Research guides: Student Learning Success Guides!: Academic Integrity

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY means obeying the rules of honest research and scholarship, avoiding cheating and plagiarism, and taking responsibility for your own school work.

TIPS

Think of academic integrity as the college equivalent of your professional reputation.

Understand what academic integrity means and know the consequences of cheating.

Cite every source you use, and track your citations as you find them to save time.

Use the citation tools built into the Camosun Library databases.

Double-check your citations to match established standards.

SELF-REFLECTION

Why do you think academic integrity is important in college? If you cheat, what happens if you get caught?

Where do you find information about Camosun's academic integrity guidelines?

What constitutes cheating at Camosun?

If people's words and ideas are "intellectual property," what should you do when you use them?

How can you organize your sources so they're easy to reference later?

What can you do to remember to cite each quote or paraphrase accurately?

Academic Integrity Printable Document

Understand Academic Integrity

To make sure you avoid cheating and plagiarizing:

Start by reading and understanding the rules. Review Camosun's Academic Integrity Policy.
Give yourself extra time to complete assignments so you won't be tempted to "borrow" someone else's work.
Ask for help from qualified tutors. Camosun's Writing & Help Centres offer support in writing, math, and some science courses.
If you're worried that you might be breaking the rules, seek help: check with your instructor or a tutor, consult the appropriate policies, and study this guide.

Also, make sure you're familiar with the different types of academic dishonesty:

Contract cheating -- paying someone else to do your work for you, such as writing your paper or taking your exam.
Collusion -- working together with other students when your instructor has asked you to work independently.
Plagiarism -- borrowing someone else's work without giving them proper credit. This includes words, images, design elements, and sometimes even dance moves!

See the Tools & Resources section for more details about the different types of cheating and how to avoid them.

Avoid Plagiarism: Find source information

Information generally required: graphic with colored arrows showing where to find citation elements in single detailed record view

• Author(s)
• Title(s)
• Publication details
• Date
• Pages

The “Source” line on journal articles contains most of the information you’ll need.

If you’d like detailed information on a specific citation style, see the Camosun Library Citation Guides.

Avoid Plagiarism: Make citation tracking easy

Use the Cite button whenever you can.

You can find it near the top of the search results list...

Image of results list cite button found in Proquest databases

... or to the right of the source information for a single item.

Its location depends on which database you're using.

When using this handy library database tool, don’t assume the formatting is correct!

For example, this is the database-created APA citation for an article:

Nikolova, E. (2014). YOGA IN PHYSICAL EDUCATION. Activities In Physical Education & Sport, 4(2), 219-222.

Errors: Capitalization of article title; missing URL or digital object identifier (DOI) link.

The corrected APA citation looks like this:

Nikolova, E. (2014). Yoga in physical education. Activities in Physical Education & Sport, 4(2), 219-222. https://libsecure.camosun.bc.ca:2443/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=s3h&AN=99932922&site=eds-live

Remember, there's no Cite button on the open web. You’ll have to know what information you need to record. Camosun Library has detailed citation guides to help you.