The research process on the Extended Essay: Academic Honesty

Singapore International School, guided by the philosophy of the IB, places great value on the ethical qualities of personal integrity and academic honesty. Academic honesty is expected of all members of the school community; students, faculty, administration and parents. We are guided in our expectations and practices by two of the Learner Profile attributes which describe students as:

PRINCIPLED: They act with integrity and honesty, with a strong sense of fairness, justice and respect for the dignity of the individual, groups and communities. They take responsibility for their own actions and the consequences that accompany them.

 REFLECTIVE: They give thoughtful consideration to their own learning and experience. They are able to assess and understand their strengths and limitations in order to support their learning and personal development.

It is the policy of Singapore International School that:

• All Diploma Programme students understand the basic meaning and significance of academic honesty
• All work produced by Diploma Programme students is their own, authentic work
• All such authentic work has the ideas and words of others fully acknowledged
• Students understand and obey the rules relating to proper conduct of examinations
• Students understand the difference between collaboration and collusion, and that it is unacceptable to present work arrived at through a process of collusion
• The policy refers to all assignments set and completed in school or at home, ranging from basic pieces of homework to formal assessments required by the IB
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The aim of this policy is to:

• Promote good academic practice and a school culture that actively encourages academic honesty
•  Enable students to understand what constitutes academic honesty and dishonesty
•  Encourage students to look to their teachers, supervisors and coordinator for support when completing assessed work in order to prevent any possible form of malpractice (See page 6 for further details)
•  Ensure that students understand the importance of acknowledging accurately and honestly all ideas and work of others
•  Explain to students that they have an important role in ensuring that their work is ‘academically honest’
•  Impart to students that plagiarism is a serious academic offence for which Copenhagen International School shows no tolerance
•  Explain to students precisely what sanctions will be imposed should they be found guilty of malpractice.

Academic honesty refers to:

• Proper conduct in relation to the conduct of examinations
•  The full acknowledgement of the original authorship and ownership of creative material
•  The production of ‘authentic’ pieces of work
•  The protection of all forms of intellectual property – which include forms of intellectual and creative expression, as well as patents, registered designs, trademarks, moral rights and copyright

Academic Dishonesty, therefore, involves:

• Plagiarism

• Collusion ·
•  Duplication of work
•  All forms of malpractice

What is ‘Malpractice’?

Malpractice is behaviour that results in, or may result in the candidate or any other candidate gaining an unfair advantage in one or more assessment component.

Malpractice may include:

• Plagiarism: The representation of the ideas or work of another as the candidate’s own
•  Collusion: Supporting malpractice by another candidate – allowing one’s work to be copied or submitted for assessment by another
•  Duplication of work: The presentation of the same work for different parts of the diploma. (An example would involve submitting the same piece of work for a History Extended Essay and the History internal assessment)

Malpractice also includes:

• Making up data for an assignment
•  Falsifying a CAS record
•  Taking unauthorized material into the examination room, including a mobile phone, an electronic device, own rough paper, notes … 
• Misbehaving during an exam, including any attempt to disrupt the examination or distract another candidate
•  Copying the work of another candidate
•  Referring to or attempting to refer to, unauthorized material that is related to the examination
•   Failing to comply with the instructions of the invigilator or other member of the school’s staff responsible for the conduct of an examination
•  Impersonating another candidate
• Including offensive material in a script
•  Stealing examination papers
•  Disclosing or discussing the content of an examination paper with a person outside the immediate community within 24 hours after the examination 
• Using an unauthorized calculator during an examination
•  Concealing and/or using unauthorized software on a graphic calculator, particularly, but not only, during examinations

· Collusion/Collaboration

 Collaboration involves working together with other students. There are occasions where collaboration with other candidates is permitted or actively encouraged. Nevertheless, the final work must be produced independently, despite the fact that it may be based on similar data. This means that the abstract, introduction, content, conclusion or summary of a piece of work must be written in each candidate’s own words and cannot therefore be the same as another candidate’s. Working together is collaboration. Copying someone else’s work is collusion. Even if you have ‘collaborated’ with another student, the work you present must be your own. Collusion is malpractice and will be penalized.

 · Plagiarism

 Plagiarism is passing off someone else’s work, writing, thoughts, visuals, graphics, music and ideas as your own. Plagiarized work is work which fails to acknowledge the sources which it uses or upon which it is based. Plagiarism is a clear breach of academic honesty. It is also a criminal offence.

What is paraphrasing?

Paraphrasing is writing a piece of text out in your own words. You are allowed to do this, but you must acknowledge the source you have used

How can I make sure that I am not plagiarizing material?

• The simplest method of avoiding plagiarism is to honestly, accurately and clearly acknowledge, by references in the body of your work, and/or in a bibliography at the end, each and every piece of material you used in the production of your work.
•  All ideas and work of other persons, regardless of their source, must be acknowledged
•  CD Rom, email messages, web sites on the Internet and any other electronic media must be treated in the same way as books and journals 
• The sources of all photographs, maps, illustrations, computer programs, data, graphs, audio-visual and similar material must be acknowledged
•  Passages that are quoted verbatim must be enclosed within quotation marks and references provided
•  All works of art, film, dance, music, theatre arts or visual arts must have their source/origin acknowledged
•  Always use Turnitin in accordance with the school’s regulations.
• Material cannot be paraphrased without acknowledging the source The SIS Library libguides contains links to sites that give detailed instructions on citing sources using different styles such as APA, MLA, Chicago and more. Many of the sites also provide information on grammar and mechanics. Singapore International School prefers the use of the MLA 8 style when acknowledging sources.