Importance of Academic Honesty

8/3/2019 Importance of Academic Honesty

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The Importance of Academic Integrity

Trust forms the base for human societies.. The more perplex the

society, the greater level of trust required. When we go to a

doctor for consultation,we really do not know whether she or he

was in medical school.You didn't watch as he or she learned

surgery or diagnostic skills. You read the diplomas on the walls

and we trust that this individual is equipped with the

knowledge and skills necessary to help you regain your health.

You trust that the medical school took steps to make sure its

students actually learned and did not cheat their way to a

degree.

Consider these scenarios:

y Suppose you are scheduled for surgery. The day before theoperation, you discover that your surgeon misrepresented

his training and credentials. The state medical board is


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investigating his practice. How much confidence would

you have in his knowledge and competence? What if this

was the structural engineer who designed the long bridge

you cross every morning? What if it was your lawyer?

Your accountant?

y Imagine you are taking an exam and you notice other

students cheating. What would you do? What if you knew

that a fellow student had plagiarized his/her paper and the

professor was unaware of it? Would you feel that this is

right or wrong? Would you report it to the instructor? How

would you feel if these students earned a higher grade in

the course than you did when your work was completed

independently and honestly?

y You are considering graduate school at University X. You

read newspaper articles that expose the falsification of

research data from top University X faculty. Other articlessuggested a certain institutional complacence about

academic integrity at University X. Would you still want to

apply for admission to University X? If you were a student


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at University X when these articles were published, how

would you feel? If you were a graduate of University X,

would you be concerned about the validity of your degree

and the reputation of your alma mater?

As you explore this section, think about these scenarios and

recognize academic integrity's significance at MITand its

relevance to real world situations. Learn how to spot academic

integrity violations and how to avoid them entirely.

Definitions

Beside the positive definition of academic integrity as "a

commitment, even in the face of adversity, to five fundamental

values lies the negative definition. Academic integrity is the

absence of plagiarism and cheating. However, the meaning of

terms like plagiarism and cheating can vary widely across

cultures, academic fields, and among individuals.


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Here are some definitions:

Plagiarism

One of the most common of violations, plagiarism involves

submitting, proposing, or passing off someone else's

academic work as your own. This includes, but is not limited

to:

Failure to credit source

Using an author's published or unpublished work, in whole, in

part, or in paraphrase, without fully and properly crediting the

author. This includes reproducing material from a journal,

newspaper, encyclopedia, email message, or any other source

without proper citation or acknowledgement.

Example: Nellie copied several passages from a research

paper published in 1990 by her 8.03 instructor. She included

those passages, verbatim, in her 22.02 final paper without any

acknowledgement of the original author.


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Example: Daniela recalled an intriguing point raised by her

14.01 Teaching Assistant. She presented the idea as her own in

her 15.301 project.

Presenting the work of others as one's own

Using materials obtained from an individual or agency,

including papers found or purchased on the web.

Example: Matthew found several term papers online that were

related to topics for his assignment. He copied sections from

each and combined them into a paper he presented as his own.

Example: Cuiting's high school in her homeland permitted

students to download information from the internet and

incorporate it verbatim into writing assignments without anycitation. Her culture's view holds that words and ideas belong to

society and should be shared by all individuals. Believing this

to be the case in the United States, she repeated this practice on


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her first research paper. The instructor discovered it and

assigned a grade of F for the paper.

Unauthorized collaboration

Working together with others when this is forbidden by

the instructor and syllabus. This is often called collusion.

Example: The midterm in 7.03 was a take-home exam to be

completed independently. Stan, Eric, and Wendy arranged a

meeting to work on the exam as a group, sharing answers to the

exam questions with each other.

Cheating

Opinions and beliefs about cheating can vary even more widely

than those about plagiarism. Here are some common examples

to help you understand the concept:


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Copying

Copying others' work or allowing your work to be copied on an

exam or writing assignment.

Example: John felt sorry for Jane who had missed classes due

to illness. He allowed her to copy from him during the midterm

exam.

Example: Derek (assigned to the Wednesday section of 5.111)

paid Eric (assigned to the Tuesday section) for answers to the

weekly quiz.

Example: Mary took 21H.112 a year after her friend

Carrie. Mary asked Carrie to give her an essay she had written.

Mary changed three sentences and submitted the essay as her

own.

Unauthorized material

Taking books, notes, calculators, cheat sheets, or other

forbidden tools into an exam.


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Example: John and Ron had not memorized the necessary

theorems for the final exam. They wrote the theorems on the

soles of their shoes and glanced at them when the instructor's

attention was diverted during the exam.

Misrepresenting identity

Taking an exam for another student; having another student

take an exam in your place.

Example: Jim failed his midterm exam and was panicked

about failing the final, so he asked Tim (who had earned an A

in the class last semester) to take the exam for him.

Fabricating information

Presenting fictitious data or references.

Example: Lee's experiment did not yield the anticipated results.


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She changed the results data to fit her hypothesis.

Example: Sven asked for an extension on his assignment to deal

with a personal medical emergency. In truth, Sven attended

three IFC events over the past week and could not meet his

deadline.

These are the ways how a student loses academic integrity

which consequently not only ruins his education and talent but

also confidence and trust in his/herself. So a student should

protect his/her academic interests by self for them to prosper in

education and so career.

Documents

Importance of Academic Honesty