Academic Integrity
What is Academic Integrity?
The University and wider academic community is built on shared values and norms of behaviour, including honesty, fairness and responsibility. Academic integrity means putting those values into practice by being honest in the academic work you do at university, being fair to others, and taking responsibility for learning, and following the conventions of scholarship. It is the University's responsibility to award credit for honestly conducted work, and it is your responsibility to ensure that you demonstrate academic integrity.
You can demonstrate academic integrity by:
- using information appropriately, according to copyright and privacy laws
- acknowledging where the information you use comes from
- not presenting other people's work as your own
- conducting research ethically, in line with relevant legislation and the University's policies and procedures
reporting truthfully on your research - acting in an ethical manner in all your academic endeavours
Types of academic misconduct include:
| Plagiarism | Copying other people's work without proper acknowledgement. |
| Collusion | Working together on an assessment task that is supposed to be completed individually. |
| Cheating | In a formal examination or assessment. |
| Contract cheating | Procuring a third party to complete an assessment or sharing to/obtaining work from a file-sharing site or 'essay mill'. |
| Fabrication | Forging, falsifying or misusing information. |
| Impersonation | Sitting in an exam or class while pretending to be someone else. |
| Self-plagiarism | Recycling a piece of work - or sections of a piece of work – that was previously submitted, without explicit permission from the subject coordinator. |
| Unauthorised use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) | Acceptable use of AI varies depending on the subject and assignment. To ensure compliance, always refer to your assignment instructions or consult your subject coordinator if you're unsure. For more information, see the 7 page Library Guide on Artificial Intelligence. |
| Other | Any other academic misconduct not specifically defined by one of the above terms |
Please visit Achieve@Uni for more detailed information about academic misconduct and how to avoid it.
Academic Integrity Module (AIM)
The Academic Integrity Module is compulsory for all La Trobe students (except for graduate research candidates). It is designed to help you to understand why academic integrity is important and how to avoid academic misconduct.
Acknowledgement and referencing help
The right ways to reference your sources.
Help for academic misconduct
What to do if you’re called to the Student Academic Misconduct Committee (SAMC).
Penalties for academic misconduct
There are serious penalties for Academic Misconduct.
Academic integrity for graduate research candidates
Information and resources about academic integrity for graduate research students (PhD, professional doctorate and Masters by Research).