Glossary of Terms

Abetting

Abetting refers to supporting or assisting someone in the “achievement of a purpose,” especially when that purpose is illegal or unsanctioned. 

Accuracy

Accuracy refers to “freedom from mistake or error – correctness.” It can also refer to “conformity to truth or to a standard or model.” 

Acknowledgement

Acknowledgement refers to the act of acknowledging or giving recognition for an accomplishment, act or achievement.

Appropriate

Something is appropriate when it is: suitable, compatible or fitting for a particular occasion, circumstance or set of guide lines. 

Attribute

With regards to academic integrity, to attribute means to give credit or acknowledgement to those we have borrowed from in the completion of our work.

Authority

With regards to academic integrity, one consults or cites an authority in the construction of arguments and theories to ensure one’s work is valid and credible. The authority refers to “the source from which the citation is drawn.”

Bibliography

A bibliography is the list of “works referred to in a text or consulted by the author in its production.”

Breach

A breach is generally used to refer to an “infraction or violation of a law, obligation, tie, or standard.”

Cheat

To cheat is “to practice fraud or trickery.” It is “to violate rules dishonestly.”

Citation

A citation is “an act of quoting” or giving acknowledgement in a text for work or ideas that have been borrowed from another.

Collaboration

To work jointly with others or together especially in an intellectual endeavor.

Collusion

Collusion refers to a “secret agreement or cooperation especially for an illegal or deceitful purpose.”

Concoct

To concoct is to prepare something by combining various materials. It is often used to describe the creation of something through deceit or dishonest fabrication.

Convention

A convention is “a rule of conduct or behavior.” It also refers to a general usage or custom in social matters.

Convince

To convince to “demonstrate, prove” or to engender belief.

Correspond

When two or more things correspond it is because they either “compare closely,” match or are equivalent.

Credible

Something is credible when one has offered “reasonable grounds for being believed.”

Credit

With regards to academic integrity, to give credit is to acknowledge or give recognition to others for their work.

Demonstrate

To demonstrate is “to show clearly.” It is to “prove or make clear by reasoning or evidence.”

Differentiate

To differentiate is to understand or demonstrate difference between two or more things.

Dishonesty

Dishonesty refers to a “lack of honesty or integrity.” It is the “disposition to defraud or deceive.”

Dissemination

Dissemination refers to the act of dispersing thoroughly and throughout.

Documentation

Documentation is the act of providing “factual or substantial support for statements made or a hypothesis proposed,” especially “to equip with exact references.”

Ethical

Something can be regarded as ethical when “conforming to accepted standards of conduct” or moral principles.

Evidence

Evidence refers to the providing of proof or testimony.

Fabrication

Fabrication is the act of constructing or creating something. It often refers to fabrication of falsehood.

Falsification

With regards to academic integrity, falsification refers to misrepresentation or the act of making something false through “mutilation or addition.”

Honesty

Honesty refers to “fairness and straightforwardness of conduct,” “adherence to the facts” or “sincerity.”

Impersonation

Impersonation is the act of pretending to be someone else often with the intent to deceive.

Indicate

To indicate is “to point out or point to.” It is also “to demonstrate or suggest the necessity or advisability of” a particular matter at hand.

Inefficient

Something is inefficient when it is not “producing the effect intended or desired.” It is often used to refer to the speed at which a goal is being attained.

Integrity

Integrity refers to “firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values.” With regard to academic integrity, it refers to adherence to the codes and values of the university concerning honesty in one’s work.

Librarian

A librarian is a “specialist in the care or management of a library.”

Methodology

A methodology pertains to a “body of methods, rules, and postulates employed by a discipline.” It refers to “a particular procedure or set of procedures.”

Misrepresentation

To misrepresent is to “give a false or misleading representation.” This can be either intentional or unintentional.

Paraphrase

A paraphrase is the restatement of a text or passage that retains the original meaning. One paraphrases when one borrows another’s ideas and phrases them in their own words.

Penalty

A penalty is the punishment one is subjected to for the non-fulfillment of a stipulation, law or rule.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is an umbrella term used to refer to many different forms of academic dishonesty. This includes, but is not limited to, stealing someone’s ideas or words without proper citation or credit.

Policy

A policy is a “definite course or method of action to guide and determine present and future decisions.” It also refers to  “general goals and acceptable procedures.”

Publication

A publication refers to “a published work.”

Qualification

A qualification is “a restriction in meaning or application.” It refers to a condition or exclusion that must be met in order for something else to occur.

Quote

To quote is to use or borrow the words, ideas, data or images of another with proper acknowledgement or credit. When exact words are borrowed, this is done through the use of quotation marks.

Reference

A reference directs a reader to “another source of information” similar to a citation. References can refer to several citations or, like a bibliography, a list of “works referred to in a text or consulted by the author in its production.”

Representation

Representation refers to a visual or verbal depiction of an object, person or place.

Requirement

A requirement is something that is “wanted or needed” – a necessary condition – for the fulfillment of something else.

Signal

A signal refers to a notification, gesture, word or action used to communicate a message.

Source

A source refers to an origin of quoted material. One can also source a piece of work by ensuring all borrowed materials are properly referenced or cited.

Strategy

A strategy refers to “a careful plan or method” in moving towards a goal.

Submit

To submit is “to yield to governance or authority” (such as the University’s policy on academic integrity) or to present to another one’s work or qualifications for review (such as handing in a paper to a professor).

Unauthorized

Something is unauthorized when it is against the rules, law, standard procedure or when proper permission has not been granted.

Valid

Something is valid when it is “well-grounded or justifiable.”

Verbatim

When one quotes an author verbatim, they quote the original author’s exact words – they quote word for word.

Verify

To verify is to “establish the truth, accuracy, or reality of” something. It is to establish its proof.

Violate

To break or disregard the law, a rule or set of guidelines is to violate them.