Integrity in the Academy - University of Western Ontario

Western University
Fall Perspectives On Teaching Conference
Julia Christensen Hughes
August 24, 2012

What is academic integrity?

Firm adherence to a code of especially moral or
artistic values: incorruptibility
Synonym: honesty
(Merriam Webster, on-line)
“A commitment, even in the face of adversity, to five
fundamental values: honesty, trust, fairness, respect,
and responsibility” (CAI, Clemson University)

Intentional wrongdoing; specifically: deliberate
violation of a law or standard of practice especially
by a government official
Synonym: misbehaviour
(Merriam Webster, on-line)
“Anything that gives a student an unearned
advantage over another.”
University Affairs, Mullens (2000, p. 23)

Not just about “catching” students
Creating a culture/environment in which all
members of the community are committed to
– and held accountable for - upholding shared
values

Our Mission Statements:
Education of students
Conferring of degrees
Pursuit of truth or knowledge

“academic excellence”
“create an environment in which students are grounded in the
values and responsibilities of the scholarly life”
“highest ideals of scholarly responsibility”
“we are accountable to our students and the general public
for the quality of our teaching, research and service”
(Strategic Plan, 2006)

“Universities are perceived as epitomizing
intellectual and social honesty, and they are
expected to strive continually for that form of
perfection” (Besvinick, 1983, p. 569).

“Wise societies since the time of
Plato…have educated for
character as well as intellect,
decency as well as literacy, virtue
as well as knowledge.” (p. 6)
Theodore Roosevelt
“To educate a person in mind and not
in morals is to educate a menace to
society.” (p. 3)

Academic misconduct is commonplace
“The mystery is not why cheating is wrong or
why students cheat, but why there is so little
passion about this massive assault on the
highest values of the academy.”
(Alschuler & Blimling, 1995, p. 124)

11 Universities 2002 – 2003
14,913 undergraduate students
1,269 1 st year – high school
1,318 graduate students
683 TAs, and 1,902 faculty
Canadian Journal of Higher Education, v36 n1 p49-63 2006
Canadian Journal of Higher Education, v36 n2 p1-21 2006

Self-reported
Wide range of response rates/populations
Student concern with confidentiality
Not prescriptive or conclusive

Work with others
Get Q&A in advance
Copy a few sentences
Fabricate/falsify lab data
Copying during exam
Fabricate/falsify a bibliography
Fabricate/falsify research data
Turn in work by someone else
Buy paper off Internet

Work with others (76%, 45%, 29%)
Get Q&A in advance (73%, 38%, 16%)
Copy a few sentences (62%, 37%, 24%)
Fabricate/falsify lab data (50%, 25%, 6%)
Copying during exam (33%, 6%, 3%)
Fabricate/falsify a bibliography (30%, 17%, 9%)
Fabricate/falsify research data (29%, 9%, 3%)
Turn in work by someone else (22%, 9%, 4%)
Buy paper off internet (1%, 1%, 0%)

Pal Schmidt, President of Hungary
1992 doctoral dissertation
>200/215 pages plagiarised
stripped of doctorate, resigned presidency
BBC News, March 29 2012
CNN World, April 2 2012

Athabasca University
5/13 pages communications
course
“relatively minor error”
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2011/06/17/philipbaker-dean-alberta_n_879230.html
http://www.youtube.com/w
atch?v=Yb4MIH7jgaQ

1. Risk perception
2. Policies and practices
3. Quality of teaching and assessment

Even when people are caught cheating during a test or
examination, they are often just told to stop. The
measures that are supposed to be taken are not
taken. I think this leads to the attitude some people
take that cheating is not a big deal.

Cheating seems most often to be required in
order to physically complete the workload
expected of students. I hate cheating, it feels
horrible, but I wouldn’t have passed or made
it this far without it.

As long as universities are not about learning,
students will cheat…Are assignments given to
teach the students the material, or are
assignments given to determine what the
student will get as a mark? There is only one
primary purpose. ‘Cheating’ allows the
student to get a better mark.

Students cheat when they feel cheated
If universities create ‘game playing conditions’,
some students will engage in ‘game playing
behaviours’

1. Recommit to integrity as a core value
2. Provide quality education
3. Reform assessment practice
4. Review, revise and clarify policies and
procedures
5. Provide educational/orientation activities

Innovations
o Academic Integrity Officers
o Revisited policies and procedures
• Ambassadors and ombudspeople
o Educational activities
• Innovative poster campaigns
o Software

Administrators
Researchers

Philip Baker, Dean of Medicine (June, 2011)
"There's several parts where he talks about one of his children becoming ill,
his wife having medical problems, he describes a patient that he had —
which is not a patient that he had — and it's a very personal story … and it
was a very good story, it's just the things that happened in the story didn't
happen to him.” http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/story/2011/06/12/edm-university-alberta-speech.html

“behaviours that distort scientific knowledge”
– fabrication, falsification, “cooking” of data
Fanelli D. How Many Scientists Fabricate and Falsify Research? A
Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Survey Data. PLoS ONE,
2009; 4(5): e5738 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0005738

Self report
o 2% fabricated, falsified or modified data or results
o 34% questionable practices
Others
o 14%
• dropping data point based on a gut feeling
• changing the design, methodology or results of a study in
response to pressures from a funding source
o up to 72%

Postdoctoral fellows, University of California SF
o 3.4% modified data
o 17% willing to select or omit data to improve
results
Research trainees, University of California SD
o 4.9% modified research results in past
o 81% willing to select, omit or fabricate data to win
a grant or publish a paper

Deiderik Stapel (June, 2011)
Data fabrication in several dozen papers
Society for Personality and Social Psychology
Dismissed from Tilburg University, Netherlands
Head of Tilburg Institute for Behavioral Economics Research
Junior researchers blew whistle

Deepak K. Das, PhD, (January 2012). Director of
Cardiovascular Research Center (CRC), professor Department
of Surgery, University of Connecticut
health benefits of red wine
145 counts of fabricating and falsifying data with image-editing software
background erasure, image duplication, and images having been spliced
together
24 papers, 11 journals

The role of personality, cognitive ability and motivation
UBC researchers (Williams, Nathanson, Paulhus)
“Dark triad”
o Narcissism, Machiavellianism, Psychopathy
o “erratic lifestyle, manipulation, callousness, and antisocial tendencies”
(p. 295)
1) Psychopathy
2) Poor verbal ability
3) Unrestrained achievement and moral inhibition
Journal of Experimental Psychology, 2010, Vol. 16, No. 3, 293–307

Perceptual deterrence theory (Paternostar, 1987)
Rational cost/benefit analysis
Legal, social, personal costs against possible gains
Context
o Prevalence
o Competitive environment
o Status “winning”
o Perceived legitimacy of rules

Society in general
o Banking crisis
o Politics
o Church
o Sport

69% of 19 olive oil brands failed standards test for
extra virgin olive oil (2012, Business Insider)
Activia yogurt and DanActive dairy drink - $21 million
false health claims (Forbes, 2011).

Ends justify means
Cheating socially
acceptable
Cheaters do win

Integrity is an imperative
Incentives not to act with integrity
Some more tempted than others
Effective innovations and safeguards are
required

1. Recommit to integrity as a core value
2. Provide quality education
3. Reform assessment practice
4. Review, revise and clarify policies and
procedures
5. Provide educational/orientation activities