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What is Academic Integrity?

Academic integrity is the commitment to the values of honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility, and courage (ICAI, 2021). As a student, maintaining a commitment to all these values is not only important as a student but will be valuable in your career. Loyalist College believes in these six fundamental values and honours the seven grandfather teachings of respect, wisdom, love, bravery, humility, honesty, and truth, which provide a foundation for a student’s personal responsibility related to academic integrity (Maracle, 2020). 

Core Values

For each value indicated by an asterisk (*), it is an indication that it is from Teachings of the Seven Sacred/Seven Grandfathers, 2014.

International Center for Academic Integrity [ICAI]. (2021). The Fundamental Values of Academic Integrity. (3rd ed.). 
www.academicintegrity.org/the-fundamental-values-of-academic-integrity

Honesty implies a refusal to lie, steal or deceive in any way.

Examples:

  • Being truthful about the work you did.
  • Citing the owner of the work (i.e., musician, author, artist, speaker etc.).
  • Providing factual evidence.
  • Considering all sides and one's own potential bias.
     

Trust is to rely on the truthfulness or accuracy of and to rely on what has been said or stated. In a teacher-student relationship, trust means believing in the integrity of other's work and the reliability of sources

Examples:

  • Clearly stating expectations and follow through.
  • Promoting transparency in values, processes, and outcomes .
  • Choosing credible and reliable sources.
  • Encouraging mutual understanding.

Fairness is to lack of favoritism toward one side or another.

Examples:

Applying rules and policies consistently.
Engaging with others equitably.
Keeping an open-mind.
Being objective to all view points.

 

Respect means to consider worthy of high regard.

Examples:

  • Practicing active listening.
  • Accepting that others’ thoughts and ideas have validity.
  • Showing empathy.
  • Affirming others and accept differences.

Responsibility is simply being responsible for one's actions.

Examples: 

  • Holding yourself accountable for your actions. 
  • Knowing and follow institutional rules and conduct codes. 
  • Following through with tasks and expectations.
  • Modeling good behavior.

Courage means having mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty.

Examples:

  • Being brave even when others might not.
  • Taking a stand to address a wrongdoing and support others doing the same.
  • Enduring discomfort for something you believe in.
  • Being undaunted in defending integrity.

Wisdom is the ability to discern a course of action based on knowledge and experience.

Example:

Ensuring that sources are credible.

Love is a strong affection that comes from the heart.

Example:

  • Having passion in the pursuit of truth that is respectable to the well-being of others.

Humility is the absence of feeling better than others.

Example:

  • Taking responsibility for what you have done and what have done.

Truth is the body of real things or factual.

Example: 

Not recycling marked assignments.
Not impersonating others.

 

Categories of Misconduct

College Libraries Ontario. Academic Integrity https://tlp-lpa.ca/research/academic-integrity

What is Academic Misconduct?

An academic offence/ academic misconduct is defined as obtaining or attempting to obtain unfair advantage or credit for academic work for oneself or others by dishonest means. This act can be intentional or unintentional and the consequences can be minor or severe.

Plagiarism involves two things: 1) presenting all or part of the machine-generated content or someone else’s work as one’s own and 2) not citing it. This could apply to words, ideas, music, signatures and more from all sources. 

Examples:

  • Copying in part or in whole from a source and not citing the source.
  • Resubmitting part or whole past assignments to another course.  

Tips on Avoiding Plagiarism

1. Keep track of your sources. Check out this guide on how to save your searches and create citations from Catalyst.

2. Cite your sources. Check out APA and citation manager guide.

Cheating involves trying to obtain or helping another person get credit for work or improvement on a test, exam or assignment by dishonest behaviours. 

Examples:

  • Accessing or possessing unauthorized materials, unauthorized information, or devices during assessments.
  • Obtaining an assessment, in whole or in part, in advance of its administration, without the permission of the professor.
  • Changing grades or answers on an assignment for the purpose of regrading.
  • Failing to abide by the instructions of the professor or proctor concerning assessment procedures, such as, but not limited to, talking, or failing to adhere to start/stop times.
  • Using an artificial intelligence tool (e.g.; ChatGPT) for an assignment without the instructor’s permission.

Falsification involves altering, withholding, or forging documentation, e.g., medical records, correspondence, academic documents, research results or sources to gain an academic advantage.

Examples: 

  • Submitting false, fraudulent, or purchased assignments, research or credentials.
  • Taking or releasing, without permission, the ideas or data of others that were shared with the expectation that they were confidential.
  • Falsifying, altering, withholding, or concocting medical records, compassionate documents, correspondence, academic documents, research results, references, or research sources.
  • Forging or using College documents, records, or instruments of identification with intent to defraud.

Collusion is a secret cooperation or conspiracy in order to cheat or deceive others.

Example:
Causing a distraction in a testing situation that prevents the professor from observing other students.

 

Consequences of Academic Misconduct

Loyalist College has implemented a new academic integrity policy (ACAD 206) effective January 1, 2025. When there is an incidence of academic misconduct, it will be assessed by two factors: severity and intentionality. Severity refers to the academic advantage that the student is attempting to gain while intentionality refers to the degree to which the action was purposeful.

Level of Intent & Severity Misconduct Category Breach Examples Possible Outcomes

Level 1

Minor & Unintentional

 Plagiarism, Cheating

  • Incomplete or improper attempts at proper citation and referencing
  • Re-submitting previous work without approval (self-plagiarism)
  • Unauthorized, minor collaboration
  • Resubmission of work
  • Supplemental assessment
  • Academic integrity reflection paper
  • Assignment grade reduction on assignment (up to 10%)

Level 2

Minor & Deliberate

 Plagiarism, Cheating
  • Copying and pasting significant content without attempts at proper citation and referencing
  • Submitting work with parts completed by someone else or generated partially by artificial intelligence without approval
  • Use of unauthorized devices or materials for an assignment
  • Unauthorized, major collaboration
  • Helping other students gain a minor academic advantage
     
  • Supplemental assessment
  • Assignment grade reduction on assignment (11 – 30%)

Level 3

Significant & Deliberate

Plagiarism,

Falsification, & Cheating

  • Copying the work of someone else and submitting it
  • Submitting work generated wholly or primarily by artificial intelligence without 
  • Submitting work purchased from a third party
  • Falsifying reference or research data
  • Submitting fraudulent documents to gain an academic advantage (doctor’s note)
  • Use of unauthorized materials or devices for a test or examination
  • Assignment Grade reduction (31 – 50%)
  • Assignment – grade of zero

Level 4

Major & Premeditated

Falsification
  • Submitting fraudulent documents to gain an institutional-level academic advantage (ie. Documents to support admission or credit transfer)
  • Stealing, reproducing, circulating or otherwise gaining prior access to examination materials
  • Tampering with grades and/or academic systems of record
  • Impersonation
  • Unauthorized access to another student’s identity and/or password
  • Course failure
  • Suspension from college
  • Expulsion

Assessment of Academic Integrity Breaches

Assessment of academic breach normally takes 10 business days.

1. The instructor identifies the breach and communicates it to the student and the Associate Dean. Students will be given 5 business days to respond.

2. Once the student has responded, the instructor will have 5 business days to determine the severity and the intentionality. The instructor will also contact the Registrar's Office (RO) to see if the student has had previous offenses. This information may result in a more severe penalty. 

3. The reporting should be completed within 2 business days. The instructor completes and submits an Academic Integrity Reporting form and submits it to the Registrar's Office.