Scientific research is supposed to acquire or generate knowledge, but such a purpose would be severely undermined by instances of research misconduct (RM) and questionable research practices (QRP). RM and QRP are often framed in terms of moral transgressions by individuals (bad apples) whose aberrant acts could be made conducive by shortcomings in…

Background: Institutions of higher learning are persistently struggling with issues of academic dishonesty such as plagiarism, despite the availability of university policies and guidelines for upholding academic integrity. Methodology: This was a descriptive qualitative study conducted on 37 students of a Healthcare Ethics course at an Australian…

This paper reports the key findings from two student surveys undertaken at our institution in the academic years 2020-21 and 2021-22. The research was based on the Bretag et al. (2018) student survey undertaken in various Australian universities. After discussions with both Bretag and Harper, we adapted the questions to our context -- a Russell…

Higher education institutions (HEI) are increasingly challenged by plagiarism, which threatens their academic standards and integrity. This is due to the fact that students have access to an overwhelming amount of information online, making it easier for them to copy and paste without giving proper credit or attribution. Additionally, the…

This paper presents the first systematic investigation into the search engine optimization practices of major contract cheating websites in the United States. From a business perspective, visibility in organic search engine results is considered one of the top client recruitment tools. The current understanding of student recruitment strategies by…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to learn how digital-native college students perceive of cheating and plagiarism. Today's students grew up with high-speed internet, smartphones, and instant access to information. Their learning environment was greatly altered during the COVID-19 pandemic, shifting many from in-person to online learning.…

The shift to online instruction in higher education related to the COVID-19 pandemic has raised worldwide concerns about an increase in academic misconduct (cheating and plagiarism). However, data to document any increase is sparse. For this study, we collected survey data from 484 students in 11 universities in the USA, and 410 students in five…

Given the prevalence of misconduct in research and among students in higher education, there is a need to create solutions for how best to prevent such behaviour in academia. This paper proceeds on the assumption that one way forward is to prepare students in higher education at an early stage and to encourage a smoother transition from academic…

Academic institutions aim at achieving the highest standards of education and learning. Consequently, they prohibit academic corruption such as cheating or plagiarism. This article examines how international accreditation and quality assurance standards embody academic integrity as a main factor in deciding whether an academic institution should…

One of the main goals of assignments in the academic environment is to assess the students' knowledge and mastery of a specific topic, and it is crucial to ensure that the work is original and has been solely made by the students to assess their competence acquisition. Therefore, Text-Matching Software Products (TMSPs) are used by academic…

The propensity to cheat is intrinsic to every kind of education or training that requires effort and commitment. Academic dishonesty is a significant issue among secondary and postsecondary students worldwide. The majority of students have been involved in at least one kind of academic dishonesty in the preceding academic year. The fraud triangle…

This research aimed to identify patterns, intellectual structure, contributions, social interactions, gaps, and future research directions in the field of academic integrity (AI). A bibliometric analysis was conducted with 1406 publications covering the period 1966-2023. The results indicate that there has been significant growth in AI literature…

Many instructional methods that focus on analytical, skill, and competency development have a single or small set of appropriate answers. Best-answer assignments are popular for largeenrollment classes because of the relative ease with which scoring and feedback can be managed at scale. However, cheating is regularly confirmed at disturbingly high…

Background: Academic integrity (AI) is of increasing importance in higher education. At the same time, students are becoming more consumer-oriented and more inclined to appeal against, or complain about, a penalty imposed for a breach of AI. This combination of factors places pressure on institutions of higher education to handle alleged breaches…

Is academic integrity research presented from a positive integrity standpoint? This paper uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques to explore a data set of 8,507 academic integrity papers published between 1904 and 2019.Two main techniques are used to linguistically examine paper titles: (1) bigram (word pair) analysis and (2) sentiment…