Are you striving for irreproachable intellectual integrity? This objective will contribute to your academic success and help develop your managerial skills.
This page introduces you to the good practices and resources that will help you achieve your goals, while making it possible for you to avoid situations that would put you at risk of committing an academic violation.
Take time to understand the concept of intellectual integrity by visiting the following page: Intellectual Integrity at HEC Montréal. It provides the definition, explains the related issues and describes the School’s actions in this regard.
Also learn which behaviors are deemed unethical, the sanctions they may invite for you, and the procedures for reviewing violations. The academic violations page summarizes the information contained in the Regulation regarding the intellectual integrity of students.
A doubt about an assignment to be submitted? A question regarding methodology? Don’t hesitate to talk to your professors. Their solid expertise equips them to handle matters of intellectual integrity! They will be able to give you the best advice and guide you towards the resources you need.
Teamwork and collaborations sometimes give rise to academic violations.
Advice
It is normal for students to exchange ideas in the course of their learning process. But an individual assignment should be the result of the efforts and learning of the person writing it.
Two people who collaborate on an individual assignment may commit an academic violation without being aware of it. For example, this can happen if they both contribute to the achievement of results, by sharing their files or by continuing their discussions until there is consensus on the exact approach and response. In such a case, it is no longer an individual assignment: a part of one student’s work has been done by the other student.
A doubt? Discuss it with your teachers: they will be able to specify the conditions for an acceptable collaboration.
Please note!
Some behaviors are easily identifiable as unethical (cheating, for example). But other academic violations are less obvious and may be committed unintentionally.
The guide Citing your sources is available at the School library. It will teach you why, when and how to cite. This guide is full of examples and practical advice.
You think you know everything about citing properly? Or, do you perhaps doubt your knowledge? The library gives you the chance to evaluate your practices and modify them as needed.
Lack of preparation, disorganization, poor concentration, psychological problems: these factors may explain why some people adopt unethical behavior, especially during exams.
Student Services provides you with many study support tools. These practical tools will help you prepare for these challenges and become more efficient.
The main topics are as follows:
HEC Montréal's psychological support professionals provide students with free and confidential services including psychological evaluation, references, and where possible, short-term counseling.
Grounds for intellectual integrity-related counselling:
Find out about psychological support services
In each of your courses and for each type of evaluation, check with your teacher to find out whether students are permitted to use an artificial intelligence tool and, if so, to what extent or under what conditions. If you use an artificial intelligence tool without their permission, it could be considered an academic violation (Sections 2.1 and 8.3 of the Regulation on student intellectual integrity).
If you use content generated by an artificial intelligence tool for an evaluation, you must clearly disclose this by citing your source. Subject to future APA guidance, here is how to quote when using an artificial intelligence tool:
Do the same thing if you use different artificial intelligence tools.
Be sure to detail the nature of your contribution in relation to the AI-generated content and specify the prompts or instructions provided to the tool. You must be able to take a position and think critically about the content used. Remember that artificial intelligence does not in any way replace your judgement, your ability to solve complex problems, your communication skills, or your expertise.
Keep in mind that there are limits to AI chatbots—while very powerful, they are also imperfect. It is important to understand that such tools can also produce incorrect or biased answers based on the data on which they were trained. Get into the habit of double checking answers against other sources.
Based loosely on the article by Ethan Mollick and Lilach Mollick, “Why All Our Classes Suddenly Became AI Classes.” Harvard Business Publishing Education, February 8, 2023.
