What is Academic Integrity?

Study Skill 9.1 What is Academic Integrity?

Introduction

[Standing in a classroom hallway that shows the doors to several classrooms.] Narrator: As students, we have a lot of responsibility. Between taking classes, working on assignments and studying for tests, sports and hobbies, work, spending time with family and friends -- and eating and sleeping -- the days are full! Sometimes, things get so busy, we wonder how we are going to get everything done. [Narrator looking into one classroom. A group of students is working, and one student is thinking/saying:] Student 1: I totally forgot about the Science report that’s due tomorrow. I’d better ask around to see if someone finished theirs. Maybe I can get some good ideas to put on mine. [Narrator looking into another classroom. A group of students is working, and one student is thinking/saying:] Student 2: I have no idea how to analyze the figurative language in this poem. I bet if I research online, there will be some good ideas out there. Maybe I can borrow some language for my paper. [Narrator looking into another classroom. A group of students is working, and one student is thinking/saying:] Student 3: I have soccer practice after school every day this week and don’t have time to finish this history project. I think my brother did something similar to this a few years ago. I’ll see if he still has it. I can change it a little bit and save myself some time. [Narrator back out in the hallway.] Narrator: When we get busy or stressed, it’s natural to want an easy, quick way to get our work done. But, when we do that, not only are we breaking the rules, we are taking the power out of our own voices. In school and in life, your voice is the way you express your own ideas and opinions. What is academic integrity, and why is it so important? What you have to say matters, and in this module, we’ll talk about why. 

Think about it

Read each pair of statements. Choose the one of each pair  that best reflects academic integrity.

Learn about it

Academic integrity is a two-sided concept.

  • One one side of this concept are the rules. It is against university law and often illegal to take someone else’s ideas and share them as your own. 
  • On the other side of this concept is ownership. You have important, original ideas to communicate. 

In any assignment you do, the right choice is always to state your own thoughts and support your opinion with your own ideas. When you do refer to someone else’s work, you need to give credit where credit is due. (You’ll learn more about how to do this in the Documentation Skills section.)

According to the International Center for Academic Integrity Links to an external site. (ICAI), the five fundamental values of academic integrity are:

Five fundamental values of academic integrity

responsibility.png 

 Responsibility

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 Respect

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 Fairness

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 Trustworthiness

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 Honesty

Compare these to the University of Missouri’s mission and core values:

University of Missouri Core Values

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 Responsibility

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 Respect

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 Discovery

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 Excellence

Notice that the first two items are exactly the same: 

respect and responsibility

As a student we want you to spend time as a critical and creative thinker who explores the curriculum, discovers interests and skills, and strives for excellence as a learner. That means having respect for others in not copying their work, and respect for yourself that your own work matters. Your responsibility to yourself and others is to learn and grow as a hard-working, thoughtful independent thinker -- and that requires a commitment to academic integrity.

Dig Deeper

In school, you are learning the critical thinking skills that you need to succeed in life. No matter what class you are in, the skills of problem-solving an issue, communicating your ideas in a way that others can hear and understand, and finding creative ways to express yourself all help prepare you for daily life, work, and connection with others.

Integrity is a skill that can be learned. The practice you do now as an original, independent thinker matters. It also can be a bit complex, so it’s important to always keep this question in mind: do I need to give credit to someone for what I am sharing? 

Consider these real-life scenarios of people who neglected integrity and faced serious consequences. Click on each one to find out more about what happened and how it could have been avoided.

As you can see, sometimes plagiarism is intentional -- someone copies something on purpose. Other times, it is unintentional -- someone has heard or seen material so many times that they don’t realize they are copying it. In the next modules, you will learn some tips for protecting your academic integrity. 

Apply it

As a student of Mizzou Academy, you are held to the same academic integrity standards as all students at the University of Missouri. You can view the academic integrity Standard of Content and other resources by visiting the  University of Missouri Academic Integrity for Students website. 

The first step to showing academic integrity is to make a solid commitment that you will do your own, original work in your classes and give credit to others when you share their ideas, words, and images. As we continue to learn more about academic integrity, start by viewing and committing to the Academic Integrity Honor Pledge:

I strive to uphold the University values of respect, responsibility, discovery, and excellence. On my honor, I pledge that I will submit original work on my assignments, projects, and exams. After researching, I will properly give credit to others when I paraphrase or quote small portions of their work