An investigation of publication status alternation of papers online first in China: Based on CNKI data from 2017 to 2019

[Purposes] This study aims to investigate the publication status alternation of papers online first and reveal how the Regulations for Alteration of Publication Status and Content Correction of Online Publications on CNKI (Regulations for short) is implemented. [Methods] Firstly, we retrieved the withdrawal declarations of papers online first marked with "withdrawal" on CNKI from 2017 to 2019. Secondly, we downloaded them and saved the documents after coding. Then, the file directories were imported into Endnote X9 (a kind of reference management software) for statistical analysis and the texts of declarations were input into NVivo 12 Plus (a type of qualitative data analysis software) for cause classification. Finally, we analyzed the subject distribution, source journals, and causes of the "withdrawal". [Findings] From 2017 to 2019, the publication statuses of 389 articles online first have been altered, with 310 withdrawn, 74 retracted, and 5 corrected. Among them, only 278 (71.47%) state specific causes in the withdrawal statements and the causes are academic misconduct (32), authorship (25), publishing errors (82), quality problems (118), and others (21). [Conclusions] The online-first articles have a high proportion (389/182654, 0.21%) of publication status alternation and a small percentage of them (6/389, 1.54%) have strictly complied with the requirements of the Regulations, as manifested by the missing or vague causes for the publication status alternation in the withdrawal statements and even the deliberately covered-up academic misconducts. Academic journal publishers and digital publishing platforms should enhance the process management and content review of papers published online first and further improve the transparency of the causes of publication status alternation, visibility of withdrawal declarations, and traceability of the "withdrawal" process.

Ensuring Academic Integrity in Online Assessments: A Literature Review and Recommendations

During the recent COVID-19 outbreak, educational institutions have transitioned to online teaching for all students for most of the programs. Due to lack of in-person interactions and monitoring, assessments in online courses may be more susceptible to contract cheating, collusion, fabrication and other types of academic misconduct than the assessments in face-to-face courses. This situation has raised several research questions that need immediate attention, such as what are the best possible options for online assessments and how to administer online assessments so that academic integrity could be preserved. The authors have conducted a scoping study and carried out an extensive literature review on i) different types of assessments that are suitable for online courses, ii) strategies for ensuring academic integrity, and iii) methods, tools and technologies available for preventing academic misconduct in online assessments. It is evident from the literature review that there are a range of options available for designing assessment tasks to detect and prevent violations of academic integrity. However, no single method or design is enough to eliminate all sorts of academic integrity violations. After thorough research and analysis of existing literature, the authors have provided a comprehensive set of recommendations that could be adopted for ensuring academic integrity in online assessments.

Explore the Impact of Technology on Chinese Student Academic Misconduct

This article discusses the relationship between students' honest behavior and science and technology from the perspective of science and technology. In the era of advanced science and technology, what strategies should schools take to prevent students' academic integrity. According to what reasons students choose to achieve higher academic achievement through academic misconduct, different methods are proposed to prevent students from academic misconduct. From the psychological point of view of three ways, education policy and high-tech means will effectively prevent cheating, so as to create a fair and just education environment.

Embedding a culture of academic integrity: A two-pronged approach

While universities have instituted use of various forms of technologies to help identify instances of academic integrity compromises, these tools are unable to detect cases where students get someone else to do their academic work for them. This paper discusses a two-stage approach to addressing academic integrity at a postgraduate business studies course where students were engaged in understanding what academic integrity means within their context and explore various forms of unethical behaviours. They were also made aware about various institutional policies and procedures for academic integrity breaches. This was followed with a post-assessment, ad-hoc feedback from students about their submitted work. Although a thorough evaluation is planned at a later stage, this paper shares some initial results about the effectiveness of this approach to countering academic misconduct behaviours. The paper will be of interest to other teaching academics interested in developing a culture of academic integrity.

Academic integrity in first-year nursing students: An intergrative review

Introduction: Studies relating specifically to first-year nursing students’ breaches of academic integrity are not readily identified within the literature. While work has, over the years reported on breaches in academic integrity, it has done so with many disciplines and varied student cohorts. Nevertheless, those that specifically relate to first-year nursing students are sparse. First-year undergraduate nursing students are generally included with the entire student nurse cohort, and not necessarily identified independently. Therefore, the integrative review aimed to discover how or if the incidence of plagiarism/cheating, specifically within first-year undergraduate nursing students, was addressed.Methods: An integrative review of the literature, incorporating quantitative and qualitative literature was undertaken between January 2021 – April 2021 using electronic data bases.Results: Ten studies met the inclusion criteria. From the review, six main themes were extrapolated, (1) blurred boundaries of caring; (2) navigating the ethical highway; (3) factors influencing academic misconduct (4) early intervention (5) academic integrity policies and procedures and (6) inconsistencies amongst academics.Conclusions: The integrative review has identified a shortfall in research relating to how academic integrity has been addressed in first-year nursing students.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on perceived publication pressure among academic researchers in Canada

The phenomenon of “publish-or-perish” in academia, spurred on by limited funding and academic positions, has led to increased competition and pressure on academics to publish. Publication pressure has been linked with multiple negative outcomes, including increased academic misconduct and researcher burnout. COVID-19 has disrupted research worldwide, leading to lost research time and increased anxiety amongst researchers. The objective of this study was to examine how COVID-19 has impacted perceived publication pressure amongst academic researchers in Canada. We used the revised Publication Pressure Questionnaire, in addition to Likert-type questions to discern respondents’ beliefs and concerns about the impact of COVID-19 on academic publishing. We found that publication pressure increased across academic researchers in Canada following the pandemic, with respondents reporting increased stress, increased pessimism, and decreased access to support related to publishing. Doctoral students reported the highest levels of stress and pessimism, while principal investigators had the most access to publication support. There were no significant differences in publication pressure reported between different research disciplines. Women and non-binary or genderfluid respondents reported higher stress and pessimism than men. We also identified differences in perceived publication pressure based on respondents’ publication frequency and other demographic factors, including disability and citizenship status. Overall, we document a snapshot of perceived publication pressure in Canada across researchers of different academic career stages and disciplines. This information can be used to guide the creation of researcher supports, as well as identify groups of researchers who may benefit from targeted resources.

Catching lightning in a bottle: Surveying plagiarism futures

The digitization of higher education is evolving academic misconduct, posing both new challenges to and opportunities for academic integrity and its research. The digital evidence inherent to online-based academic misconduct produces new avenues of replicable, aggregate, and data-driven (RAD) research not previously available. In a digital mutation of the misuse of unoriginal material, students are increasingly leveraging online learning platforms like CourseHero.com to exchange completed coursework. This study leverages a novel dataset recorded by the upload of academic materials on CourseHero.com to measure how at-risk sample courses are to potential academic misconduct. This study’s survey of exchanged coursework reveals that students are sharing a significant amount of academic material online that poses a direct danger to their courses’ academic integrity. This study’s approach to observing what academic material students are sharing online demonstrates a novel means of leveraging digitized academic misconduct to develop valuable insights for planning the mitigation of academic dishonesty and maintaining course academic integrity.

Digital academic dishonesty: A socio-psychological analysis

Introduction. The article presents a review of psychological studies aimed at analyzing digital academic dishonesty (academic misconduct with the use of the Internet). The socio-psychological specifics of digital academic dishonesty, which distinguishes it from traditional forms of academic dishonesty, have been studied quite fragmentally to date. The purpose of this study is to identify socio-psychological factors that determine the involvement of students in digital academic dishonesty in terms of digitalization of education. Materials and Methods. In order to achieve the research goal, we used the method of systematic review of research articles published in 1995-2021 and indexed in the databases ‘Scopus’ and ‘Web of Science’. According to the criteria (relevant keywords; availability of a detailed description of the research program, empirical results; Russian or English), 55 articles were included in the final array of analysis. Results. We identified individual-psychological and contextual-environmental factors of digital academic dishonesty. Individual psychological factors include: students’ attitudes towards digital academic dishonesty; students’ academic experience; students’ personal characteristics; socio-demographic characteristics of students. Contextual and environmental factors include: students’ attitude to the prevalence of digital academic dishonesty among peers; teachers’ attitude to digital academic dishonesty; institutional policy on digital academic dishonesty. Conclusions. The authors conclude that the socio-psychological risk factors for involving schoolchildren and students in digital academic dishonesty are their previous experience of academic dishonesty, the idea of the acceptability of this form of academic behavior, the lack of educational motivation and self-regulation, insufficient level of knowledge and information competence (individual psychological factors), as well as the prevalence of digital academic dishonesty in an educational institution with the background of the lack of an institutional policy to prevent digital academic dishonesty and relevant actions of teachers (contextual and environmental factors).

Self-Reported Academic Misconduct among Medical Students: Perception and Prevalence

Academic integrity is the basis of an education system and must be taught as an ethical behavior during academic training. Students who reflect honesty and truthfulness during the academic years are more likely to follow this path, develop professional integrity, and thus become responsible and dependable professionals. Here, we determine the prevalence of academic lapses among medical students by a cross-sectional descriptive survey based on a self-assessment questionnaire. Students’ perception of 37 behaviors comprising five domains, plagiarism, indolence, cheating, disruptive behavior, and falsifying data, were explored. A high percentage of students (83%) indicated that all 37 behaviors constitute misconduct. Approximately 65% of students thought that their fellow students were involved in dishonest behaviors, and 34% answered that they were indulged in some form of misconduct. Content analysis identified some prevalent behaviors such as doing work for another student (82.5%), getting information from the students who already took the exam (82.5%), copying the answer from neighbors (79%), and marking attendance for absent friends (74.5%). Multiple regression analysis points out that future indulgence in a behavior is significantly ( p ≤ 0.5 ) correlated with understanding a behavior as wrong, perceiving that others do it and whether one has already indulged in it. This study can serve as a diagnostic tool to analyze the prevalence of misconduct and a foothold to develop the medical school system’s ethical guidelines.