Index
Information for students
Academic Integrity
Academic Integrity is about honest presentation of your academic work. It means acknowledging the work of others while developing your own insights, knowledge and ideas.
Why is Academic Integrity important?
Academic work in a university depends on the practice of Academic Integrity as a core value. It is an important part of academic life for both staff and students, and essential to academic thought and practice. All work produced must acknowledge the sources of ideas presented and cite the original written work which informed it.
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:
- plagiarism
- cheating in an exam
- copying or submitting whole or parts of computer files as if they are your own (eg webpages).
You must reference the following types of information:
- thoughts, ideas, definitions or theories
- research and other studies
- statistics
- information from the Internet, including images and media
- designs or works of art
- facts that are not common knowledge
- For direct assistance go to the following site: Referencing Styles
If you don’t reference information in your work, it is assumed that:
- it’s your own idea
- it’s common knowledge, eg you wouldn’t need to reference that Sydney has the largest population in Australia
- it’s common knowledge in your field of work or study, eg children generally learn to read in Grade 1.
To maintain Academic Integrity:
- Make sure you understand how to reference your sources.
- Don’t leave your assignments around for others to read.
- Make sure you take your discs out of the computers in the library or the labs.
- When photocopying or making notes from texts, make sure you record all bibliographic information.
- Make sure your work clearly distinguishes between the ideas of others and your own ideas. If you’re not sure how to do this, check with your program staff about requirements for referencing. You could also make an appointment at the Learning Skills Unit.
What is Plagiarism?
Plagiarism is a form of cheating in assessment and may occur in oral, written or visual presentations. It is the presentation of the work, idea or creation of another person, without appropriate referencing, as though it is your own.
The penalties for cheating in assessment are severe, whether the cheating involves plagiarism, fabrication, falsification of data, copyright infringement or some other method. Penalties can include charges of academic misconduct, cancellation of results and exclusion from your course. It is also a disciplinary offence for you to allow your work to be plagiarised by another student. You are responsible for keeping your work in a secure place. RMIT has a policy on plagiarism.
Plagiarism covers a variety of inappropriate behaviours, including:
- failure to properly document a source
- copying material from the internet or databases
- collusion between students
- purchasing pre-written or on-demand papers from the numerous paper mills and cheat sites
What is Turnitin?
Turnitin is an online service, into which teachers and students submit student assignments into a large database. The text of a student assignment, or whatever else has been uploaded, is retained in the database. The database compares the text in the assignment against other database content which includes all of the World Wide Web, online e-journals, and previously uploaded assignments. Teachers and their students are then able to review the citation and paraphrasing used throughout the student assignment to see if any improvements are needed.
At RMIT University, many teaching staff use Turnitin with student assignments. It is available directly within Blackboard and also from the website: www.turnitin.com
Teaching staff at RMIT endeavour to use the Turnitin service as an educative tool. Turnitin helps teaching staff identify students who need assistance with referencing and research skills. To find out more about this service please visit the website: www.turnitin.com
If you are required to access Turnitin outside of Blackboard follow these instructions: http://www.rmit.edu.au/academicintegrity/studentprocedures
Further questions? Browse through the Student FAQ on Turnitin
Where can I get further support to assist me in maintaining Academic Integrity?
Using the correct citation and knowing how to reference your work is one of the most important things you can do to uphold your academic integrity.
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The RMIT Library provides an easy to use guide to different citation styles. Use this site to make sure that you are clearly acknowledging your information sources. |
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EndNote can help you organise your footnotes, citations and bibliographies. Click here for more information. |
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Guidelines for referencing and presentation in RMIT Business. |
RMIT has set policies and guidelines surrounding assessment practices and plagiarism guidelines which are of relevance to all RMIT students.
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Assessment – General – 7.32.1.1 policy
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Learn about RMIT’s assessment policies. |
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Be aware of the University’s policies for plagiarism. |
Your obligations with respect to copyright and particularly the use of material from the Internet.
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Discusses copyright, plagiarism and fair use, and provides links to other useful resources. |
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This site provides many links to useful online Australian copyright resources. |
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Queensland University of Technology Copyright Guide for Students. |