Academic Ethics and Norms are essential for university students as they are foundational for all scholarly work. This course provides clear guidance on core principles such as academic integrity, proper citation, avoidance of plagiarism, and responsible data handling. It helps students understand why fabrication, falsification, and unauthorized collaboration are serious violations that can damage both personal reputation and the credibility of the academic community. Moreover, the course cultivates critical ethical awareness in an era of easy access to information and AI-generated content, where the line between legitimate use and misconduct can become blurred. Students learn to evaluate sources, acknowledge intellectual property, and make responsible decisions when facing ethical dilemmas. These skills are not only vital for their immediate coursework but also transferable to future professional environments, where honesty, transparency, and accountability are highly valued. By normalizing discussions about research misconduct and ethical authorship, the course contributes to a campus culture of trust and fairness. Ultimately, it prepares students to become conscientious scholars and professionals who uphold integrity throughout their careers.
The course consists of 8 sessions:
| Session 1 | Introduction to academic integrity: Definition, core values and significance |
| Session 2 | Current practices towards academic integrity: International perspectives |
| Session 3 | Breaches of academic integrity: Different types of academic misconducts |
| Session 4 | Academic integrity policies in CUG: Policies and practice reality |
| Session 5 | Plagiarism vs proper citation: Referencing styles and technical tools |
| Session 6 | Ethics and research: Ethical issues pre-, during and post-research |
| Session 7 | Discipline-specific approaches to research ethics: Ethical practices by discipline |
| Session 8 | Academic integrity in the digital age: Technology, internet, GAI and plagiarism |
Lecturer bio
WANG Weihong, Professor at the School of Foreign Languages, China University of Geosciences, holds a master’s degree from Nanyang Technological University, a PhD from the University of Hong Kong, and was a visiting scholar at the University of Bath. She has taught courses such as College English, English for Specific Purposes, English for Academic Purposes, World Englishes, and Corpus Linguistics, and has contributed to several ESP textbooks, including College English Writing, Comprehensive English Reading for Geosciences, English Reading for Essentials in Geosciences, and Global English: From Theory to Practice. She has also conducted multiple pedagogical research projects on English teachers, teaching materials, and teaching methods, and has published over 40 papers in domestic and international journals such as Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics, Chinese Journal of Language Policy and Planning, Applied Linguistics Review, Current Issues in Language Planning, English Today, Journal of English for Academic Purposes, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, and System.
