Now that you are ready to begin your academic journey, there is one final and important principle that will guide you through school: Academic Integrity. Academic integrity takes COURAGE, especially when faced with peer pressure and failure. Strive to uphold these values to protect our academic community:
- HONESTY: Be honest with yourself and others. “Dishonesty, cheating, lying, fraud, theft jeopardize the rights and welfare of our community.” (International Center for Academic Integrity)
- RESPECT: Respect yourself and others for their contribution to the community of knowledge. Make sure to acknowledge others’ work by giving credit and citing.
- RESPONSIBILITY: Everyone is responsible for upholding integrity. It means “taking action against wrongdoing, despite peer pressure, fear, loyalty, or compassion” (page 9, International Center for Academic Integrity). In other words, it means reporting a friend for cheating, and not making it easy for others to copy your work (reference: International Center for Academic Integrity, www.academicintegrity.org).
The lack of Academic Integrity is Academic Dishonesty, which is a SERIOUS OFFENSE.
Some of these offenses include:
- Cheating
- Lying or inventing information or citation
- Assisting others to violate academic integrity
- Plagiarism: Plagiarism occurs intentionally or not, when you present any information as if it were your own. Intentional plagiarism examples include paying someone else to write your paper, submitting group work as though it were your individual work and submitting work without citations. Unintentional plagiarism can happens if you are careless with scholarly procedures. Avoid plagiarism by being honest and following scholarly procedures.