Guerrero-Dib et al. International Journal for Educational Integrity
https://doi.org/10.1007/s40979-020-0051-3(2020) 16:2

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

International Journal for
Educational Integrity

Open Access

Impact of academic integrity on workplace
ethical behaviour
Jean Gabriel Guerrero-Dib1* , Luis Portales1* Correspondence: jean.guerrero@udem.edu.mx
1
Universidad de Monterrey, Av.
Ignacio Morones Prieto 4500, 66238
San Pedro Garza García, Nuevo
León, Mexico
Full list of author information isavailable at the end of the article

and Yolanda Heredia-Escorza2

Abstract
Corruption is a serious problem in Mexico and the available information regarding thelevels of academic dishonesty in Mexico is not very encouraging. Academic integrity isessential in any teaching-learning process focussed on achieving the highest standardsof excellence and learning. Promoting and experiencing academic integrity within theuniversity context has a twofold purpose: to achieve the necessary learnings and skills
to appropriately perform a specific profession and to develop an ethical perspective
which leads to correct decision making. The objective of this study is to explore therelationship between academic integrity and ethical behaviour, particularly workplace
behaviour. The study adopts a quantitative, hypothetical and deductive approach. A
questionnaire was applied to 1203 college students to gather information regarding
the frequency in which they undertake acts of dishonesty in different environments
and in regards to the severity they assign to each type of infraction. The results reflectthat students who report committing acts against academic integrity also report being
involved in dishonest activities in other contexts, and that students who consider
academic breaches less serious, report being engaged in academic misconduct more
frequently in different contexts. In view of these results, it is unavoidable to reflect on
the role that educational institutions and businesses can adopt in the development ofprogrammes to promote a culture of academic integrity which: design educational
experiences to foster learning, better prepare students to fully meet their academic
obligations, highlight the benefits of doing so, prevent the severity and consequencesof dishonest actions, discourage cheating and establish clear and efficient processes tosanction those students who are found responsible for academic breaches.
Keywords: Academic integrity, Academic misconduct, Higher education, Workplace
behaviour, Work environment, Compliance, Ethics, Latin America, Mexico

Introduction
Corruption and dishonesty are deeply rooted problems and have a long history in many
countries and communities and Mexico is no exception. There is usually more attention
given to corrupt activities perpetrated by government authorities and public officers. The
fact that many of these instances of corruption are carried out with the collusion ofprivate sector businesses and individuals is largely ignored. Private citizens themselves areusually involved in corrupt activities where they can gain a personal benefit through theabuse of their position of power or authority (Rose-Ackerman and Palifka 2016).
Rose-Ackerman and Palifka (2016) affirm that personal ethical standards are one of
the three categories of causes that promote corruption. This moral “compass” develops© The Author(s). 2020 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, andindicate if changes were made.

Guerrero-Dib et al. International Journal for Educational Integrity(2020) 16:2

through a long and complex educational process which starts at home and, we could
say, ends with death. Education becomes one of the key elements in the global strategy
for the promotion of a culture of integrity and the fight against corruption. It is difficult
to think that education can contribute efficiently if the phenomenon of academic
dishonesty exists within the educational sphere. To develop a moral compass, it is notenough to know what has to be done, it is essential to do good (Amilburu 2005).
In almost every educational system in the world, it is a widely held view that all
people must receive mandatory basic education, thus, almost all children and youths
are subject to experience -or not experience- academic integrity during their education,a period that is long enough to develop habits. Daily behaviours during these mainly
formative years may be considered as the standard that can perpetuate itself over time
(Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo 2015).
In addition to the work carried out by the basic educational system, the university
must fully form and develop the moral vision and purpose of its students, since it is
not possible to consider professional education separate from ethical formation. Beinga professional must include not only mastery of technical, practical and/or theoreticalcompetencies, but also personal integrity and ethical professional behaviour that helps
to give an ethical meaning to all university endeavours (Bolívar 2005). In so doing, academic
integrity is necessary to learn and an essential requirement of academic quality.
Academic integrity is much more than avoiding dishonest practices such as copying
during exams, plagiarizing or contract cheating; it implies an engagement with learningand work which is well done, complete, and focused on a good purpose – learning. It
also involves using appropriate means, genuine effort and good skills. Mainly it implies
diligently taking advantage of all learning experiences. From this perspective, experiencing and promoting academic integrity in the university context has a twofold purpose:achieving the learning intended to develop the necessary competencies and skills for a
specific profession and, more importantly, developing an ethical perspective for principled decision making applicable to any context (Bolívar 2005).
Orosz et al. (2018) identified a strong relationship between academic dishonesty and thelevel of corruption of a country. Other studies (Blankenship and Whitley 2000; Harding
et al. 2004; Laduke 2013; Nonis and Swift 2001; Sims 1993) demonstrate that students
who engage in dishonest activities in the academic context, particularly undergraduate
students, are more likely to demonstrate inappropriate behaviours during their professional life and vice versa.
From this point of view one can say that: the individual who is used to cheating incollege, has a higher probability of doing so in the professional and work fields (Harding
et al. 2004; Payan et al. 2010; Sims 1993).
Taking these studies in other parts of the world as a reference, the objective of thecurrent work is to determine the relationship between the most frequent academic
dishonesty practices, or lack of academic integrity amongst college students, and theirpredisposition to demonstrate ethical behaviour at work and in their daily lives within
the Mexican context.
This research paper is divided into four sections. The first one presents a brief review
of literature on academic integrity, academic dishonesty and its relationship with workplace ethical behaviour. The second section presents the methodology followed during
the study, considering the design and validation of the instrument, data gathering, andPage 2 of 18

Guerrero-Dib et al. International Journal for Educational Integrity(2020) 16:2

the generation of academic dishonesty and ethical behaviour indexes. The third section
shows the results of the analysis and its discussion. The last section displays a series ofconclusions for the research presented, as well as its limitations and scope.

Literature review
Academic integrity

According to Bosch and Cavallotti (2016), the term integrity has four common elementsthat are included in the different ways to describe it: justice, coherence, ethical principles
and appropriate motivation. Thus, a definition in accordance to this concept would be toact with justice and coherence, following ethical principles and a motivation focused ongood purposes. In the educational context, academic integrity could be understood as the
habit of studying and carrying out academic work with justice and coherence, seeking tolearn and to be motivated by the service that this learning can provide others. However,there has been a wide variety of interpretations about this concept (Fishman 2016).
The International Center for Academic Integrity (ICAI), conceptualizes academic
integrity as a series of basic principles which are the foundation for success in any
aspect of life and represent essential elements that allow achievement of the necessary
learning which enable the future student to face and overcome any personal and professional challenges (International Center for Academic Integrity 2014).
Academic integrity is considered a fundamental quality for every academic endeavour,
essential in any teaching-learning process focused on achieving the highest standards of
excellence and learning and thus, it must represent a goal to which every academic institution, seriously engaged in quality, must aspire to (Bertram-Gallant 2016). Enacting academic
integrity means taking action with responsibility, honesty, respect, trust, fairness, and couragein any activity related to academic work and avoiding any kind of cheating or dishonest
action even when the work is especially difficult (International Center for Academic Integrity2014).
The current approaches to academic integrity provide ideas offering a conceptual framework, but there is still the need to specify concrete academic integrity behaviours characteristic of students such as: speaking the truth, complying with classes and assignments,
carrying out activities by their own efforts, following the instructions given, providing
answers on exams with only the material approved, citing and giving credit to others’ work,and collaborating fairly during teamwork assignments (Hall and Kuh 1998; Von Dran et al.
2001). To these “observable” behaviours we must add a condition: that they must be preceded by the desire to learn in order to call them genuine manifestations of academic integrity (Olt 2002; Sultana 2018).
Despite the importance of the academic integrity concept, in most cases it is common
to find an explanation of the concept in more negative terms that refers to behaviours
that should be avoided. The general idea expressed in most honor codes is that academic integrity is to do academic work avoiding dishonesty, fraud or misconduct.

Dishonesty and academic fraud

Stephens (2016) argues that the problem of cheating is endemic and is at the root of
human nature, thus it should not be surprising that it occurs. It is a strategy, conscious
or not, used by humans to solve a problem. However, recognizing that cheating has

Page 3 of 18

Guerrero-Dib et al. International Journal for Educational Integrity(2020) 16:2

always existed should not foster a passive and pessimistic attitude since human beings
have a conscience that enables them to discern ethical behaviours from those that arenot.
Understanding the phenomenon of dishonesty is important since the strategies used
to try to counteract it will depend on this. For example, if dishonesty is considered a
genetic disorder that some people suffer, the way to deal with it would be to identify
those who suffer from it, supervise them, segregate them and/or try to “treat” them. If
it is a common deficiency that everyone experiences to a greater or smaller degree,other kinds of tactics should be used to counteract it (Ariely 2013).
In general terms, there are different types of academic dishonesty that may begrouped into four major categories: Copying. Copying or attempting to copy from a classmate during an examination

or assessment.
 Plagiarism. Copying, paraphrasing or using another author’s ideas without citing or

giving the corresponding credit to them.
 Collusion. Collaboration with someone else’s dishonesty, and includes not reporting

dishonest actions which have been witnessed. The most representative actions of
this type of misconduct are: submitting assignments on behalf of classmates,
allowing others to copy from you during an exam and including the names ofpeople who did not participate in teamwork assignments or projects.
 Cheating. Among the most common actions in this category we find: using notes,
technology or other forbidden materials during an exam; including non-consulted
references; inventing or making up data in assignments or lab reports; contract
cheating; distributing or commercializing exams or assignments; submitting apocryphal documents; impersonating another student’s identity; stealing exams; altering
grades; bribing individuals to improve grades.
The list is not exhaustive since it does not include every possible type of dishonesty.
Every situation creates unique circumstances and different nuances so it should not
be surprising that the emergence of “new” ways to threaten academic integrity arise(Bertram-Gallant 2016). Students’ creativity and the continual development of technology will cause different manifestations of academic fraud (Gino and Ariely 2012), a
fact that has been documented in university contexts in the past.
The results of recent research show that 66% of students have engaged in some typeof academic misconduct at least once during their university education (Lang 2013).
There are similar results in other studies carried out around the world. In the Mexican
case, 84% of students in a Mexican university have witnessed a dishonest action during
their education (UDEM 2018), and 6 out of 10 at another university have engaged insome kind of copying (UNAM 2013). In Colombia, a private university reported that
63% of the students accepted the addition of the name of a classmate that did notcollaborate actively on a team assignment (EAFIT 2016). In England, half of thestudents would be willing to buy an assignment (Rigby et al. 2015). In Ukraine, 82% of
students have used non-authorized support during exams (Stephens et al. 2010). While
in China, 71% of students at one university admit to having copied a homework assignment from his/her classmates (Ma et al. 2013).

Page 4 of 18

Guerrero-Dib et al. International Journal for Educational Integrity(2020) 16:2

Academic dishonesty and its relationship with the lack of ethical professional behaviour

Establishing a relationship between the level of corruption in a country and the level ofacademic dishonesty in its educational institutions is a difficult task to carry out sincefraud and corruption have many different forms and causes, particularly in complex
contexts such as the social dynamics of a country (International Transparency 2017).
However, it can be established that academic dishonesty is a manifestation of a culture
in which it is easy and common to break rules and where integrity is not as valued as itshould be. Under this logic, it is possible to establish a certain relationship between apoor civic culture and academic dishonesty (García-Villegas et al. 2016).
This poor civic culture tends to be reflected in the daily activities of the citizens,particularly within organizations, where a relationship between students who cheat andunethical behaviour in the workplace has been identified (Winrow 2015). From thispoint of view, integrity and ethical behaviour, expressed in different terms such as decision making, conflict resolution or accountability, is one of the competencies mostrequested by employers (Kavanagh and Drennan 2008) and one of the critical factors
needed to efficiently develop inter-organizational relationships of trust (Connelly et al.
2018). This is the reason behind the study, the understanding of this relationship.
A study carried out with 1051 students from six North American universities
concluded that students who considered academic dishonesty as acceptable tended toengage in such activities and the same individuals tended to show unethical behaviour
later during their professional lives (Nonis and Swift 2001). In another study withEngineering students, it was found that those who self-reported having engaged indishonest actions, also carried it out in the professional field, which suggests that
unethical behaviour shown at the college level continued into professional life (Harding
et al. 2004). Findings of another study carried out at a nursing school demonstrated
that students who showed academic dishonesty had a greater incidence of dishonest
behaviour once they worked as health professionals (Laduke 2013).
In a study carried out with 284 psychology students who reported having engaged insome kind of academic dishonesty, specifically having copied during exams and lying inorder to meet their obligations during their college education, also reported participating in actions considered illegal or unethical within the context of the research, specifically those related to substance abuse - alcohol and drugs, risky driving, lying andother sort of illegal behaviours. This data suggests that, besides the contextual factors,
there are also individual causes such as attitudes, perceptions and personality traits that
can influence the individual’s behaviour in different aspects of their lives (Blankenshipand Whitley 2000).
In one of the most recent studies, where data from 40 countries was collected, astrong relationship was identified between the self-reporting “copying in exams” of thestudent population and the level of corruption of the country, expressed in the corruption perception index published by Transparency International (Orosz et al. 2018).
Despite the increase in the number of studies related to academic integrity and ethical behaviour in the companies in different parts of the world since the 1990s, it has
not been possible to identify any research in Mexico that explores the relationshipbetween the ethical behaviour of an individual in his/her different life stages, as acollege student and as a professional; or to put it differently, between academic integrity and ethical performance in the workplace.

Page 5 of 18

Guerrero-Dib et al. International Journal for Educational Integrity(2020) 16:2

Methodology
This study followed a quantitative approach under a hypothetic - deductive approach.
Since there is no suitable instrument available that explores the relationship between
academic integrity and ethical behaviour, one designed for this study was used. It was
based on questions from previous research instruments.
The “International Center for Academic Integrity” (ICAI) perception survey, createdby Donald McCabe and applied to more than 90,000 students in the United States andCanada (McCabe 2016) was adapted with the addition of a section of questions related
to personal and workplace ethical behaviour.
The McCabe survey (2016) consists of 35 questions that can be grouped into four
sections. The first one explores the characteristics of the academic integrity
programme, the educational atmosphere in general and the way in which the community is informed and trained in regards to current regulations. The second one requests
information about the students’ behaviour. It specifically asks about the frequency withwhich students are involved in dishonest activities at the moment and in previous
academic levels, how severe they considered each kind of misconduct and their perception in regards to the level of peer participation in actions against integrity. The third
section collects the opinions of the students regarding different statements related toacademic work, faculty and students’ engagement in the development of an academic
integrity culture, strategies to fight dishonesty, the degree of social approval towards
academic fraud, its impact and the perception of fairness in managing the cases of
misconduct. The last group included demographic questions that contained basic information about the person answering the survey. The students were asked to provide theirage, gender, marital status, nationality, place of residence, accumulated grade point average (GPA), programme he/she studies and the number of years at the university.
A section was added to this survey (Additional file 1) addressing the professional ethical behavioural construct. In this section, items from questionnaires described inTable 1 were used; all related to self-reporting of ethical behaviour. An additional validation was carried out for this instrument section through the assessment of experts
from the internal control area of different companies and industries.
Except for a couple of open questions, the rest of the items used responses built
under a five-point Likert scale to categorize their judgments in regards to the statements suggested. There are two types of responses used specifically: from totally agree

Table 1 Questionnaires and instruments used to address workplace ethical behaviour
Instrument

Author(s)Questionnaire to measure behavior deviations

Blankenship and Whitley (2000)

Questionnaire on behaviors considered dishonestin the workplace.

Sims (1993), used also by Nonis and Swift (2001)

Frequency Table for students who consideredengaging dishonest actions in their environment

Harding et al. (2004)

Table of attitudes in favor of ethical behavior in a
non-academic context

Lawson (2004)

Competency descriptors for “Ethics and Values”
and “Integrity and Trust” from the group“Character and Behavior with Honor”

Lombardo and Eichinger (2009)

Source: Created by the authors

Page 6 of 18

Guerrero-Dib et al. International Journal for Educational Integrity(2020) 16:2

to totally disagree about the perceptions and opinions; and always or never in the caseof self-reported behaviours.
The responses were recorded automatically in the data base of the SurveyMonkey
technology tool and values were assigned to each one of the responses in order tocalculate an index per response, assigning a value of 5 to “Totally agree” and 1 to“Totally disagree” in a positive or favorable statement, and vice-versa, 1 and 5 respectively, in a negative or unfavorable statement.
The sample considers 1203 undergraduate and graduate students from a private
university in northern Mexico who chose to respond to their professors’ invitations toanswer the survey as part of a diagnostic exercise that the university carries out periodically to learn about the students’ perceptions regarding the degree of academic integrity culture on their campus. The participants were 51% women and 49% men. Fromthem, 31% were in their first year, 25% the second year, 26% the third year, 11% the
fourth year and only 7% had been studying for five or more years. Nearly 70% of thestudents still lived in their parents’ homes and 42% reported having a good or outstanding average grade (higher than 80 over 100).
Once the data was collected, the internal validation of the instrument was done andindexes were generated for each one of the variables introduced into the model,
through a factorial analysis of the main components. This type of analysis studies therelationship between a set of indicators or variables observed and one or more factors
related to the research to obtain evidence and thus, validate the theoretical model (Hayton et al. 2004).
In order to define the indexes related to academic fraud and ethical behaviour there
were three factorial analyses carried out, which took as selection criteria eigenvalues
higher than one and varimax component rotation with the purpose to maximize thevariances explained for each response and identify the items that represented thefactors identified by the analysis itself in a linear way (Thompson 2004).
The first analysis considered questions related to the level of frequency with which
specific dishonest actions were carried out. It included 27 items or questions in total,and five components accounted for 66.33% of the variance, with a KMO (Kaiser, Meyer
and Olkin) of 0.955 and being significant for the Bartlett’s sphericity test, a fact thatshows the internal consistency of the indicator and its statistical validity. The five components were classified according to the weight that each question had in the rotatedand stored components matrix such as regression variables to generate an indicator foreach of them (Table 5 in Appendix). These indicators were defined as frequency in: 1)
cheating in general, 2) copying in any way, 3) falsifying information, 4) using unauthorized
support, and 5) plagiarizing or paraphrasing without citing.
The second analysis took the same criteria of the latter, but it only included the 27 questions related to how severe the misconduct or academic dishonesty was considered. The
result was three components that accounted for 67.66% of the variance observed, with a
KMO of 0.962 and the Bartlett’s sphericity test was significant. The rotated components
were classified and kept as a regression to generate three indicators, related to theperceived severity of: 1) cheating in general, 2) plagiarizing or copying and paraphrasing
without citing, and 3) using unauthorized support (Table 6 in Appendix).
The third factorial analysis included the 47 questions related to the behaviour or ethical attitude of the respondents. This analysis generated six components that accounted

Page 7 of 18

Guerrero-Dib et al. International Journal for Educational Integrity(2020) 16:2

Page 8 of 18

for 64.54% of the variance observed, a KMO of 0.963 and the Bartlett’s sphericity test
was significant. When analyzing the components generated by the analysis, it wasobserved that four of them had only two questions with a weight greater than 0.4 inthe rotated component matrix. Considering this situation, it was decided to eliminate
these questions and a new factorial analysis was carried out considering only 39 questions. The result was two main components that accounted for 58.66% of the varianceobserved, with a KMO of 0.965 and the Bartlett’s sphericity test was significant. The
two components were classified into two indicators: 1) workplace ethical behaviour
and, 2) personal ethical behaviour (Table 7 in Appendix).
Once the indicators for frequency and perceived severity of dishonesty or academic
fraud, as well as those related to the behaviour or self-reported ethical attitude (workplace and personal) were generated, a linear regression analysis was carried out todetermine how academic dishonesty influences a specific ethical behaviour.

Results
The linear regression analysis took as dependent variables the ones related to ethical behaviour self-reported by the respondents, and the frequency and severity of the academic
dishonesty acts reported by the respondents as the independent variables. This analysis
was carried out in two stages; the first one considered only the variable of the frequency
with which academic dishonesty was reported, and the second one considered the variables related to the severity with which the respondents perceived these actions.
The first analysis took as independent variables the frequency of each component ofself-reported academic misconduct: cheating in general, copying in any way, falsifying
information, using unauthorized support, and plagiarizing or paraphrasing without citing. The result of the model was significant for the case of workplace ethical behaviour(sig. = 0.001), accounting for only 3.4% of the variance observed (Table 2). In terms ofanalysis by variables, it was found that only the frequency of carrying out any kind ofcheating, and copying in any way, had a significant impact on the workplace ethicalbehaviour of the respondents. The negative coefficient in both cases shows that afrequency reduction in academic misconduct, increased the self-reported workplace
ethical behaviour (Table 2). The variables for falsifying information, using unauthorized
support and plagiarizing didn’t show significance.
In terms of personal ethical behaviour, the model proved significant (sig. = 0.000)
explaining 9% of the variance (Table 2) thus it may be stated that the severity ofacademic dishonesty influences personal ethical behaviour. In regards to the impact
Table 2 Results between frequency variables of academic dishonesty and ethical behaviour
Workplace Ethical Behaviour

Personal Ethical Behaviour

CNE

CE

Sig.

R2

CNE

CE

Sig.

R2

Cheating in general−0.153−0.149

0.001

0.034

−0.204−0.198

0.000

0.090

Copying in any way−0.112−0.1020.026−0.148−0.135

0.002

Falsifying information−0.058−0.0580.206−0.148−0.1480.001

Using unauthorized support

0.042

0.041

0.370

−0.022− 0.0220.624

Plagiarizing or paraphrasing
without citing−0.071−0.0680.133−0.123−0.1190.007

CNE Non-standardized coefficients, CE Standardized coefficients, Sig. Significance, R2 Adjusted R squared
Source: Created by the authors

Guerrero-Dib et al. International Journal for Educational Integrity(2020) 16:2

Page 9 of 18

level that the variables have on personal ethical behaviour, we found that only using
unauthorized support did not prove significant. The remaining variables were significant and with negative coefficients, thus we may conclude that the lower the frequencyof academic dishonesty reported by the respondents, the higher the reported personal
ethical behaviour. In this sense, the variable of cheating in general had a greater weightin this kind of behaviour, followed by falsifying information and lastly plagiarizing.
The obtained results indicate that engaging in academic dishonesty with a greater frequency is directly and negatively related to the respondent’s ethical behaviour and attitude.
Therefore, it can be assumed that discouraging students from carrying out academic dishonesty will have a positive effect on their ethical behaviour, both in the work context as well as
in their daily lives. In the same way, it was also found that respondents who performed academic dishonest activities less frequently, tended to have better ethical behaviour in general.
It is interesting to observe that the model does little to explain workplace ethical behaviour and that only the variable of cheating in general and copying had significant
impacts on this behaviour. While in the case of personal ethical behaviour, academic
dishonesty practices occurred more frequently and only the use of unauthorized
support had no significant impact. This situation allows us to assume that academic
dishonesty practices have a greater impact on daily ethical behaviour but less so in theworkplace. This situation can be explained by the fact that organizations have codes of
ethics and programmes which guide actions to be carried out by their personnel thatare based on specific ethical and moral rules of conduct.
The second regression analysis took as independent variables the ones related to theperceived severity of the respondents in regards to cheating in general, copying andplagiarizing, and using unauthorized support. As in the previous case, the dependent
variables were the ones related to the behaviour or ethical attitude in the workplaceand in personal contexts. In regards to the workplace, we found that the model proved
significant (sig. = 0.000), explaining 10% of the variance observed (Table 3). Despite thisresult, the variable analysis showed that only the cheating in general variable had a significant impact on such behaviour with a positive coefficient, which means that thegreater the perceived severity of the misconduct, the better the ethical behaviour within
the organization.
In the case of personal ethical behaviour, the model also proved significant (sig. =0.001), explaining only 5% of the variance observed in the indicator. In the case ofworkplace ethical behaviour, only the perceived severity of cheating in general variable
had a significant impact on personal ethical behaviour. The positive coefficient of thisvariable enables us to establish that when any type of cheating was rated as severe,
respondents tended to have better personal ethical behaviour (Table 3).
Table 3 Results between severity variables of academic dishonesty and ethical behaviour
Workplace Ethical Behaviour

Personal Ethical Behaviour

CNE

CE

Sig.

R2

CNE

CE

Sig.

R2

Cheating in general

0.311

0.323

0.000

0.100

0.218

0.239

0.000

0.050

Plagiarizing, copying and paraphrasing
without citing−0.032−0.032

0.575

0.039

0.041

0.484

Using unauthorized support−0.086−0.093

0.105

0.025

0.028

0.633

CNE Non-standardized coefficients, CE Standardized coefficients, Sig. Significance, R2 Adjusted R squared
Source: Created by the authors

Guerrero-Dib et al. International Journal for Educational Integrity(2020) 16:2

Page 10 of 18

The findings enable us to recognize the impact that the perceived severity towards
cheating in general has on the ethical behaviour of the respondents, since it is the only
variable that proved significant in the model. Hence, the extent to which students
perceived the committing of any kind of cheating within the university as severe, their
behaviour, both inside and outside the workplace, was more ethical.
Additionally, it is interesting to observe that the perception of the severity of cheating, plagiarizing or using any kind of unauthorized help does not have a significant
impact on the ethical behaviour self-reported by the respondents. Therefore, it can beassumed that it is not as important to point out the severity of a specific act of academic dishonesty to influence the ethical behaviour of students and professionals, butrather to emphasize the severity of the misconduct that is associated with any act ofacademic dishonesty.
With the aim to identify the relationship that exists among all the variables of themodel (frequency and severity), a third regression was conducted. This regression
considered as independent variables, workplace ethical behaviour and personal ethicalbehaviour, and as dependent variables, the frequency and severity of academic misconduct. Both models, ethical behaviour in the workplace and personal, turned out to besignificant. In the case of the workplace ethical behaviour, it was found that the model
explains 9.1% of the variance of the indicator, while in the case of personal ethicalbehaviour, only 7.4% of the variance was explained (Table 4). Based on these results, it
can be concluded that the lack of academic integrity generally affects people’s ethicalbehaviour.
It is interesting to note that, in the case of ethical behaviour in the workplace, theonly variable that was significant and positive was the severity of widespread dishonesty. That is, those respondents who considered any type of dishonesty as a serious
offense had a greater tendency to be ethical in their workplace. This situation may besupported by the fact that academic integrity is presented in institutionalized spaces,such as school, university or business, and where the perception of greater severity
tends to limit unethical behaviour within these institutions or organizations.
On the other hand, personal ethical behaviour was significantly influenced by the variables related to committing any act of academic dishonesty in general (frequency andTable 4 Results between academic dishonesty and ethical behaviour
Workplace Ethical Behaviour

Personal Ethical Behaviour

CNE

CE

Sig.

R2

CNE

CE

Sig.

R2

Frequency - Cheating in general−0.094− 0.060

0.333

0.091

−0.240− 0.161

0.010

0.074

Frequency - Copying in any way−0.075−0.051

0.387−0.028−0.021

0.731

Frequency - Falsifying information−0.029−0.0210.733−0.158−0.1230.051

Frequency - Using unauthorized support−0.011−0.0100.872−0.028−0.0290.649

Frequency - Plagiarizing or paraphrasing
without citing−0.040−0.0380.541−0.124−0.125

0.047

Severity - Cheating in general

0.310

0.322

0.000

0.209

0.229

0.000

Severity - Plagiarizing, copying andparaphrasing without citing−0.045−0.045

0.455

0.009

0.009

0.879

Severity - Using unauthorized support−0.080−0.086

0.179

0.029

0.034

0.602

CNE Non-standardized coefficients, CE Standardized coefficients, Sig. Significance, R2 Adjusted R squaredGuerrero-Dib et al. International Journal for Educational Integrity(2020) 16:2

severity). The negative sign in frequency indicates that those who reported having committed less academic dishonesty - whichever it may be - have better ethical behaviour on a personal level. In the same way, those who consider thatcommitting academic dishonesty is something serious, also have a better ethicalbehaviour on a personal level. Another variable that was significant was the frequency in plagiarism or paraphrasing without citing, in the personal ethical behaviour, being those that had a lower frequency the ones that reported a better
ethical behaviour.
The results of this third regression complement the findings of the first two regressions and allow to evidence the specific weight of considering academic dishonesty as aserious fault in people’s ethical behaviour.

Discussion
Based on the results generated in the previous section, some reflections and conclusions can be drawn related to academic integrity, academic misconduct, and ethicalbehaviour.
The respondents’ ethical behaviour shows a relationship to the practice of academic dishonesty, both in terms of the frequency with which they carry out theseacts, as well as the severity they assign to them. The more severe the students consider an act of academic dishonesty, the more ethically they behave outside of theuniversity. Likewise, it is important to establish measures to discourage or reduce
the number of acts of academic misconduct, since the habitual practice of unethical actions may promote a normalization of these behaviours, and reduces a student’s interest in practising ethical behaviours after graduating from college. It is
important to disclose a basic assumption, that a person faces ethical dilemmas first,
in an educational environment and later, in a workplace context. This situationsuggests that, since academic integrity is usually experienced earlier than workplace ethical behaviour in a person’s life, the former may influence the latter.
These results encourage the reflection on the importance of student perceptions
about academic dishonesty and the opportunities they have to act on these dishonest
practices. Interestingly, in terms of perception, students who have developed a conscience about the severity of any kind of cheating in an academic setting, exhibit agreater degree of ethical behaviour. Likewise, when a student frequently practices academic misconduct shows less ethical behaviour within other contexts. These findings
add another reason why higher education institutions should establish systematic programmes focused on promoting a culture of academic integrity to convince students ofthe severity of these unethical actions, to discourage them from committing them andto punish them if the previous endeavours do not work.
The results of this study suggest that it is not enough to teach academic integrityin a theoretical or conceptual way, but that it is learned and acquired through realcontexts and practices, where the prevention or discouragement of gaining benefits
through misconduct contributes to student learning and development. This learning goes beyond the classroom and the university context and becomes an ethicalbehavioural pattern in the work and personal environments. Likewise, organizations should have ethical codes and other elements of a business ethics andPage 11 of 18

Guerrero-Dib et al. International Journal for Educational Integrity(2020) 16:2

compliance programme to foster a culture of integrity and continue the formative
process started within educational institutions.
It can be stated that a part of a professional’s ethical behaviour is related to theirawareness of the risks or severity of getting involved in academic dishonesty, as well as
having the opportunity to engage in these acts. For this reason, it is not enough toconvince students of the importance of following integrity criteria, it is also necessary
to create an environment where cheating or deceptions are very difficult to practice. Itis essential that students are convinced to act with integrity during their college years
and that they are made aware of the risks or penalties that come with not doing so.
This will strengthen a positive behavioural pattern in different contexts of their lives,and encourage them to become ethical professionals, business people, and citizens.
It is essential for higher education institutions to demonstrate a commitment tobuilding a culture of academic integrity, both in terms of their awareness and theirpractice, since through them the ethical behaviour of students and future graduates isstrengthened and forged. In this respect, the university campus is featured as afavourable environment to train individuals and promote ethical behaviour within andoutside the university, meeting its commitment to the community and the world to develop
more ethical and engaged citizens who do things well in all aspects of their lives.

Conclusions
There has been little research published regarding the relationship of students perceptions about their behaviour on academic integrity in schoolwork, and on professional
performance. This study, like the ones identified previously, points out a relationshipthat can and should be explored in greater depth. Academic integrity - concept, benefits, strategies - and its counterpart, academic dishonesty - frequency causes, consequences, management - have not received, in México and Latin America, the attention
they have earned in other countries and regions.
Considering that corruption is a major problem afflicting Mexican society and that
academic dishonesty is related one way or another with corruption, it becomes particularly important to understand the academic dishonesty phenomenon in depth.
In order to achieve this, it is necessary to invest resources to identify the strategies
which most effectively promote academic integrity, because doing so, not only prevents
fraud and economic losses, but also builds the foundations of a more humane and fairsociety, resulting in a common interest. Viewed from this perspective, academic integrity is not an issue that should be addressed only within educational institutions, but itshould also awaken the interest and the action of the business and production sectors.

Limitations of the research

The instrument used to collect information for this research project was a survey createdwith the support of others and thus the questions have only been validated in thisexercise.
It is a self-reporting tool regarding ethical behaviour, that is, it reflects the selfreported participants’ perceptions of themselves and not about their own behaviours.
This situation shows two limitations. The first one is that it does not discuss behaviours
per se, but the perception participants have about them. The second limitation is that

Page 12 of 18

Guerrero-Dib et al. International Journal for Educational Integrity(2020) 16:2

the results are subjected to the biases of the same person who self-reports. The results
depend not only on the “objectivity” of respondent’s perception but also on thesincerity with which each question is answered. Despite the prevailing atmosphere ofillegality, it is still desirable to seem somewhat honest to others. Additionally, theapplication of the survey was done via an electronic format on the personal devices ofthe participants, which can raise suspicions about the true anonymity of the participants’ responses.
Self-reported surveys leave aside the profound answers related to the causes of correlations found. A qualitative approach to the phenomenon could complement our
results and lead to a more in depth analysis of the relationship between corruption
and/or unethical behaviour and academic dishonesty in the Mexican context.
Another important limitation of the study, derived from its exploratory perspective, isthat the instrument did not consider as a relevant variable the employment situation,
years of work experience or hierarchical level of the respondents. This limitation causes
the self-report of ethical behaviour in the workplace to be presented in a general way
and not with a greater level of depth. However, the results found in this research andthe identification of the relationship between academic integrity and ethical work
behaviour in an exploratory way, open the door for studies where it is sought to deepen
the understanding of this relationship that was identified by this study, as mentioned in
the next section.

Implications for future investigations

As mentioned in the previous section, the following works related to the study of theacademic integrity and ethical behaviour of individuals could point to the confirmationof the results found in this research. These future studies could be based on the causal
relationships found in this research, which were generated based on the review of theliterature and the assumptions that arise from it. In this sense, the use of structural
equations is necessary as a method of confirmation from a quantitative perspective, as
well as the use of a qualitative approach that contribute to a better understanding of
this phenomenon. This study is a first step towards the realization of scientific researchthat demonstrates the impact that efforts to promote academic integrity in universities
have on the ethical behaviour of its students and graduates.
It would be useful to replicate the research by gathering information periodically tovalidate the results and/or conduct a longitudinal study that allows monitoring of the“real-time” habits of the different graduating classes over time. Thereby, self-reportingof what happened at each moment in time would be collected and would enable
researchers to explore different associations.
Many questions still remain unanswered in the Mexican context: What is academic
integrity? How is it experienced? How is it perceived? How is it assessed? What are thebenefits in doing so? What are the most appropriate strategies? What are the levels of
academic dishonesty? Who carries it out? Why do they do it? What are the reasons thatcause it? What is the mindset of people that behaves ethically? What are the reasons
why someone turns out to be more or less ethical? How should it be addressed andmanaged? What consequences does it trigger? What role do professors and othereducational stakeholders play? What is the impact of technology?

Page 13 of 18

Guerrero-Dib et al. International Journal for Educational Integrity(2020) 16:2

Page 14 of 18

Appendix
Table 5 Rotated matrix of the factor analysis for the questions about frequency of the misconduct
or academic dishonesty is considered
Question

Cheating in
generalj.My behavior is congruent with my beliefs.

0.836

g.I say the truth.

0.812

k.I recognize my qualities and defects.

0.780

h.It’s easy for me to tell the truth.

0.755

Copying Falsifying
Using
Plagiarizing orin anyinformation unauthorized paraphrasing
form
supportwithout citingr.I try to ensure that each person is treated
0.727
fairly, even if is someone that I do not know.
i.I express what I think and feel without
keeping up appearances.

0.724

a.I keep promises.

0.714

ff. I am persistent to / until reaching mygoals.

0.698

c.People trust me.

0.689

cc. I accept my mistakes and rectify.

0.654

pp. I trust my ability and my own talents.

0.651

l.Being honest is more important than mypersonal interests.

0.620

t.I evade taxes.

0.813

y.I give bribes or kickbacks to obtainbenefits.

0.785

u.I get in line (skip places).

0.770

s.I consume piracy products.

0.751

m.I do things just to look good.

0.751

o.I think the end justifies the means.

0.737

nn. I feel bad for other people’s assets,
qualities or achievements.

0.732

z.I speak badly of others.

0.702

mm. I seek my own benefit before others.

0.676

oo. I dedicate time only to the things thatinterest me.

0.667

kk. I strive to recognize the needs of others.

0.732

jj. I do favors for others.

0.705

ll. I perform actions seeking the good ofothers.

0.629

v.When driving, I respect speed limits.

0.659

w.I comply with the laws that govern mycountry.

0.641

x.I treat others with respect.

0.434

ee. I assume consequences for my decisions
and actions.

0.363

p.I return what is not mine.

0.329

qq. I report dishonest actions.

0.763

rr. I do what I must do even when facing
adverse circumstances.

0.566

dd. I analyze prudently the possible
consequences of the different alternatives
for action before making a decision.

0.375

Guerrero-Dib et al. International Journal for Educational Integrity(2020) 16:2

Page 15 of 18

Table 6 Rotated matrix of the factor analysis for the questions about how severe the misconduct
or academic dishonesty is considered
Question

Cheating
in general

Plagiarizing or copying Usingand paraphrasing
unauthorized
without citing
supportj.Copying from another student during a test or examination 0.857
WITHOUT his or her knowledge.
i.Copying from another student during a test WITH his or
her knowledge.

0.842

u.Using an electronic/digital device as an unauthorized aid
during an exam.

0.831

cc. Cheating on a test in any other way.

0.828

k.Using digital technology (such as text messaging) to get
unpermitted help from someone during a test or
examination.

0.824

f.Helping someone else cheat on a test.

0.820

r.Submitting a paper you purchased or obtained from a
website and claimed it as your own work.

0.789

s.Using unpermitted handwritten crib notes (or cheat sheets) 0.786
during a test or exam.
p.Turning in a paper from a “paper mill” (a paper written
and previously submitted by another student) and claiming
it as your own work.

0.736

y.Turning in work done by someone else.

0.681

w.Turning in a paper copied, at least in part, from anotherstudent’s paper, whether or not the student is currently
taking the same course.

0.681

h.Fabricating or falsifying research data.

0.640

q.Paraphrasing or copying a few sentences of material froman electronic source - e.g., the internet - without footnoting
them in a paper you submitted.

0.783

o.Paraphrasing or copying a few sentences from a book,magazine, or journal (not electronic or web-based) without
footnoting them in a paper you submitted.

0.780

bb. Using Cliff Notes or Spark Notes and not citing.

0.743

z.Receiving requests from another person (in person or
using electronic means) to copy your homework.

0.663

x.Using a false or forged excuse to obtain an extension on adue date or delay taking an exam.

0.656

n.Copying (using digital means such as Instant Messaging or
email) another student’s homework.

0.612

m.Copying (by hand or in person) another student’s
homework.

0.609

aa. Submitting the same paper in more than one course
without specific permission.

0.565

l.Receiving unpermitted help on an assignment.

0.521

v.Copying material, almost word for word, from any written
source and turning it in as your own work.

0.514

g.Fabricating or falsifying lab data.

0.448

b.Working on an assignment with others (in person) when
the instructor asked for individual work.

0.896

c.Working on an assignment with others (via email or InstantMessaging) when the instructor asked for individual work.

0.887

a.Fabricating or falsifying a bibliography.

0.417

d.Getting questions or answers from someone who has
already taken a test.

0.305

Guerrero-Dib et al. International Journal for Educational Integrity(2020) 16:2

Page 16 of 18

Table 7 Rotated matrix of the factor analysis for the questions related with workplace andpersonal ethical behaviour
Question

Workplacebb. I use company resources for personal reasons.

0.867

t.I evade taxes.

0.860

aa. I treat collaborators or work peers incorrectly orabuse verbally (make rude, insulting or shameful comments).

0.857

ii. I reveal confidential information to unauthorized persons.

0.845

n.I distort information in reports or presentations to makethem seem they had a better performance.

0.825

y.I give bribes or kickbacks to obtain benefits.

0.811

f.I call in sick without being so, as an excuse to be absent to
work.

0.810

gg. I make up excuses to avoid meeting my work andresponsibilities.

0.800

ss. I blame others of my own failures or actions.

0.796

tt. I do things even when I think they are incorrect only not
to have a bad image in the eyes of others.

0.793

s.I consume piracy products.

0.788

u.I get in line (skip places).

0.778

z.I speak badly of others.

0.734

m.I do things just to look good.

0.728

hh. I waste time during the work day.

0.722

e.I use unethical strategies to achieve my objectives.

0.717

nn. I feel bad for other people’s assets, qualities orachievements.

0.705

o.I think the end justifies the means.

0.697

d.I use my position or the information I have to obtain
personal benefits.

0.615

uu. I remain silent before others’ faults and cheating becauseof fear for reprisals.

0.571

Personal

j.My behaviour is congruent with my beliefs.

0.819

ee. I assume consequences for my decisions and actions.

0.816

r.I try to ensure that each person is treated fairly, even if issomeone that I do not know.

0.814

g.I say the truth.

0.797

q.I give other’s work credit.

0.788

ff. I am persistent to / until reaching my goals.

0.780

x.I treat others with respect.

0.779

c.People trust me.

0.764

k.I recognize my qualities and defects.

0.757

h.It’s easy for me to tell the truth.

0.741

a.I keep promises.

0.727

cc. I accept my mistakes and rectify.

0.720

p.I return what is not mine.

0.710

dd. I analyze prudently the possible consequences of thedifferent alternatives for action before making a decision.

0.708

ll. I perform actions seeking the good of others.

0.707

l.Being honest is more important than my personal interests.

0.695

i.I express what I think and feel without keeping up
appearances.

0.668

b.Secrets and information are kept confidential.

0.602

Guerrero-Dib et al. International Journal for Educational Integrity(2020) 16:2

Supplementary information
Supplementary information accompanies this paper at https://doi.org/10.1007/s40979-020-0051-3.
Additional file 1. ICAI’s Academic Integrity Survey – for students (McCabe 2016) plus ethical behaviour.
Abbreviations
CE: Standardized coefficients; CNE: Non-standardized coefficients; ICAI: International Center for Academic Integrity;
KMO: Kaiser, Meyer and Olkin; R2: Adjusted R squared; Sig: SignificanceAcknowledgements
We thank Victoria Loncar and Veronica Montemayor for their valuable help English editing the manuscript.
Declarations
We confirm that this work is original and has not been published elsewhere, nor is it currently under consideration for
publication elsewhere.
We will respond promptly to IJEI correspondence regarding reviewer comments, copyeditor revisions and publishingagreement.
Authors’ contributions
G-D designed the study and collected the data, P-D performed the statistical analysis, H-E contributed with results
analysis. All authors discussed the results and contributed to the final manuscript. All authors read and approved thefinal manuscript.
Authors’ information
G-D. J. is Board Member of the International Center for Academic Integrity and Director of the Center for Integrity andEthics at Universidad de Monterrey
Funding
Not applicable
Availability of data and materials
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on
reasonable request.
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Author details
1
Universidad de Monterrey, Av. Ignacio Morones Prieto 4500, 66238 San Pedro Garza García, Nuevo León, Mexico.
2
Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Av. Eugenio Garza Sada 2501, 64849 Monterrey, Nuevo
León, Mexico.
Received: 10 September 2019 Accepted: 26 January 2020

References
Amilburu, M. (2005). Literatura, virtudes y educación moral. http://www.redined.mec.es/oai/indexg.php?registro=01420073
001633
Ariely D (2013) The honest truth about dishonesty (first). Harper Collins Publishers, New York
Bertram-Gallant T (2016) Systems approach to going forward. In: Bretag T (ed) Handbook of academic integrity (First, pp.
975–978). Springer, Singapore
Blankenship KL, Whitley BE (2000) Relation of general deviance to academic dishonesty. Ethics Behav 10(1):1–12 Retrieved
from http://ezproxy.udem.edu.mx/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip&db=
a9h&AN=3176620&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Bolívar A (2005) El lugar de la ética profesional en la formación universitaria. Rev Mex Investig Educ 10(24):93–123 Retrieved
from http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=14002406
Bosch M, Cavallotti R (2016) ¿Es posible una definición de integridad en el ámbito de la ética empresarial? Revista Empresa y
Humanismo XIX(2):51–68. https://doi.org/10.15581/015.XIX.2.51-68
Connelly BL, Crook TR, Combs JG, Ketchen DJ Jr, Aguinis H (2018) Competence-and integrity-based trust ininterorganizational relationships: which matters more? J Manag 44(3):919–945
EAFIT. (2016). Encuesta de auto-reporte de fraude académico
Fishman T (2016) Academic integrity as an educational concept, concern and movement in US institutions of higher
education. In: Bretag T (ed) Handbook of academic integrity (First. Springer, Singapore, pp 7–22
García-Villegas M, Franco-Pérez N, y Cortés-Arbeláez A (2016) Perspectives on academic integrity in Colombia and Latin
America. In: Bretag T (ed) Handbook of academic integrity, 1st edn. Springer, Singapore, pp 161–185
Gino F, Ariely D (2012) The dark side of creativity: original thinkers can be more dishonest. J Pers Soc Psychol 102(3):445
Hall TL, Kuh GD (1998) Honor among students: academic integrity and honor codes at state-assisted universities. NASPA J
36(1):2–18
Harding TS, Passow HJ, Carpenter DD, Finelli CJ (2004) An examination of the relationship between academic dishonesty andprofessional behavior. Antennas Propagation Magazine, IEEE 46. https://doi.org/10.1109/MAP.2004.1388860

Page 17 of 18

Guerrero-Dib et al. International Journal for Educational Integrity(2020) 16:2

Hayton JC, Allen DG, Scarpello V (2004) Factor retention decisions in exploratory factor analysis: a tutorial on parallel analysis.
Organ Res Methods 7(2):191–205. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428104263675
International Center for Academic Integrity. (2014). Fundamental Values of Academic Integrity. Retrieved from https://academicintegrity.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Fundamental-Values-2014.pdf
International Transparency. (2017). Corruption perceptions index 2017. Retrieved from https://www.transparwww.
transparency.org/cpi
Kavanagh MH, Drennan L (2008) What skills and attributes does an accounting graduate need? Evidence from student
perceptions and employer expectations. Accounting Finance 48(2):279–300. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-629X.
2007.00245.x
Laduke RD (2013) Academic dishonesty today, unethical practices tomorrow? J Prof Nurs 29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
profnurs.2012.10.009
Lang JM (2013) Cheating lessons, learning from academic dishonesty (first). Harvard University Press, Cambridge
Lawson R (2004) Is classroom cheating related to business students’ propensity to cheat in the “real world”? J Bus Ethics
49(2):189–199. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:BUSI.0000015784.34148.cb
Lombardo MM, Eichinger RW (2009) FYI: for your improvement: a guide for development and coaching (5th ed.).
Minneapolis, MN: Lominger International: A Korn/Ferry Company.
Ma Y, McCabe D, Liu R (2013) Students’ academic cheating in Chinese universities: prevalence, influencing factors, andproposed action. J Acad Ethics 11. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-013-9186-7
McCabe, D. (2016). Cheating and honor: lessons from a long-term research project. In T. Bretag, Handbook of academic
integrity (First, p. 1097). Singapore: Springer
Nonis S, Swift CO (2001) An examination of the relationship between academic dishonesty and workplace dishonesty: amulticampus investigation. J Educ Bus 77. https://doi.org/10.1080/08832320109599052
Olt MR (2002) Ethics and distance education: strategies for minimizing academic dishonesty in online assessment. Online J
Distance Learning Adm 5(3):1–7
Orosz G, Tóth-Király I, Bőthe B, Paskuj B, Berkics M, Fülöp M, Roland-Lévy C (2018) Linking cheating in school and corruption.
Revue Européenne de Psychologie Appliquée 68(2):89–97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erap.2018.02.001
Payan J, Reardon J, Mccorkle DE (2010) The effect of culture on the academic honesty of marketing and business students. J
Mark Educ 32(3):275–291. https://doi.org/10.1177/0273475310377781
Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo. (2015). Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible. Retrieved from https://www.
undp.org/content/undp/es/home/sdgoverview/mdg_goals/mdg2/
Rigby D, Burton M, Balcombe K, Bateman I, Mulatu A (2015) Contract cheating & the market in essays. J Econ Behav Organ
111:23–37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2014.12.019
Rose-Ackerman S, Palifka BJ (2016) Corruption and government: causes, consequences, and reform, 2nd edn. Cambridge
University Press, New York
Sims RL (1993) The relationship between academic dishonesty and unethical business practices. J Educ Bus 68. https://doi.
org/10.1080/08832323.1993.10117614
Stephens J, Romakin V, Yukhymenko M (2010) Academic motivation and misconduct in two cultures: a comparative analysis
of US and Ukrainian undergraduates. Int J Educ Integr 6:47–60
Stephens JM (2016) Creating cultures of integrity: a multilevel intervention model for promoting academic honesty. In: Bretag
T (ed) Handbook of academic integrity (First, pp. 995–1008). Springer, Singapore
Sultana F (2018) The false equivalence of academic freedom and free speech: defending academic integrity in the age ofwhite supremacy, colonial nostalgia, and anti-intellectualism. ACME: An Int E-Journal for Crit Geographies 17(2):228–257
Thompson B (2004) Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis: understanding concepts and applications, 1st edn. American
Psychological Association, Washington, D.C.
UDEM. (2018). Encuesta de Integridad Académica
UNAM. (2013). Reporte de encuesta sobre percepción del plagio en la UNAM. Retrieved from http://www.eticaacademica.
unam.mx/encuestas.pdf
Von Dran GM, Callahan ES, Taylor HV (2001) Can students’ academic integrity be improved? Attitudes and behaviors before
and after implementation of an academic integrity policy. Teach Bus Ethics 5(1):35–58
Winrow AR (2015) Academic integrity and the heterogeneous student body. Glob Educ J 2015(2):77–91 Retrieved fromhttp://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=4e798cc8-2b70-4094-8a36-117ad8990b24%40sessionmgr101

Publisher’s NoteSpringer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Page 18 of 18