What your Academic Integrity Officer wants you to know about reporting misconduct

As well as playing a key role in the suspected academic integrity breach process, Academic Integrity Officers (AIO’s) are an invaluable source of advice and support for you about all things academic integrity breach management.

With this in mind, we asked five of our experienced AIO’s for their top tip on reporting suspected academic integrity breaches. Here’s what they said:

Deborah Howlett, Macquarie Business School:

There’s no magical number on the Turnitin Report for when you should or shouldn’t submit an allegation of an academic integrity breach. Plagiarism is plagiarism, no matter how much of it there is.

Naomi Sweller, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences:

To speed the process up, we need the correct information at the time of reporting. Documents like the raw assessment item, the Turnitin Report and the students ID number really help.

Morwenna Kirwan, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences:

For cases of collusion or contract cheating, it’s useful if you provide your suspicions or gut feeling in the comments section on the online form. A bit of context goes a long way!

Andrew Jackson, Macquarie University College:

Speak to your students in your lectures, classes, or tutorials about what plagiarism, collusion and contract cheating is. A lot of students don’t know the use of sites like Chegg are not acceptable academic practice.

Riley O’Keeffe, Academic Integrity Project Manager and University AIO:

Contract cheating is quite difficult to detect, but you must be looking for it. Research suggests that on average 1/10 students contract their assignments. How many have you found?

There are policies, procedures, an online Feedback, Complaints and Misconduct reporting system and of course, AIO’s to support you in the reporting of suspected academic integrity breaches. Please use these resources to uphold the values of academic integrity in your classrooms and teaching environments.

Submitting a breach of academic integrity for plagiarism?

It helps to speed up the process if you submit:

• The student’s original submitted work that has been identified for alleged misconduct,
• Screenshots, URL links or copies of the source that the student has plagiarised from,
• Side by side comparison of plagiarised work and the original source,
• Turnitin similarity report (if available), and
• The assessment instructions.

Submitting a breach of academic integrity for collusion?

It helps to speed up the process if you submit:

• The student’s original submitted work that has been identified for alleged misconduct,
• The other student’s submitted work. No names should be redacted,
• Side by side comparison of plagiarised work and the original source,
• Turnitin similarity report (if available), and
• The Assessment instructions.

Submitting a breach of academic integrity for contract cheating?

It helps to speed up the process if you submit:

• The student’s original submitted work that has been identified for alleged misconduct,
• Comparative pieces of work to show the difference in written technique and styles (i.e. other essays, assignments, written exams or tests),
• A comment from you that explains why it is suspected that the student has not produced the work in question. The comments should contain images/screenshots of the student’s work with supporting explanations to evidence the suspicion (i.e. this piece of coding was not taught in class etc.),
• Turnitin similarity report (if available), and
• The Assessment instructions.

Useful links

• Previous Academic Integrity article: The role of teaching staff and using the new tool
• Staff Academic Integrity Module: Advanced
• Staff Academic Integrity Module: Foundation