Academic Integrity Scholarship: The Importance of Theory

Descriptive and observational research on academic integrity serves to provide the field with a lay of the land. However, to form an integrated understanding and make hypotheses about the future, theory is required. Academic integrity research has drawn on theories from many academic disciplinary perspectives, representing the nature of academic integrity questions and the disciplinary backgrounds of researchers. In addition, researching applied problems in the field of academic integrity can inform the development of theories in other academic disciplines. Theory-driven and theory-informed research in academic integrity has come a long way and potentially has a long way to go. This chapter reviews some of the theoretical perspectives applied to academic integrity, particularly from psychology and criminology, and considers other well-established theories that can inform future research in academic integrity.