Abstract:

The International Center for Academic Integrity (ICAI) defines academic integrity (AI) “as a commitment to five fundamental values: honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility [...], plus the courage to act on them even in the face of adversity” (ICAI, 2013). Regarding higher education (HE), several authors have studied the topic. The amount of papers on academic integrity has increased dramatically over the last decade (Bertram, 2012; Hirsch, 2012; Macfarlane, Zhang, Punn, 2015; McCabe, Treviño & Butterfield, 2001; Robinson & Glanzer, 2017). Nonetheless, AI is not restricted to students in the classroom; professors and, more importantly, institutions play a significant role in promoting and fostering academic integrity. Research suggests that even though individual and contextual factors can influence integrity, other factors such as faculty response and institution policies impact student behavior (McCabe, Treviño & Butterfield, 2001; Whitley & Keith-Spiegel, 2001).

Academic integrity is well studied in the U.S., but in Latin America, it is a recent topic. García-Villegas, Franco-Pérez, and Cortés-Arbelaez argue that the relatively low interest in this issue may be attributable to a culture of tolerance for conducts that do not respect norms, distrust of authorities, social stratification, and deterioration of citizenship (2015).

As an effort to promote a culture of AI in Latin America, and specifically in Mexico, Universidad Panamericana developed an online publication called: Revista de Integridad Academica, with four universities in the region: Universidad EAFIT at Colombia, Tecnológico de Monterrey and Universidad de Monterrey at Mexico, and the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. The publication seeks to disseminate and promote academic integrity values among universities in Latin America. Its long term-purpose is to emerge as an international reference on the topic.

In this paper, we present an initial approach to a theoretical framework of AI in Latin America. Next, we relate this framework to the creation of Revista de Integridad Académica as a strategy to foster AI in Universidad Panamericana. Finally, we explain how the publication has grown to become periodical, as a result of inter-institutional collaboration and its digital impact.

Keywords:

Academic Integrity, Inter-institutional Collaboration, Ethical Values, Higher Education in Latin America.