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What is academic integrity-new: Home new

Academic Integrity is at the centre of all the work you do at university.

 

Read more about Academic Integrity and why it is important...

This list is from the Information for Students section of Academic Integrity in the Quality Handbook

Academic integrity means conducting all aspects of your academic life in a professional manner. It involves:

  • taking responsibility for your own work;
  • respecting the rights of other scholars;
  • behaving with respect and courtesy when debating with others even when you do not agree with them;
  • fully acknowledging the work of others wherever it has contributed to your own thereby avoiding plagiarism;
  • ensuring that your own work is reported honestly;
  • following accepted conventions, rules and laws when presenting your own work;
  • ensuring that you follow the ethical conventions and requirements appropriate to your discipline;
  • if you are studying on a professionally-recognised vocational programme, maintaining standards of conduct which are appropriate to a practitioner in that area;
  • supporting others in their own efforts to behave with academic integrity;
  • avoiding actions which seek to give you an unfair advantage over others;
  • following the requirements of the University Ethics Policy;
  • complying with and undertaking your research responsibly, following all necessary regulatory, legal and professional obligations.

As a member of the academic community at Southampton, you are expected to work in accordance with these principles.


See the Quality Handbook, Academic Integrity Students, Information for Students to find out more about academic integrity, good practice and your responsibilities.

 

Academic Integrity Checklist: helping you to avoid making breaches of academic integrity.

Breaches of Academic Integrity (click to see a definition) Ways to avoid them                                                                                                                 
Plagiarism

Make good quality notes. Look at the Making notes while reading section of SkillsforStudy (SforS) and the Library's Notemaking guide [PDF].

Reference accurately in the correct referencing style. See Citing and Referencing. 

Avoid overusing direct quotations. See Quoting without plagiarising (SforS). Note: this applies to text cut and pasted from online sources as well as quotations from print sources.

Where you have paraphrased or summarised another person's work, acknowledge this through correct citing and referencing. See Ways of using other writers' texts (SforS) for examples.

Complete the Understanding plagiarism section (SforS) for further guidance on different ways of using academic sources without plagiarising them.
Cheating and Collusion

Ensure all the work you submit is distinctly your own, for both individual and group assignments.The collaborating or copying activity from SkillsforStudy (SforS) will help you to understand how you can work with others on group projects.

Understand the difference between getting help and collusion/cheating. The guidelines for collaborative work section (SforS) gives advice on how you may collaborate and which activates that would be considered as cheating.

Allow sufficient time to complete your assignments so you are not tempted to take ‘short cuts’ such as copying the work of another student. Use the Assignment Planner to help you manage your time.

Watch our top tips to avoid cheating video (best viewed in Chrome) or see the text only [PDF] version.
External authorship

External authorship / assistance is where you present work as your own that has been created using unauthorised external input, including ghost-writing or use of commercial essay mills or any other form of contract cheating, whether that input is obtained on a commercial basis or not.

Only submit your own work – presenting other peoples’ work as your own is cheating. Avoid the need to take ‘short cuts’ by careful planning and good time management. Try using the Assignment Planner. Ask for help from your Faculty Office if unexpected circumstances mean you need an extension to a deadline. 
Falsification Allowing sufficient time to complete your assignments will mean you are not tempted to take ‘short cuts’ such as making up experimental results or falsifying data. Try using the Assignment Planner to help you manage your time.
Recycling Work submitted for an assignment should be new and original, unless you have specific permission to re-use material. If you have permission to submit previous work in a new context you must state this and include an appropriate citation.
Misconduct in research

Avoid this by ensuring you comply with any legal, regulatory or professional obligations, respect the Intellectual Property (IP) of others (this online tutorial from the Intellectual Property Office explains more about IP), take due care of research participants and personal data (see our Research ethics page for further guidance).
Breaching ethical standards

Obtain ethics approval for your research if necessary, see our Research ethics page for further details or check your student handbook.

For more guidance and information take the Referencing and avoiding plagiarism module of SkillsforStudy

Acknowledgement (click to read more...)

'Academic Integrity' circle illustration image license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Australia. Image source: http://airs.library.qut.edu.au/8/4/

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