Home › Forums › Skills, skills frameworks and stages in the FOSIL Cycle › Academic Honesty and FOSIL › Reply To: Academic Honesty and FOSIL
Ruth, I’m with Darryl here, citing and referencing feature at every stage of the research and writing process.
I hold that academic honesty is only a very small part of the reasons for citing and referencing and as such it comes out in the actual writing (or other form of presentation), in the Express stage. Even here, there are other reasons for citing and referencing, from showing the breadth of your investigation to showing who you know the key writers in your topic are, from helping readers follow and understand your journey and themselves obtain (some of) the sources you found useful to demonstrating your worthiness to be a part of the academic conversation and the academic community. (That last is where “correctness” of formatting of citations and references comes in – and mistakes in the correctness of the formatting do not necessarily equate with academic dishonesty.). And there are other reasons too, few of which connect with (academic) honesty but are totally about academic writing.
I am a strong supporter of note cards and/or research journals so that, even in the earliest stages of the cycle, the researcher has a record of sites and articles read or viewed, along with notes of what might be significant and/or usable and a record of the elements which together will inform the reference if the researcher decides to use it. The note cards or research journals can take any form or format, maybe several, but they make for memory-joggers and enables retrieval of the original if closer reading is needed at a later stage of the investigation. And maybe not the current investigation but a later and a different one. As the investigation progresses, the research journal or cards could be in constant use.
When noting the bibliographic details in these early stages, correctness of formatting does not come into it – as long as the writer provides a reminder for him/herself of where the material was found, and at least enough information to allow the writer to find it again.
In the presearch stage, the exploration stage of a research project, the connecting, wondering, investigating stages especially, one is reading widely so making notes, making connections, raising questions … so that when it comes to the closer reading of the construction and expression stages, one has ready-made reminders of what to look at more closely and what you will find useful in the actual writing/ presentation.
I agree with Darryl – using peer review to consider the quality of the sources and not just the notional “correctness” of the references can be useful. As can asking the peer reviewer to retrieve the sources based on the information given and checking for completeness.
Not harsh at all, Ruth, starting as early as you can, inculcating good habits so that honesty becomes engrained.
One other thought – academic honesty is not simply about citing (and referencing) – and in this sense it again features at every part of the FOSIL cycle. There are other aspects of research and writing in which honesty and academic should be the norm, the expectation, the requirement – else the integrity of the work (and thus of the writer) is at risk.
John