Audit of Academic Integrity and Plagiarism Issues in Australia and New Zealand

Prepared by the:
Teaching and Learning Centre, Murdoch University

Content: Dr Rob Phillips
Research: Jane Chomyc
Data analysis: Davina Boyd and Rob Phillips
Web authoring: Terri McCann

This project was carried out through the Teaching and Learning Centre at Murdoch University. It was funded by the ACODE (the Australasian Council on Open, Distance and E-learning).

Aims

The aim of this project was to conduct an Australasian audit of initiatives about academic integrity, including plagiarism and measures intended to reduce its frequency, culminating in the development of a repository of academic integrity resources.

Deliverables

The deliverables of this mini-project were stated to be:

• a snapshot of the current state of play in academic integrity in Australasia and elsewhere;
• a web-based portal to the collected information.

Methodology

A research assistant was employed to conduct open-ended telephone interviews with staff in ACODE member institutions, seeking information about:

• Policies, penalties and processes relating to academic integrity issues;
• Software employed (if any) to address academic integrity issues;
• Educational resources used to address academic integrity issues for both staff and students.

Institutional documents and policies were also collected and analysed.  Data collection commenced in November 2004, and concluded in February 2005. 

Of the 51 ACODE member institutions and affiliates, responses were received from 42, while it was not appropriate for three affiliates (DEST, CAUL and CAUDIT) to respond. Of the remaining six institutions, two declined to participate, and four did not respond during the data collection phase.

Findings

In the initial project proposal, it was predicted that there would be a variation in approaches to academic integrity among institutions, in that some would approach academic integrity from a viewpoint of 'stamping out' plagiarism, while others would attempt to educate students.  However, the findings were largely uniform – almost every institution recognized that there was a need to educate students better about academic integrity, but they also recognized a need to make detection and disciplinary procedures more efficient and transparent.

The data that emerged from the research grouped itself around two major themes:

• Policy issues, including type of policies and approaches to policy development;
• Practical issues, with three sub-themes:
  • Education of both students and staff;
  • Detection of plagiarism and collusion through the use of software; and
  • Disciplinary approaches and processes.

In addition, the project collected links to relevant institutional documents, identified links to national and international websites and relevant publications about academic integrity, and identified a number of 'good ideas' which could be applied at other institutions.

The structure of this website reflects these findings.