Academic integrity means being open about how you produce your work: acknowledging your sources, working appropriately with others, using AI transparently and reporting your findings honestly.
What is academic integrity?
Academic integrity means being open about how you produce your work: acknowledging your sources, working appropriately with others, using AI transparently and reporting your findings honestly.
What is plagiarism and how to avoid it?
Plagiarism is the use of the work of others, or of AI tools, without acknowledging your source of information or inspiration, and submitting this as if it were your own work. It includes copying words, making small changes to borrowed text, using another person’s ideas without credit, and paraphrasing without stating where the material came from.
Write your notes in your own words and record exactly where you found the information. If you copy a passage to use as a quotation, mark it clearly so that it stands apart from your own notes.
In assignments, cite the sources of your ideas and information even when you are not quoting directly. Make clear what is and is not a quotation, and include a full list of references.
Citations allow readers to find the original material and see where your information came from.
Read more here: What is plagiarism?
Sharing work without cheating
Most courses involve collaborative work, even though qualifications generally recognise individual achievement. Discussing course material, sharing useful sources and helping each other understand ideas can all be valuable parts of studying together.
Some activities can be shared; others must be completed independently. If you are unsure, check with your tutor. When noting ideas discussed with others, use bullet points and develop them in your own words for your assignment. Avoid copying and pasting a group member’s writing into work submitted as your own.
Using AI tools and chatbots
Check your college or university’s rules for AI tools such as ChatGPT, including the requirements for your particular assessment. AI can help you explore a topic or identify material to investigate, but you still need to make your own searches and decide which sources are useful.
Chatbot answers can sound convincing even when they are inaccurate or supported by evidence that does not exist. Check the sources an AI tool provides, and use specialist resources to verify facts, interpretations, relevance and currency.
Tell your tutors which tools you used and for what purposes. Keep a record of your prompts, questions and the material the tools provided. Check what is permitted before submitting assessed work: altering chatbot-written text to disguise its origin does not make it your own.
Read more here: Avoiding plagiarism when using AI tools
