After the kick off meeting, the following activities were implemented (Theoretical framework for research)

• analysis of national and international documents which include different issues of the concept academic integrity (AI), its understanding, but also the results of the research obtained in this domain
• review and analysis of the existing literature on the issues of academic integrity
• analysis of the existing mechanisms for prevention, identification and facing the academically unacceptable behavior
• data base of the obtained findings.
• created a theoretical framework and defined significant research questions
• analysis of the mechanisms of non-academic behavior
• attention paid to the issues referring to anti-plagiarism and possibility of developing a software
• examples of good practice from different EU universities and research institutions were also analysed
• institutions are clearly committed to the issues of academic integrity and have a developed system of different training programmes that serve the purpose of prevention and protection against AI

Activities from the seminars and workshop (Empirical strategy: qualitative and quantitative methodology).

• a review and analysis of the written documents on AI
• designing interviews and developing a questionnaire for quantitative and qualitative analysis
• design of the interviews that included a qualitative approach to obtain answers to the research questions such as:

• the manner of understanding the issue of AI
• identifying specific situation in which the principles of AI are most frequently violated
• identifying possible consequences due to non-academic behavior
• understanding the issue of plagiarism
• establishing a need for additional knowledge of AI during studies etc.

• focus on understanding the question of AI through different specific examples / situations in which students participate and how they react to them.

Defining the sample and collecting data for quantitative analysis

• selected a balanced sample of students from the faculties of education
• econometric analysis to be carried out
• the sample includes 500 students from different faculties of the University of Montenegro
• representation of all scientific fields (stratified sample) will be ensured

 

After the preliminary survey (during August 2019), two seminars were organized with the students of the University of Montenegro (September 2019)

• the following questions were asked:

the most frequent interpretations of AI and plagiarism,
• the most frequent examples of non-academic behavior, sanctions etc.
• the first seminar included 16 students from different faculties (the Faculty of Philosophy, the Faculty of Philology, the Faculty of Civil Engineering, the Faculty of Economics, the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering)
• the second seminar included 10 students from the Faculty of Philosophy, the Faculty of Philology and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, all from the University of Montenegro
• the participants were informed about the concept of AI and the Law on Academic Integrity


A workshop for students of doctoral and master studies was also held at the Faculty of Tourism and Hotel Catering in Kotor in November 2019.


Seminars and workshops were aimed at
• strengthening academic culture
• preventing unethical forms of behavior through various topics such as plagiarism, writing skills, legal and institutional forms of sanctioning plagiarism, as well as overall importance of academic integrity for individuals and community as a whole.