Academic (personal) Integrity

Students are often threatened with "Academic Integrity" violations.  As a professor, I encounter students who have violated the Academic Integrity policy more often than people realize.  In many situations, students do not realize they are exhibiting a lack of academic/personal integrity.  So, this blog will attempt to highlight some of the ways that these violations occur AND why it is important to safeguard your personal integrity.

One of the best ways to learn is by working with a small group.  As group members discuss various approaches and ideas, each person gets to figure out what they do and do not know.  However, even though a group may come up with a joint solution to a problem, it is the responsibility of each member to solve the problem on their own.  This ensures that mistakes are minimized AND that each person understands the way to solve the problem.  Too often in science, some group members assume that the group solution (or the solution of one person) is correct.  Part of what makes science unique is that scientists verify what they and others do at every opportunity.

This was observed on the Take-Home portion of the exam.  For example, many people used the same tangent line for #5.  From our class example, the odds are small that each person will draw the tangent line the same way.  This means each person's slope should be slightly different from everyone else's.  This is true for any experiment.  Even though the equipment and procedure may be the same, the exact measurements may not.  This ensures that when the results match from group to group, the procedure is valid.

A real-world example occurred with the Hubble Space Telescope when it was first in space.  Scientists could not get Hubble to focus on various stars.  It was eventually discovered that there was a discrepancy between two different quality assurance checks on how the mirror was machined.  Instead of verifying the results of the two checks, someone decided to pick one and everyone followed this decision.  It turns out that they selected the incorrect quality assurance check.  This led to extra expense and lost experimental time, not mention the people who lost their jobs because of this oversight and the company that went out of business because of their damaged reputation.  That is why it is important to agree on a solution, then have each person in the group verify the results on their own.  Otherwise, that person is not showing personal (and professional) integrity.  Yes, it is easier to follow a "group" result.  But, to safeguard the science process, each person is to question everyone's results, especially their own.

Another common example of academic integrity involve plagiarism.  This is related to the above "copying a solution" example.  Whenever scientists (and everyone in a science class is considered a scientist) present information to others, it is assumed that the work is theirs.  In fact, it is each scientists duty to report (via citations) any work that they used in developing their presentation.  However, simply copying another's work and re-presenting as their own is a lie.  Scientists are expected to do their own work and to build on the work of others, while acknowledging the efforts of others.  That is why it is important to cite any and all resources that do not come from an individual's own efforts and mind.  And, each scientist is to be every vigilant to instances of plagiarism.  There have been numerous occasions where people have lost their jobs and careers because they have presented the work of others as their own.

So, what does that mean in an introductory physics class? It means the same thing as every aspect of your life, or it should.  Are you lying to yourself or others by copying the work of others?  Are you taking the easy way out by not verifying the solution on your own?  Are you letting "grades"/grants seduce you into unethical behavior?  And, are you more afraid of failing than actually taking the risk to learn the material outright?  (This last one can be quite scary because it may tell you that you are not as good in an area that you need/want it to be.)  These are all questions that each student/scientist needs to ask and answer themselves.  As your instructor, I can try to educate you about personal/academic integrity.  I can even threaten to apply the Academic Integrity policy for each and every violation.  However, it is up to each person to decide if they will live an ethical life.  My hope is that each person routinely evaluates their behavior to follow a life-path that exhibits personal and professional integrity.

As with any post, feel free to comment on this post.