Working with integrity means, for example, always citing your sources and working with authentic data. It also means doing your work according to expectations and asking your professor or teaching assistant for help or clarification.
Paying or asking someone to do your work isn’t integrity. Neither is falsifying information, making up data, plagiarism, submitting the same assignment or other work in more than one course, helping someone commit misconduct, copying some else’s work or conducting a study with human participants before receiving research ethics board approval.
The integrity of some actions depends on the context. In a course, for example, collaboration may be permitted for some assessments but not others. Permission to use textbooks or other resources like the web, getting help and asking questions may also vary. Check if you’re not sure.
Let’s look at some details.
Collaboration
Learn about situations when collaboration is allowed (like studying with friends before a test) and not allowed (like writing an individual report for or with someone else).
When group work is authorized by your professor, all group members contribute to the final product and everyone’s contribution should be acknowledged. The workload should be fairly distributed. Each member is responsible for the integrity of the final product and should read the final version, save a copy and check the referencing of sources in all sections of the work.
Beware! An increasing number of companies offer you answers to exam questions (e.g., Chegg) or write your essays for you, for a price. This is a serious form of academic fraud subject to the associated processes and consequences. Furthermore, these companies have been known to blackmail students for more money.
Written tests, exams and similar assessments
Be sure to check the expectations for assessments. Many exams and similar assessments are done individually, without you consulting or working with others, but there are others where collaboration is encouraged. When in doubt, ask your professor.
Some assessments are open book; others are closed. Closed-book exams must be done without using anything but your own mind. Open-book assessment can mean viewing just the textbook, the textbook and your notes, or any resource. When in doubt, ask your professor beforehand.
While studying for exams and similar assessments, find another student or study group to work with. Practice summarizing the concepts for each other and asking each other questions. This is a great way to learn.
Individual work like essays and reports
When you’re working individually, properly document all your source material and reference it. Don’t share your individual work with anyone, because you could be accused of plagiarism if part of your work is copied, with or without your permission, and submitted by another student.
Using material from other sources is appropriate for background research to write an essay or report, for example. But when you use these sources in your work, you must clearly distinguish your own ideas from those other sources by acknowledging the other sources directly.
There are many citation formats, and the appropriate one will vary by discipline (and even within). When in doubt, ask. See the library workshops and other resources or contact a mentor through the Academic GPS with questions.
Commit to upholding academic integrity in your courses
There are a number of ways to uphold academic integrity. Here are a few:
- Commit to integrity: Read, commit to and sign any academic integrity statements before major assessments.
- Set an example: Be an example of academic integrity by following the guidelines, even if it’s tempting to do otherwise.
- Talk about integrity: Conversations and questions about academic integrity help us build a community where we respect each other and our work.
- Speak up: If you see an issue, say something. You can email me or the program director.
- Build: Join an academic integrity committee, lead a conversation or make policy suggestions. Your experiences and opinions matter!
Find support and resources
From people to talk with to resources and workshops, our services are here to support you in your work.
- Library: The library offers undergraduate and graduate students workshops and guided tours to help you improve your research skills. For example, the library offers workshops on citation-management software that lets you organize references and prepare bibliographies in various reference styles.
- Academic Writing Help Centre: Meet a writing mentor from the Academic Writing Help Centre (scroll to “Writing appointments”) for help in understanding assignment instructions, feedback on and resources for your writing, learning to cite your sources and more!
- Office of Research Ethics and Integrity: The place to go if your research involves ethical issues like working with human participants. Be sure to get approval in advance for any research involving human participants.
- Mentors (scroll to “Mentoring appointments”): Mentors are students trained to help other students. Talk with them about university life, services, anything related to your studies, writing techniques and more!
- Student Rights Centre: “The Student Rights Centre […] offer[s] guidance and support to students […] on University of Ottawa regulations and practices or who wish to appeal decisions made by the university administration.” (SRC website)
