Academic Integrity & Citation

Academic integrity is a learning habit.

Students should submit authentic work, cite accurately, distinguish their own ideas from others' ideas, manage time responsibly, and use AI and digital tools transparently.

What to Avoid

Copying text, ideas, data, images, code, or media without citation.
Paraphrasing too closely without acknowledgement.
Using AI-generated content without disclosure where disclosure is required.
Submitting AI-generated analysis, conclusions, translations, or reflections as your own.
Fabricating data, surveys, experiments, interviews, or sources.
Sharing or receiving unauthorized help on individual work.
Submitting the same work for more than one assessment without permission.

Citation Standard

JLHX recommends MLA as the default citation style unless a subject teacher requires another recognized style, such as APA or Chicago. Use one style consistently throughout a piece of work.

In MLA, the final source list is usually titled Works Cited. It includes the sources you actually cite in the body of your work.

Cite as You Write

Do not wait until the end

What to record

When you use a source, immediately record author or organization, title, publisher or website, date, page number, table or figure number, DOI or URL, database name, access date if needed, and how you used the source.

MLA source examples

Book: Author. Title of Book. Publisher, Year.
Journal article: Author. "Title of Article." Journal Title, vol., no., year, pages, DOI or URL.
Website: Author or Organization. "Title of Webpage." Website Name, Publisher, Date, URL.
Data: Organization. Title of Dataset or Table. Year, database or website, URL. Accessed day month year.
Image: Creator. Title or Description of Image. Year, Website Name, URL.

AI Disclosure

Keep prompts, outputs, and process notes

What to disclose

If AI meaningfully helps your thinking, structure, wording, visuals, research process, translation, or source understanding, disclose it and keep prompts, outputs, drafts, and version histories.

Example: An AI tool was used to brainstorm possible keywords and clarify terminology. All source selection, analysis, and conclusions are my own.

Cautions

Do not cite a source suggested by AI unless you have opened and checked the real source.
Do not list AI as a human author.
Citing AI does not make AI-generated analysis acceptable.

Green Light

Clarify instructions, understand terminology, brainstorm broad topic areas, organize study plans, or check basic spelling and grammar when permitted.

Amber Light

Use only with teacher guidance and disclosure: sentence clarity in non-language subjects, generic structure suggestions, preliminary summaries, or AI-generated visuals.

Red Light

Do not use AI to generate analysis, arguments, conclusions, reflective writing, assessed content, or translations for language assessments.

Collaboration vs Collusion

Collaboration is allowed when the teacher permits it and each student can explain and produce their own work. Collusion happens when students share, copy, rewrite, or submit work in a way that hides who actually produced the thinking.

Common Citation Errors

Using only URLs, forgetting page numbers, mixing citation styles, omitting data and images, listing uncited sources, or citing a source suggested by AI without opening the real source.

IB Academic Integrity IB AI Guidance