Academic Integrity
Academic Integrity is one of the most important principles in Higher Education and research. It's based on the ethos that how you learn is as important as what you learn and means that your work must be your own and come from your own research and ideas.
What is Academic Integrity?
Academic integrity means making sure that the work you produce for assessment is your own, including the research you do. To show academic integrity, you must:
- Produce work for assessment that is completed solely by you
- Fully acknowledge the authors or sources you quote or reference in your assessments
- Ensure the information and / or data you use in your assessments are valid and real
- Comply with any ethical approval requirements related to your assessments
- Comply with the University Assessment Regulations.
Why does Academic Integrity matter?
Academic integrity is a really important part of studying in higher education. It also lays the foundations for future professional life.
As a student, you're part of a scholarly community. At Bath Spa, we encourage all members of our community to subscribe to the International Center for Academic Integrity (ICAI)’s values:
- Honesty
- Trust
- Fairness
- Respect
- Responsibility
- Courage.
You can find more information on the ICAI's values in this document.
Academic Misconduct
Academic Misconduct is defined as any activity used by a student which provides them with an unfair academic advantage over others. At Bath Spa University, all students will be judged on their own ability. Therefore, all assessment work submitted must be original.
What is misconduct?
What are the consequences?
How do I maintain Academic Integrity?
We expect our students to be honest in their studies, acknowledging the work of others where appropriate and giving credit where they have legitimately used other people’s ideas as part of presenting their own work. See the sections below for more on how to improve some key academic skills.
Harvard referencing
Harvard is the referencing style used in most courses at BSU. Open the Academic Integrity and Referencing module in our Ultra space for an interactive resource on Harvard referencing and how to use it correctly.
Oscola referencing
Oscola is the referencing system used by Law students. Use Cite Them Right Online for guidance and examples in how to use it.
Support for referencing
- Cite them right online: All the guidance you need to reference resources in your academic work.
- RefWorks: RefWorks is an online research management, writing and collaboration tool, designed to help researchers easily gather, manage, store and share all types of information, as well as generate citations and bibliographies. See RefWorks' own video tutorials and guides or ask your Subject Librarian for guidance.
- Use the Library’s 24/7 Chat feature to ask for help with referencing.
- Contact the ASk team for quick advice; come to drop ins (online or in-person) or book an appointment for more detailed help.
Paraphrasing
Learning to paraphrase will help ensure you use information with integrity and help improve your criticality in your writing as well.
Watch this video in the Academic Integrity module in the Academic Skills space on Ultra
Note-taking
Good note-taking skills can help you keep track of your resources so you have all the information you need to hand to help you reference correctly.
Time management
Many students inadvertently make mistakes due to a lack of time.
Good time management makes sure that you give yourself time to find good resources; take excellent notes and reference correctly in your work.
Watch this video in the Academic Integrity module in the Academic Skills space on Ultra for good time management tips.
Teamwork
Working collaboratively is a vital skill for study and work.
Watch this video in the Academic Integrity module in the Academic Skills space on Ultra for ways to work successfully in a team.
Critical thinking
Thinking critically about the resources you are using is key to a good assignment - whether it's a text-based or visual assignment.
Thinking about the material critically also encourages you to use it with integrity: whether that's by using correct referencing or by using the information itself honestly.
To watch the recording of our Critical Thinking workshops, go to the Study Skills video section in the Academic Skills space on Ultra
Strands of Academic Integrity
Research Integrity
Research Integrity means undertaking and conducting research in a way that makes sure it's trustworthy and ethical.
It's about applying rigour, high-standards, and professionalism to ensure the most robust and successful outcomes. It also includes a set of professional standards that researchers should adopt.
Here at BSU, we have developed processes and mechanisms that enable you to consider, articulate, and plan your projects in ways that are trustworthy, ethical, and enables the very best possible outcomes for you as a researcher and an academic scholar.
Our Research Support Office has created a step by step guide on SharePoint on how to get ethical approval for any research project. For advice and support, please contact the team at researchsupportoffice@bathspa.ac.uk.
If you're looking for further training around Research Integrity and Ethics, please check out the dedicated Research Ethics Training section on SharePoint.
Exam Integrity
You must complete any test or examination by yourself, unless the assessment brief requires you to complete the assessment with another student.
You may have agreed reasonable adjustments that include being accompanied or supported by another person (e.g. an amanuensis or scribe) or by GenAI, but your academic output will remain solely yours.
Unacceptable practice in a test or exam is the attempt to gain advantage for you and/or for another student/s and includes, but isn't limited to:
- Attempting to gain or gaining advance knowledge of the content of an examination or test before it is issued
- Attempting to communicate or communicating with other student/s or other individual (other than an invigilator or member of staff) during the assessment, including through technology and social media
- Attempting to copy, or copying from another student
- Allowing another student to copy or to attempt to copy from you
- Obtaining, or attempting to obtain, any other assistance from another student
- Using, or attempting to gain access to, any material or device not permitted as part of the assessment
- Impersonating another student or allowing another student or any other individual to impersonate you in the assessment
- Refusing to comply with a reasonable request made by a member of staff where they suspect potential cheating
- Any other action that you take with the intention of gaining unfair advantage.
Academic Integrity and Gen AI
We know that Gen AI will be used in the wider world and the workplace and it's important we help you make use of this new technology. It's up to your individual lecturers how much you can use AI in your work and they'll make this clear in your your assessment guidelines.
If you use AI when completing an assignment, you'll need to state how you used it and reference it both in the text (as an in-text citation) and in your reference list. Remember you mustn't directly copy assessment materials that have been AI generated as this will count as plagiarism.
Where can I get help?
If you're in any doubt about what constitutes good practice, what constitutes plagiarism, and how to reference correctly - we're here to support you.
- Speak to your tutor or academic advisor first. They'll be able to tell you the referencing style you need to follow.
- The Library has a 24/7 chat service for quick queries: find the link across all the Library pages.
- The Academic Skills (ASk) service run an online drop-in for referencing Mon-Fri, 12-1pm. Alternatively, you can email academicskills@bathspa.ac.uk with your referencing queries.