Integrity Matters Blog

Integrity Matters

Integrity Matters provides the latest insights about academic integrity and ethics written by researchers, experts, and practitioners around the world.

Through weekly postings, the ICAI Blog will:

share “how-to” advice for academic integrity practitioners;
highlight the people, programs and institutions that are leading the integrity movement;
react to integrity and ethics in the news;
connect readers to current and classic research on integrity and ethics;
showcase media that can be adopted by multiple institutions;
present educational materials that can be used to improve integrity/ethics; and,
offer editorials and opinions about matters related to integrity.

Integrity Matters is edited by Dr. Mary Davis, Academic Integrity Lead, Oxford Brookes University, UK. If you would like to contribute to the blog, see author guidelines. Please send queries to mdavis@academicintegrity.org.

Author Guidelines

01/20/2025

If integrity is what we do when no-one is watching - what are the implications of a tool like Grammarly Authorship?

Written by Stephen Gow

It’s difficult to keep up with AI in education.

01/07/2025

ICAI Awards 2025 - Time for nominations!

Written by Jake Kasper

ICAI colleagues, I hope this blogpost finds you well and utilizing your academic break for rest and rejuvenation.

12/31/2024

Happy New Year 2025: Time for academic integrity resolutions!

Written by Mary Davis

Wishing all academic integrity colleagues a very Happy New Year 2025. Time to make some academic integrity resolutions! Here’s my top ten:

12/23/2024

Christmas break time

Written by Mary Davis

As Integrity Matters blog editor, this is a very brief message to wish all academic integrity colleagues a very Merry Christmas with enjoyable downtime, opportunities to relax with some holiday reading and a break from academic busy-ness. See you again in the New Year!

12/14/2024

The Collaborative Librarian: Guardian of Integrity

Written by Jennie Miron , Marie O'Neill Maher, Josh Seeland, Javier Oyarzun and Isabel Virgo

Promoting and supporting academic integrity in higher education (HE) is a complex endeavour that requires ...

12/11/2024

British Columbia Academic Integrity Day 2024: Collaboration in Action!

Written by

Lex Dziubenko

Maggie Barlow Executive Director 11 West Monument Avenue, Suite 510 Dayton, OH 45402 usa [ Map It ]

Phone: (937) 551-8400 Email: info@academicintegrity.org

Maggie Barlow Executive Director 11 West Monument Avenue, Suite 510 Dayton, OH 45402 usa [ Map It ] Phone: (937) 551-8400 Email: info@academicintegrity.org

39.7639307

-84.193536

I am writing this blog as academic integrity student ambassador at Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) in British Columbia (BC), Canada. On October 28, 2024, KPU hosted BC Academic Integrity Day, a day filled with meaningful discussions on restorative justice, generative AI, and academic integrity. KPU hosted attendees, including students, staff, and faculty, from various BC post-secondary institutions, including Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU), University Canada West (UCW), University of the Fraser Valley (UFV), University of British Columbia (UBC), and Simon Fraser University (SFU). Attendees were treated to networking opportunities, interactive brainstorming, collaboration activities, and a student panel. The event featured ke...

12/03/2024

Maintaining research integrity in an AI world

Written by Mary Davis

11/01/2024

Reflections on IDoA 2024

It was my huge pleasure to host the 15 hours of the International Day of Action for Academic Integrity on...

Launching the International Day of Action for Academic Integrity 2024

Written by Mary Davis

As co-chair of the International Day of Action for Academic Integrity 2024, it’s my huge pleasure to launch our Integrity Boat to set sail on the high seas of academic conduct for this year’s exciting theme: ‘All hands on deck: Making academic integrity everyone’s job’ Please put October 16, 2024 in your calendars!

10/07/2024

Preserving Academic Integrity in Universities Goes Beyond the Classroom

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One of the most common ideas we hear about the importance of academic integrity is that university...

10/07/2024

Academic Integrity: A Community-Based Approach

As my time as an undergraduate student nears its end, I find myself looking back on my academic trajectory...

08/01/2024

Launching the 2025 ICAI Annual Conference

Written by Blaire Wilson

As students begin to make their way back to school to kick off another year of learning and growing, what better way to mark the occasion than to share about ICAI’s premiere opportunity for doing just that: our annual conference!

07/06/2024

#Makeitsomeonesjob: Building an Academic Integrity Office

Written by Amanda McKenzie

Having worked for over ten years in an Office of Academic Integrity established in 2008, I sometimes forget how rare such units are. Few higher educational institutions across North America have dedicated offices for academic integrity. So, what has set Waterloo apart?

Launching the International Day of Action for Academic Integrity 2024

Written by Mary Davis

06/22/2024

El lugar de la compasión en los procesos de gestión de la integridad académica

Written by Pablo Ayala Enriquez

En esta colaboración quisiera hacer un breve recuento del contenido de The Role of Compassion in Academic Integrity Management Processes, un texto que felizmente tuvimos oportunidad de escribir Luis Guerrero, Jean Guerrero y un servidor, con motivo del incremento del contract cheating durante la pandemia, hecho que, además de inédito, resultó abrumador, ya que tan solo entre abril de 2019 y agosto de 2020, la solicitud de este tipo de servicios subió un 196 por ciento, mientras que el precio por maquilar un ensayo académico de mil palabras ¡bajó de 31 a 5.73 dólares! (Lancaster & Cotarlan, 2021).

Graduate Students’ Knowledge About Unintentional Plagiarism

Written by Christian Valentin

Plagiarism is a familiar concept to the general public and in academia, but research suggests that college students lack specific knowledge of what constitutes unintentional plagiarism, also known as patchwriting (Howard, 1995; Roig, 1997; McCabe, Butterfield, & Trevino, 2012). Patchwriting refers to “passages that are not copied exactly but that have nevertheless been borrowed from another source, with some changes” (Howard, 1995, p. 799). Scholars argue that many students entering university have not developed strong skills in citing and referencing. This may be because traditional education systems often emphasize tests and lectures over writing assessments.

06/11/2024

Is Generative AI your solution to becoming productive as an academic integrity researcher?

Written by Thomas Lancaster

So many of the discussions surrounding academic integrity and generative AI have focused on the implications for teaching, education and learning. My experience is that proficient users of systems like ChatGPT can do so much more than generate academic-sounding text. Academics and students alike can use this to complete research studies, bringing in opportunities for increased productivity, but also raising research integrity risks.

Integridad docente para una integridad académica

Written by Alfonso Benito

Se dice habitualmente que “las palabras mueven, pero el ejemplo arrastra”. Soy un convencido de que esta frase es verdad, especialmente cuando hablamos de valores, moral e integridad. Sin embargo, muchas veces hacemos mucho hincapié en como detectar situaciones o comportamientos de falta de integridad. O trabajamos, en las distintas universidades, en como impulsar la denuncia por parte de los estudiantes y crear una cultura de integridad. Todo esto está bien y claro que hay que seguir haciéndolo. Aún así, poco ponemos el foco en fomentar la integridad y responsabilidad en los docentes.

05/25/2024

Discussing the Hierarchy of Academic Misconduct: Exploring the Impacts of the Global Pandemic on Cheating Behaviors

Written by Brooke Utter

The following blog will discuss the research I conducted regarding student cheating behaviors at Humber College. I had selected this topic for a variety of reasons, but I was most interested in revealing the impact of COVID-19 and the increase in online learning on the student body at Humber. I was also hoping to uncover how students having limited control over their own work impacted engagement in cheating. For instance, I had theorized that assessment types like online quizzes contribute to cheating behaviors by preventing students from engaging in meaningful and creative work.

05/18/2024

Navigating academic integrity discussion panels

Written by Mary Davis

Last week I participated in an academic integrity panel entitled ‘Navigating academic integrity in the age of breakthrough technologies’. It aimed to be an event to bring together experts from Higher Education and technology (represented through Turnitin staff) to explore how to collectively address current challenges in Higher Education with academic integrity. The other panel members were Tricia Bertram Gallant (who of course needs no introductions to ICAI members!), Leslie Layne (University of Lynchburg, USA), Viatcheslav (Slava) Dmitriev (Rennes School of Business, France) and Patti West-Smith (Turnitin). In this blog, I am going to reflect on some of my takeaways.

05/11/2024

How to address academic integrity in practical projects using AI

Written by Rosa María Morales Valera

This blog describes how I incorporated Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools into student empirical projects emphasizing academic integrity. In my Econometrics class that I teach to sixth-semester economics students at the University of Monterrey, I designed an activity to solve practical problems and communicate results using AI.

05/04/2024

Continents Meet with Integrity: An Invitation to the FAITH Conference

Written by Salim Razi

A culture of academic integrity and sustainable change are achieved by designing and implementing effective policies (Morris, 2016) which are blueprint documents reflecting institutional perspectives to establish a culture of academic integrity. Policies should be carefully developed and implemented with the collaboration of all stakeholders. Policy deficiencies can be seen as a threat to the realization of academic integrity and accordingly, to the quality of educational outcomes. Although most policies focus on detection and reaction to academic misconduct, they are expected to prioritize the deterrence of any misconduct for creating and maintaining a sustainable culture of academic integrity.

04/30/2024

Academic integrity in Zambia: A spotlight on the University of Zambia

Written by Tresford Kalunga

Academic integrity in Zambia is generally viewed as essential for maintaining standards and ensuring fairness in education. It is upheld as a cornerstone of the education system, emphasizing honesty, originality, and ethical behavior among students, educators, and researchers. Educational institutions such as assessment bodies and universities often have strict policies and procedures in place to prevent and address academic misconduct. These policies are typically enforced by institutions themselves through academic honesty codes, disciplinary measures, and educational initiatives aimed at promoting awareness.

04/15/2024

La integridad en acción: la experiencia del Tecnológico de Monterrey, ganador del premio “Campus de Integridad 2024”, ICAI

Written by Lucila Puente

Desde su fundación, el objetivo del Tecnológico de Monterrey es formar líderes capaces de enfrentar con éxito y con valores los retos a los que se enfrentarán a lo largo de su vida para generar un impacto positivo que permee al resto de la comunidad. Con este propósito en mente, toda la comunidad educativa, esto es: estudiantes, profesores, directivos, colaboradores y padres de familia, está llamada a poner en práctica los valores de Innovación, Integridad, Colaboración, Empatía e inclusión y Ciudadanía global, valores que caracterizan nuestra Institución y son la brújula que nos orienta para ejercer un liderazgo con integridad, siempre respetando la dignidad de las personas.

Academic Integrity: Perspectives from AUN Students

Written by Deborah Victor , Dorcas Mshelia Samson, Ramalan Kabir

As students at the American University of Nigeria (AUN), we understand academy integrity as being honest with one's academic tasks. It involves consciously promoting the value in the learning community through awareness drives. The American University of Nigeria has different ways of sensitizing students about academic integrity.

03/28/2024

Should government legislation against academic cheating be welcome news?

Written by Zeenath Reza Khan

The recent legislative moves concerning exam cheating in the United Arab Emirates and India, namely Federal Decree by Law No. (33) 2023 and Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Bill respectively, stand as beacons signalling a concerted effort to combat cheating in examinations, yet beneath their seemingly stringent façade lies a complex web of proactive, positive motives and potential ramifications, particularly for stakeholders beyond student communities.

03/24/2024

Canadian Consortium Day eh!

Written by Jennie Miron

This year marked the 10th anniversary of the Canadian National Consortium and what an anniversary it was...complete with Commemorative Cookies! The Canadian Consortium (also known as ICAI-Canada) board members were thrilled to welcome almost 60 people. Those that were part of the day hailed from every province except P.E.I. and our Territories.

03/17/2024

Post ICAI Conference in Calgary

Written by Camilla Roberts

What an amazing time we had in Calgary last week for our 32nd Annual International Center for Academic Integrity Conference. We missed those who weren’t able to attend, but we wanted to make sure to share the highlights of the conference.

03/13/2024

Four teaching practices that promote academic integrity

Written by Megan Mittelstadt

Amid the multifaceted responsibilities inherent in the faculty role, faculty with instructional responsibilities face the challenge of making sustainable teaching choices that uphold academic integrity. This ethical foundation is not only integral to our professional responsibilities but plays a pivotal role in shaping the success and learning trajectory of our students, both within and beyond the classroom.

03/04/2024

ICAI Conference: Calgary here we come!

Written by Chris Bryson

Over 250 researchers, teachers, practitioners, and students plan to head to Calgary in the coming days for the upcoming conference! ICAI would not be ICAI without our annual conference, and this year’s agenda is packed with sessions and events that will not disappoint. Our Canadian ICAI members have worked extremely hard in preparation for this conference to offer some unique experiences that we cannot wait to share with you. Here is a list of some of the highlights we have planned:

02/27/2024

Artificial Intelligence v. Academic Integrity: Musings on the Future of Assessment

Written by Tricia Bertram Gallant

On February 23rd, the International Center for Academic Integrity and the National College Testing Association co-hosted me in delivering a webinar on the critical roles that testing and academic integrity professionals will play in the future of assessment in the GenAI era. In the webinar, I suggested that higher education institutions leverage this opportunity of GenAI to rethink both what teaching, learning and assessment look like, and the role that faculty versus professionals play in ensuring integrity in those processes.

02/17/2024

Claudine Gay and the Problem with Plagiarism Policies

Written by Emily Perkins , Matthew Fledderjohann

Claudine Gay’s recent resignation as Harvard’s president has shed light on the fundamental problem with many institutions’ plagiarism policies and perceptions—they focus more on cheating than on learning. This underscores the need to revise how we view and respond to plagiarism by prioritizing learning, attending to the complexities of rhetorical expectations, and making room for the writing process.

02/09/2024

Student-to-student connections: Through ICAI out to the world

Written by Meltem Baysal Caliskan , Matt Bondea, Casey Buss, Edward Li, Victoria Pearson

Attending international academic events nourishes students, especially in our disciplines and helps us to broaden our perspectives and networks. However, when we get the chance to take an active part in such events and have the chance to be heard, it not only boosts our confidence but also our motivation. That was one of the reasons why so many of us were eager to take part in the International Day of Action for Academic Integrity (IDoA). Our IDoA Student Working Group came together to discuss and generate a mindmap and an infographic about the ethical use of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

02/04/2024

Where does Artificial Intelligence belong in student life?

Written by Meltem Baysal Caliskan , Matt Bondea, Casey Buss, Edward Li, Victoria Pearson

Where does Artificial intelligence (AI) belong in student life? The International Center for Academic Integrity (ICAI) tasked our small group of students from around the globe with tackling this question. Although far from experts, we each had experiences with this challenge of ethically integrating AI into academic life that prompted our interest in joining this discussion.

01/26/2024

Championing academic integrity in the age of AI

Written by Jessica Archibald , Ashna Chamaria, Momtahena Haque, Nghi Nguyen

As Academic Integrity Unit Student Ambassadors at the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM), we aim to promote academic integrity and excellence across the UTM community. In this role, we actively engage in various campus events to spread the word on what it means to be an academically honest student, offer informative tips to help our peers avoid academic misconduct, and answer student inquiries. After learning about the ICAI’s 2023 IDoA Student Creativity Contest, our team knew that this would be a great opportunity to demonstrate our knowledge of academic integrity and create a valuable resource that could be shared with students worldwide.

01/21/2024

2024 Annual Conference Sneak Peek: Poster Session

Written by Courtney Cullen , Greer Murphy, Comfort Ninson, Mary Boyett

There are only seven weeks until the ICAI’s Annual Conference in Calgary! Some of the upcoming blogs will show the range of programs that attendees will have access to. This week, enjoy a look at several of the posters that you will be able to engage with!

Wind of change

Written by Burcu Ozge Razi

Over two decades ago, Prensky (2001) introduced the term 'digital natives' to describe individuals born into a world of technological marvels, naturally used to the advancements of the era, contrary to digital immigrants who adapt to these advancements. Digital immigrants found themselves standing in the wind created by these digital natives, and to thrive in this dynamic environment, immigrants must adapt to their language and welcome the winds of change.

The First Asia – Middle East – Africa Conference on Academic and Research Integrity

Written by Mary Davis

There was a new first for academic integrity recently when the pioneering new ACARI Conference was inaugurated to promote academic integrity in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Hosted by Middlesex University Dubai from December 17-19 2023, the event was co-founded by Dr Zeenath Reza Khan, Dr Salim Razi, Dr Shahid Soroya and Dr Muaawia Hamza, and chaired by Dr Sreejith Balasubramaniam. Getting a major new international event off the ground and joining up an academic and research community across huge regions to provide a voice for diverse speakers is a significant achievement that all those involved are undoubtedly and deservedly proud of. It was great to see speakers from countries including Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Georgia, Iran, Turkey, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Morocco contributing to this event.

01/01/2024

New Year, Same Strategy

Written by Courtney Cullen

It is the start of the new year. Since Boxing Day, you have likely been inundated with new things to try for the New Year, New You! Unlike those cosmetic products, diet pills, and work out devices, I am not going to ask you to make major changes in your practice today. Instead, I am going to tote the same old strategies to help reduce academic misconduct: communication.