Embedding Academic Integrity in Public Universities

Plagiarism policies in Iranian university TEFL teachers’ syllabuses: an exploratory study

“…The findings of this study lend support to those obtained by Ahmadi (2014) and Rezanejad and Rezaei (2013), suggesting that students receive little instruction or information on plagiarism and plagiaristic practices from their teachers and universities. While straightforward plagiarism policies and honor codes are being drafted and implemented in many universities and colleges around the world, easily available to both students and the staffwith the expectation that they will read and follow them (Sutherland-Smith 2008), the situation seems to be far below standard among educational institutions in Iran. As a result, it is an absolute necessity for every university and higher education institute to provide its members and students with a set of policies unambiguously explicating the standards, expectations, and rules.…”

“…That is not surprising in this electronic age when access to various online sources is quick and copyright law can be infringed upon quite easily (e.g. Flowerdew and Li, 2007;Gunnarsson, Kulesza and Pettersson, 2014;Helgesson, 2015;Kauffman and Young, 2015;Sutherland-Smith, 2008). Research suggests that the quantity of digital plagiarism, namely copying and pasting from the Internet without crediting the source, has exceeded the traditional forms of plagiarism (Stephens, Young and Calabrese, 2007).…”

“…Pennycook, in his 1996 article in which he delves into the roots of plagiarism, states that plagiarism is a concept that originates from Western cultures and societies; a concept which came into existence as a consequence of the birth of copyright law in western nations in the 17th and 18th centuries. In spite of its Anglocentric origin, the concept of plagiarism is controversially claimed to be influenced by different cultures and attitudes (Brimble and Stevenson-Clarke, 2005;Pecorari, 2015;Sutherland-Smith, 2008). Price (2002) writes that "in drafting a plagiarism policy, we must remember that its readers come from a variety of cultural contexts, across which definitions of new and original, not to mention the value placed upon newness or originality, may change" (p. 95).…”

“…The difficulty to define plagiarism can partly be related to the different attitudes towards it (Helgesson, 2015;Sutherland-Smith, 2008). Whereas in Western contexts the long-standing, the dominant modernist position on plagiarism honors the ownership of words and the focus of research has been more on the belief that plagiarism should be viewed as "stealing" (Kolich, 1983, p. 143) or in the words of Martin (1994) a "grievous sin" (p. 36).…”

Quality assurance agencies: Creating a conducive environment for academic integrity

“…It is a universal trust-bearing measure of the quality of academic and professional practices (teaching, learning, assessment, evaluation, research and community service) by individuals, groups or institutions within higher education systems. 4,5 Accordingly, the achievement of academic integrity is a critical goal that every higher education system aspires to reach, to be part of the national and global communities of integrity.…”