Academic integrity constitutes all the acts of commitment, demonstration of honest and displaying moral behaviour in an academic setting ( Macfarlane Zhang, & Pun, 2014 ). Academic integrity is a critical virtue at the university level because it eliminates cases of plagiarism. Displaying academic integrity at the school setting is vital for several reasons. First, having academic integrity helps the learner to build trust with others ( Macfarlane Zhang, & Pun, 2014 ). Having academic integrity is a proof that one is reliable to the society, and that he or she is capable of becoming a successful leader.
Secondly, having academic integrity increases one’s chances of securing a credible job, as most of employers seek to recruit graduates who have genuine degrees ( Macfarlane Zhang, & Pun, 2014 ). Finally, having academic integrity gives the learner a peace of mind, as they know they are doing what is expected of them ( Macfarlane Zhang, & Pun, 2014 ). As a result, having academic integrity is a way of avoiding irrelevant stress in one’s life because students believe in what they do.
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Plagiarism is the act of using another person’s piece of work without giving credit to the author. Plagiarism remains a big challenge to academic integrity in the academic sector world-wide. There are different types of plagiarism, all which result into academic integrity violations across the learning institutions in the United States. One of the most common types of plagiarism is Intentional plagiarism. Intentional plagiarism occurs when an author copies an entire text, piece of work, or data and uses it as his or her own work without acknowledging its author (Roka, 2017). Intentional plagiarism involves word-to-word copying from the original text and failing to acknowledge the author of the piece of work or failing to use quotation marks.
The other type of plagiarism is Mosaic or patch writing plagiarism (Roka, 2017). Mosaic plagiarism refers to a new author using a previous text to produce a new text by rephrasing and reordering words in a sentence and retaining the original meaning of the text (Roka, 2017). Mosaic type of plagiarism results in academic integrity violation and it is punishable. Another type of plagiarism is self-plagiarism, which refers to an author adding more research on a published article or piece of work (Roka, 2017). Before an author carries further research on a published article, he or she is supposed to seek permission from the author of the original article. All incidences and types of plagiarism are considered as serious threats to academic integrity and should be avoided by all means. Authors of different articles and pieces of work are supposed to adhere to guidelines that prohibit plagiarism in order to come up with high quality work.
There are numerous ways in which academic integrity violations may occur. The most common form of academic integrity violation is plagiarism, which has adverse effects on authors, students, and the general society. In most cases, the impact of academic integrity violation extends beyond the classroom and manifests itself in the out-of-class environment (Eastman, Iyer & Reisenwitz, 2008). According to Eastman, Iyer and Reisenwitz (2008), students who rely on academic integrity violations to attain their grades in exams end up indulging in unethical practices in the society. As a result, societal ethics are compromised, which negatively affects normal living of people in the society. Academic integrity violations are costly and time consuming among students and learning institutions. Students who present plagiarised work for marking are in most cases forced to redo their assignments. Redoing an assignment is time consuming, both to the students and to the learning institutions. Adverse cases of plagiarism may lead to students being expelled from school or missing important marks in their final marks’ compilation.
The general society is in a serious crisis of integrity which calls for strategic counter actions to solve it. Instilling the character of academic integrity among students is one way of bringing up an upright generation that can be relied upon in the future to uphold ethical practices in the society (Popescu, 2008). According to Popescu (2008), if the virtues of honesty and integrity are cultivated among students, then they stand better chances of becoming responsible and morally upright citizens in the future. Integrity is also paramount in the business environment. The success of any business environment is dependent on the integrity held by its inhabitants. As such, instilling academic integrity among students transforms them into responsible business persons who can be relied on by any nation to develop its economy. Therefore, academic integrity results into integrity in the business environment.
References
Eastman, J., Iyer, R., & Reisenwitz, T. (2008).The Impact of Unethical Reasoning on Different Types of Academic Dishonesty: An Exploratory Study. 5 (12): 7-16.
Macfarlane, B., Zhang, J., & Pun, A. (2014). Academic integrity: a review of the literature, Studies in Higher Education. 39(2): 339-358. DOI: 10.1080/03075079.2012.709495
Popescu, N. (2008). "Benefits of Academic Integrity and Mentorship," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania. 10(24): 299-304.
Roka, Y. (2017). Plagiarism: Types, Causes and How to Avoid This Worldwide Problem. Retrieved January 10, 2020; from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326259880_Plagiarism_Types_Causes_and_How_to_Avoid_This_Worldwide_Problem/citation/download
