Academic Integrity Policy Analysis of Publicly-Funded Universities in Ontario, Canada: A Focus on Contract Cheating
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In this article we report findings from a review of universities’ academic integrity policies in Ontario, Canada. The research team systematically extracted, reviewed, and evaluated information from policy documents in an effort to understand how these documents described contract cheating in Ontario universities (n = 21). In all, 23 policies were examined for contract cheating language. The elements of access, approach, responsibility, detail, and support were examined and critiqued. Additionally, document type, document title and concept(s), specific contract cheating language, presence of contract cheating definitions and policy principles were reviewed. Findings revealed that none of the universities’ policies met all of the core elements of exemplary policy, were reviewed and revised with less frequency than their college counterparts, lacked language specific to contract cheating, and were more frequently focused on punitive rather than educative approaches. These findings confirm that there is further opportunity for policy development related to the promotion of academic integrity and the prevention of contract cheating.
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Bretag et al.'s academic integrity policy assessment framework has been used in several national analyses of academic integrity policies.
“However, Bretag et al.'s (2011a;2011b) academic integrity policy assessment framework, which has been used in several national analyses of academic integrity policies (Cullen & Murphy, 2025;Miron et al., 2021;Moya”
From Policy analysis of higher education institutes in Ontario, Canada: A focus on artificial intelligence (2025) · cites this paper as Miron et al., 2021
The Results section says the authors analyzed policies using Bretag et al.’s five core elements, so this paper supports the framework’s use in a policy analysis. But the Document Search and Retrieval and Limitations sections specify that the study covered publicly funded universities in Ontario, not a national sample. This citation therefore does not establish a national analysis. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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Cites
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Cited by
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Perkins, M., & Roe, J. (2023) · doi:10.35542/osf.io/z4cru · Cited by 117 · see citing works
Miron, J., & Facciolo, L. (2025) · Canadian Perspectives on Academic Integrity · doi:10.55016/ojs/cpai.v8i5.81779 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Self-citation
- Authors
- Miron, J., McKenzie, A., Eaton, S. E., Stoesz, B., Thacker, E., Devereaux, L., Persaud, N., Steeves, M., & Rowbotham, K.
- Affiliations
- Humber Polytechnic (CA)
- University of Waterloo (CA)
- University of Calgary (CA)
- University of Manitoba (CA)
- University of Toronto (CA)
- Sheridan College (US)
- Fleming College (CA)
- Queen's University (CA)
- Venue
- Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy
- Publisher
- Consortium Erudit
- Published
- 2021-11-08
- Issue
- 197
- Pages
- 62-75
- ISSN
- 1207-7798 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3209674568
- Cited by
- 42
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 2
- FWCI
- 10.33
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Érudit (Université de Montréal) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- University of South Australia
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Academic integrity and plagiarism
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Information Systems and Management › Ethics in Business and Education
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Higher Education Governance and Development
- Keywords
- academic integrity policy, contract cheating, Ontario universities, policy analysis, academic dishonesty prevention, higher education policy
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