Academic Integrity Risks Beyond Plagiarism
A low similarity score can feel reassuring when an assignment is nearly finished. The report can show where your text matches existing sources. To judge whether your work meets academic integrity requirements, you also need to know who did the work, how the evidence was collected and what help was allowed.
The International Center for Academic Integrity (ICAI) identifies honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility and courage as its six fundamental values. In practice, your submission should give a clear account of your own contribution and acknowledge the work and assistance you drew on.
Read the similarity report in context
Start with the passages the report highlights. A match may be a quotation you have cited correctly. It may also show that a paraphrase follows the original wording too closely. The percentage gives you a starting point for checking these passages.
An assignment written from scratch by someone else may produce very few matches. Submitting that work as your own is a form of contract cheating, whether you paid for it or asked someone to do it as a favour. The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) highlights the difficulty of detecting this kind of work through text matching alone.
Check the rules on collaboration and reuse
Discussing a lecture or sharing a reading with a classmate is a normal part of university study. Once an assessment requires individual work, drafting answers together or using each other’s text may count as collusion, or unauthorised collaboration. Check the assessment brief before sharing a draft or working through the questions with someone else.
Your own earlier work is also subject to the assessment rules. Resubmitting an assignment or a substantial part of it without disclosure may be treated as recycling work or self-plagiarism. If your new assignment builds on earlier research, check whether your institution permits the reuse and how it expects you to acknowledge it.
Make your data and sources verifiable
Research integrity depends on an accurate account of what you did and what you found. Reporting interviews that never took place or inventing survey responses is fabrication. Changing data or leaving out results to make the findings look better can amount to falsification. Keep a record of how you collected and analysed your data, and explain why you excluded any results.
Give your references the same attention. A citation suggested by an automated tool can look convincing even when the publication is fictitious. Open the source, check the publication details and confirm that it supports the claim you are making.
Check what the assessment allows you to do with AI
Some assessments allow generative AI for language support or planning. Others allow particular uses if you disclose them, while some require you to work without it. Check the institution’s policy and the instructions for the specific assessment before using a tool.
Australia’s Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) notes that submitting AI-generated text without acknowledgement may fall within the definition of plagiarism in some circumstances. If your assessment requires disclosure, record how you used AI as you work so you can describe its role accurately when you submit.
Five questions to ask before submitting
A missing citation, a close paraphrase or a draft shared with a classmate can begin with an oversight. Even an unintentional error can have academic consequences. Ask these questions when you start an assignment and revisit them before submitting.
- Which parts of the work must I complete myself, and what help can I accept?
- Have I acknowledged the sources I quoted, paraphrased or used to develop my ideas?
- Can I show where my data came from and explain how I analysed them?
- Am I allowed to reuse any earlier work, and have I acknowledged it as required?
- What uses of AI or other support tools are permitted, and what must I disclose?
How Swiss Academic Support can help
Swiss Academic Support (SAS) can help you interpret a similarity report, review citations and paraphrasing, and check academic formatting. It can also help you identify questions to raise with your institution about reusing earlier work, getting outside assistance or using AI.
SAS provides guidance before submission. You are responsible for producing your own work, verifying your data and references, and declaring any assistance as required. Your institution applies its academic integrity policy and makes the final decision in any academic misconduct case.
References
International Center for Academic Integrity. (2021). The fundamental values of academic integrity (3rd ed.). ICAI.
Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education. (2022). Contracting to cheat in higher education: How to address essay mills and contract cheating (3rd ed.). QAA.
Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency. (2026). Academic integrity toolkit. TEQSA.
Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency. (2023). Guidance note: Academic and research integrity. TEQSA.
