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Academic Integrity

Learn how to present academic work in a moral, ethical and honest way.

Academic Integrity

Academic integrity is about presenting academic work in a moral, ethical and honest way. It means using ideas, knowledge and information to develop your own insights, not presenting someone else’s work as your own. It also means acknowledging the work of others when you include it in your work.

 

Why is Academic Integrity important?

Academic Integrity is an important part of Swinburne’s culture, as the university takes academic integrity issues seriously. Breaches in academic integrity can result in severe consequences such as course failure, suspension or exclusion.

 

Refer below for more information

 

Behaving with academic integrity

Academic integrity is important to you and to the university. When you act with integrity you are being fair and honest, taking responsibility for your own learning. You have the opportunity to maximise your learning so you are adequately prepared for your future. Acting with integrity enables you to become a confident, capable graduate with skills and capabilities that are valued by others as you emerge as a young professional.

Academic integrity adds value to your degree and preserves your reputation as well as that of the university, so the community can have confidence in the university and its graduates.

Throughout your learning journey it is essential that you are aware of what is expected of you and how to make sure your work has integrity.

At Swinburne you are expected to conduct yourself with honesty, responsibility and fairness. You can demonstrate academic integrity by producing work that presents your own insights and which acknowledges the sources of ideas presented and cites the original work which informed it. If you are unsure, there is plenty of free help available online and through support services.

Academic integrity and appropriately referencing sources of information are important not only in written work but also when:

  • using generative AI (genAI) tools (where appropriate)
  • writing a computer programme
  • using audio, visual, graphic or photographic work
  • using objects or materials such as artefacts, designs, costumes or models, and
  • working in groups

 

How do I ensure my own academic integrity?

You can achieve academic integrity by honestly submitting work that is your own. Presenting work that fails to acknowledge other people’s work within yours can compromise academic integrity. This includes:

  • Non-Compliance With Instructions in an Invigilated or Non-Invigilated Assessment, Test, Exam, Oral Presentation, Performance or Final Assessment
  • Plagiarism
  • Contract Cheating/Third Party Outsourcing
  • Collusion
  • Unauthorised File Sharing
  • Falsification, Fabrication, Manipulation or Misrepresentation of Information
  • Reuse of Previous Work

For detailed definitions and examples of academic misconduct, please refer to the Academic Misconduct Breach Types and Definitions.

 

How do I maintain academic integrity?

There are many ways that you can achieve and maintain academic integrity:

  • take responsibility for your learning
  • submit work that is honestly your own
  • understand how to reference sources, including acknowledging any permitted genAI use within your assessment tasks
  • in the final submission always include an appendix, a list of genAI prompts and outputs in the final submission
  • when photocopying or making notes from texts, record all bibliographic information
  • acknowledge the ideas, contribution and work of others
  • contribute fairly to group work tasks
  • complete tests and exams without cheating
  • ask for help from legitimate support services
  • see the Student Academic Misconduct Regulations
  • check how to reference your sources

 

Things to avoid

Here are some things you should do in order to preserve your academic integrity:

  • do not use genAI if it is not permitted
  • do not submit text generated by genAI (where permitted) as your own work without appropriate acknowledgment
  • do not leave your assignments around for others to read
  • do not leave a computer unattended and ensure that your USB sticks out of the computers in the library or the computer labs
  • do not buy notes or assignments (this is known as contract cheating)
  • do not submit work unless it is your own
  • do not share or upload your notes where others can access or download it, as this is not your intellectual property

 

Using genAI (where permitted)

Students may use genAI tools under the direction of unit teaching staff and with proper acknowledgement of its use. Read more on the appropriate use of genAI.

 

Reusing your own assessment tasks

Students should not submit work that has been previously submitted for assessment in other units or previous attempts of units. Exceptions are made for students in VE courses if your teacher agrees that the work demonstrates competence in, or prior learning of, a skill.

 

Exam conduct

Academic integrity extends to ensuring appropriate behaviour in exams as well as in other assessments. You need to be aware of appropriate exam conduct so you can reduce stress and perform at your very best.

 

Referencing

Plagiarism involves submitting or presenting the ideas, writing, coding, images or other work of someone else, in whole or in part, as though it is your own work, that is, without proper acknowledgement of the source(s). By understanding and practising academic integrity you are likely to avoid plagiarising.

Swinburne uses different referencing systems depending on your course or school. The library has information on these recommended referencing styles. You may also check with your school or unit convenor.

 

Group work

Working in groups or collaborating can be a rewarding and enriching experience. There is a fine line between collaboration, which involves working effectively and honestly together, and collusion, which is considered as cheating and dishonest. Academic misconduct can occur in group work in several ways:

  • Gaining an unfair advantage when a student claims an equal share of the marks but
    • has done less their equal share
    • does not turn up to group meetings and/or does not contribute in group meetings
    • does not undertake their share of the work with the appropriate level of care and attention
  • Copying all or part of the work of others, or allowing others to copy your work
  • Discussing work in a group which needs to be submitted as an individual task, without permission from the assessor or acknowledgement of collaboration

 

Commonly used terms

Here are some commonly used terms that you should understand:

  • Cheating: Behaving in a dishonest way in order to get what you want.
  • Collusion: The agreement between people to act together secretly or illegally in order to deceive or cheat.
  • Contract cheating: Occurs when a person knowingly submits work that has been completed by another person or agency.
  • Plagiarism: The process or practice of using another person’s ideas or work and pretending it is your own.
  • Reuse of previous work: Reusing or recycling your own work when it has previously been submitted for assessment. With approval from their Course Convenor prior to submitting, VE students may be able to reuse work that demonstrates competence or prior learning.
  • File sharing: Occurs when a student uploads Swinburne resources or other material related to assessment without the permission of the Unit Convenor

 

Where to get study and learning support?

We encourage you to use the free support services provided by Swinburne to develop your academic skills and understanding.

 

Turnitin

  • When you submit your written assignments through Canvas then they are usually put through the text matching software Turnitin. Turnitin uses text matching software to detect similarities between your submission and previously presented work.
  • The software uses a content database collected from billions of previously submitted works; from students, academic authors, databases and so on. It checks for matches with previously submitted writing, stored within various internet, academic and student paper databases (repositories).
  • Turnitin generates a Similarity Report that, in most cases, can be reviewed prior to the final submission of your assessment tasks. However, access to this report depends on the settings configured by your lecturer in Canvas. It is recommended that you check with your lecturer to confirm whether the report will be available for your review. The Similarity Report will highlight sections of your work that have been identified as being unoriginal (it is not unique to your submission). Carefully review the highlighted sections in the Similarity Report and edit these where appropriate to correct any poorly referenced sections before submitting your final version for assessment.
  • Learn how to submit your assessments online or in-person from Turnitin – SUTS Website
 

International Students

If you are an international student holding a student visa and the outcome of this decision is that your enrolment is to be cancelled or suspended in any way this may affect your visa. Swinburne is required to report any enrolment cancellations or suspensions to regulatory authorities.

If you choose not to access our internal review and appeals process within time, withdraw from the process, or the process is completed and confirms the cancellation or suspension of your enrolment, the cancellation or suspension will be reported to regulatory authorities.

 

Support Services

Should you require support, you may wish to seek assistance from the following services: