Academic integrity is the cornerstone of academe and scholarship — both its moral code and ethical policy. It means avoiding plagiarism, cheating and related misconduct. 

Most educational institutions uphold and promote academic integrity. UC Berkeley, for example, defines it as "any action or attempted action that may result in creating an unfair academic advantage for oneself or an unfair academic advantage or disadvantage for any other member or members of the academic community" in its Code of Student Conduct. Yet another definition sees it as ensuring students' writing is distinct from the writing of others.

Academic integrity is typically viewed through the lens of misconduct and dishonesty. Thus it carries both negative and punitive associations. But the discourse is shifting toward an educative, preventive and positive approach, to promote student success. Some approaches include:

• Fostering students' intrinsic motivation
• Building student self-efficacy
• Using frequent, low-stakes assessments
• Emphasizing learning-for-mastery over learning-for-performance