mission, we have developed the most comprehensive survey on academic integrity available for students.

As described on this blog in August, the survey is an updated version of the seminal work by ICAI founder Dr. Donald McCabe and the revision continues to bear his name and influence. It contains sections on key variables that will be of interest to both researchers and institutions like:...

Mark your calendars ... February 19 is Plagiarism Prevention Day! Promoting behaviors that can help to prevent plagiarism through both pedagogy and student support are cornerstones of academic integrity. But defining plagiarism and its importance can be a challenge.

Plagiarism has many formal definitions. Almost every institutional academic integrity and research misconduct policy contain separate definitions that range in length and specificity. At its core, plagiarism is a failure to provide credit to the creator of a piece of work. What many definitions lack, however, is an understanding about why attribution truly matters. Curtis Newbold (2016), the Visual Communication Guy, provides a ...