Academic Integrity: Its Place in the University Community

The University Community

A university is a community of learners bonded together by the search for knowledge; the pursuit of personal, social, cultural, physical, and intellectual development; and the desire for the liberating effects of an advanced education. Though California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) has its own cultural norms and values, shaped, and maintained by the people and structures of the institution, the school also shares an academic culture with other universities and colleges across the nation. Integral to that culture is a set of values, such as academic freedom, dedication to teaching and learning, diversity, equity, respect toward others civility toward others, and academic integrity.

Academic Integrity

Academic integrity is of central importance in the university community and involves committed allegiance to the values, the principles, and the code of behavior held to be central in that community. Integrity concerns honesty and implies being truthful, fair, and free from lies, fraud, and deceit.

The core of a university’s integrity is its scholastic honesty. Honesty is a fundamental value in the academic culture of CSUDH. Though there are cultural and disciplinary differences with regard to the ownership of ideas and the importance of individual efforts, the university expects all students and other campus members to document the intellectual contributions of others and to ensure that the work they submit is their own.

Education provides students with the resources to engage with and understand new content, learn skills, and develop processes to maximize self-potential and the potential of others. Students demonstrate these learning capacities by tangible products such as test performance, papers, and presentations. These activities enable the student and the instructor to assess the student’s progress and readiness and help the student prepare for future learning opportunities. While a variety of factors contribute to academic dishonesty, students who cheat miss opportunities to gain an accurate picture of what they know and what they do not know, and to get substantive academic support from their instructors and other members of the campus community Academic dishonesty prevents students from important learning opportunities that contribute to the development of a confident academic identity.

The Nature of Academic Dishonesty

A standard definition of academic dishonesty has been provided by Kibler, Nuss, Paterson, and Pavela (1988): Academic dishonesty usually refers to forms of cheating and plagiarism which result in students giving or receiving unauthorized assistance in an academic exercise or receiving credit for work which is not their own.

They further define the following specific forms of academic dishonesty:

Cheating—intentionally using or attempting to use unauthorized materials, information, or study aids in any academic exercise. The term academic exercise includes all forms of work submitted for credit or hours.

Cheating also includes: unauthorized multiple submissions, altering or interfering with grading, lying to improve a grade, altering graded work, unauthorized removal of tests from classroom or office, and forging signatures on academic documents.

Fabrication—intentional and unauthorized falsification or invention of any information or citation in an academic exercise.

Facilitating academic dishonesty—intentionally or knowingly helping or attempting to help another to violate a provision of the institutional code of academic integrity.

Plagiarism—the deliberate adoption or reproduction of ideas or words or statements of another person as one’s own without acknowledgment. We expand this definition to clarify that, by definition, plagiarism requires intent. When a student intentionally submits work that purports to be his/her original work, but actually is not, the student has committed plagiarism. Plagiarism may also include the following: copying of one person’s work by another and claiming it as his or her own, false presentation of one’s self as the author or creator of a work, falsely taking credit for another person’s unique method of treatment or expression, falsely representing one’s self as the source of ideas or expression, or the presentation of someone else’s language, ideas or works without giving that person due credit. It is not limited to written works. For example, one could plagiarize music compositions, photographs, works of art, choreography, computer programs or any other unique creative effort.

At the heart of any university are its efforts to encourage critical reading and thinking, effective communication, and intellectual honesty among its students. As students expand their rhetorical and information literacy skills and grow as readers, writers, and communicators, they learn various culturally situated and discipline-specific modes of attribution, such as citing, quoting, and otherwise giving credit to originators of intellectual and creative ideas. It is expected that students will be supported as they gain familiarity with these processes.

“Further information about the various forms of academic dishonesty can be obtained from the office of any instructional dean or the Office of Community Standards regarding Academic Integrity. The DH Library also has great resources for students to learn more about academic integrity visit Citation & Plagiarism. Students can also get help to improve their writing skills by making an appointment at the Writing Center. The Writing Across the Curriculum Program is also a helpful resource.