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Authority Concerns Regarding Research Students’ Academic Dishonesty: A case Study for Promoting Academic Integrity in a Public University in Bangladesh

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Abstract

The present study aims to examine the context of academic dishonesty of research students in a public university setting in Bangladesh. In this regard, the researchers conducted interviews with the concerned authorities of the university, i.e., Chairpersons of the Departments, Deans of the Faculties, Proctor of the University, and Director of Students Guidance and Counselling Cell in order to get an impression about the current practice of academic dishonesty by the students of that university; factors influencing these activities and recommendations to uphold academic integrity among the students. The results showed that though there were several instances of academic integrity violation, negligible actions were taken against them due to the absence of an established policy on academic dishonesty. At the same time, the nonexistence of a course on academic integrity and research ethics in the curriculum is also responsible for this scenario. To mitigate this issue, all the concerned authorities strongly recommended formulating a central policy on academic dishonesty for promoting academic integrity and achieving university ranking success in global competitiveness.

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Data Availability

The interview data collected from the heads of the departments have been inputted and saved in a SPSS file. Besides, the interview data collected from the other stakeholders of the university have been saved as recordings in Bengali languages. Data files can be shared upon demand.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the chairpersons of the departments, deans of the faculties, proctor, and director of the Students’ Guidance and Counselling Cell of Noakhali Science and Technology University for their valuable time and participation in the interviews.

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The authors received no funding from any sources for this research.

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The author contributes to the paper as follows: study conception and design: Shamima Yesmin; data collection: Md. Atikuzzaman and Shamima Yesmin; analysis and interpretation of results: Shamima Yesmin and Md. Atikuzzaman; draft manuscript preparation: Shamima Yesmin and Md. Atikuzzaman. All authors reviewed the results and approved the final version of the manuscript.

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Atikuzzaman, M., Yesmin, S. Authority Concerns Regarding Research Students’ Academic Dishonesty: A case Study for Promoting Academic Integrity in a Public University in Bangladesh. J Acad Ethics 21, 591–607 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-023-09474-8

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