Referencing and Academic Integrity
In this pod Dr Rachel Morley introduces some of the skills and knowledge you’ll need to successfully meet the university’s expectations regarding referencing and academic integrity. Watch the pod, try the quizzes, and do the reading to make sure your work falls on the right side of the university’s rules and procedures.
Referencing
At university every assignment you submit – whether it’s a report, essay or blog post (for example) – needs to be referenced. Referencing is a standardised way of acknowledging other people’s work and their influence on your academic research and writing. Knowing how to reference your assignments and how to accurately acknowledge the contribution of others will be at the heart of every single assignment you do, right from that very first submission. There’s no way of dodging it so it’s really important to take the time to learn how to reference in a way that is appropriate to the university context and to your discipline and degree. Failure to reference or poor referencing is a form of academic misconduct. You’ll also hear it referred to as plagiarism. It’s serious and it can get you into trouble so you don’t want to get caught on the wrong side of it!
In Communications we tend to use the APA (American Psychological Association) system for all assignment submissions. This style or method requires two key inclusions: in-text citations throughout your assignment, and a reference list at the end. Part of your job in your first semester of university will be to learn how to use APA and how to apply the system to your assignments.
The Library has a number of resources you should use when you’re doing your work to ensure it abides by the codes and rules set out by the uni. To get started, you’ll need to download and/or print out the university’s APA Reference Style Guide. Follow this guide and allow yourself the necessary time when you’re doing your assignments to apply the rules to avoid losing valuable marks. You should also consult the resources at the end of this page and make the time to learn how the university’s rules and expectations around academic referencing and integrity affect you.
What is Academic Integrity – and Academic Misconduct?
Academic integrity is about being honest when it comes to carrying out your academic work. It means doing your research and writing up your assignments carefully and responsibly in a way that’s in keeping with the rules of the broader academic community. When it comes to referencing, students who act with integrity are conscientious about following referencing rules, they acknowledge the contributions of others, and they understand the balance between integrating their own ideas and studies with the literature or associated scholarly readings. Academic misconduct, meanwhile, relates to behaviours and actions that compromise the standards and integrity of academic study and the scholarly community.
Academic misconduct is the opposite of acting with integrity. Examples of academic misconduct include plagiarism, collusion, cheating, buying essays online, and recycling and resubmitting essays from different units. We use Turnitin, an anti-plagiarism software, to help identify instances where students have not acted with integrity but there are other ways of identifying cases too. Make sure you don’t get caught by taking the time to do the right thing. You can use this checklist to help you stay on course.
FOLLOW-UP READING
Quizzes
Everyone loves a quiz! Check how much you know (and don’t know) about referencing, plagiarism and academic integrity.
How well do you know plagiarism?
Academic Integrity: (This quiz is from RMIT but the same rules apply at Western too)
Referencing and Academic Integrity Resources
Western Sydney University referencing and citation guide
Academic integrity and plagiarism (Study Smart)
Academic integrity FAQs
Referencing and citation
Paraphrasing
Quoting
Academic integrity and plagiarism checklist
Western Sydney University Academic Misconduct Rule
TURNITIN
Turnitin is the university’s anti-plagiarism software and most of your units will ask you to use it. Watch the videos on this page to learn about how you can use Turnitin to help improve your work – and how your academics will use it to help identify the times when students aren’t doing the right thing.