Academic Integrity in a Digital Age

Academic honesty can be said to underpin respect for and the development of knowledge (Fishman, 2014; Edussuriya, Marambe, Wanniarachchi & Ramanayake, 2014). As such, academic staff are to be honest in their research and in dealing with other staff and with students. Students undertaking studies in different disciplines have to be honest with themselves and with others in their personal ambitions, study and in their involvement in the assessment process.

Being honest is a personal choice not to lie, steal, cheat, or deceive in any way. Honesty is about telling the truth, whereas integrity is about the validity of the truth. In daily life, when one is honest, it means he/she is a person of integrity, is fair, frank, genuine, reputable, respectable, trustworthy, loyal and sincere. These are good values that everyone is striving to achieve and live with. During knowledge seeking students and staff have to be honest to each other (Fishman, 2014; Langa, 2013).

Honesty is deemed crucial ground for ethical behaviour in various aspects including the academic sphere (Langa, 2013). In any case, when talking about honesty, one might be in denial about existing reality. Honesty, therefore, is becoming an important characteristic in several professions and organisations. For example, in our communities, we need good people, including good teachers, good doctors, good police, good researchers and good citizens.

In the academic arena, punishment for being dishonest might include losing academic certification - and if it is an academic institution, losing its reputation. One of the causes might be honesty in dealing with different academic matters. Honest people in an organization will make sure that their organization gains a good reputation. In academic institutions honesty is a pre-requisite to the other four values. It is not unusual to hear that people are doing acts like cheating, lying, fraud, and theft. These acts are referred to as dishonest cases; they are found in academic and in real life situations. In academic, academic integrity is about truth and knowledge and thus requires intellectual and personal honesty in learning, teaching, research and services.

Honesty begins with you and extends to the larger community. Cultivating a culture of honesty in universities lays foundations for lifelong integrity. In universities therefore, there is a need to have policies and practices that send a clear message that providing false information, false data, lying, cheating, theft and other dishonest behavior are unacceptable. It is in the University where children are given opportunity to develop courage to make honest and ethical choices, even when at personal cost. This is a necessary step in establishing communities of trust. There are examples in universities where children would tell the truth to teachers regardless of the consequences they might face, which is healthy in creating a society that values all. Generally, honesty and integrity are intertwined.