Academic integrity in the creative arts - June 2022 - Academic integrity in the creative arts: a special case

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Mia

Academic integrity in the creative arts examines how authorship, attribution, and ethical conduct apply across diverse media such as performing arts, film, digital games, music, visual arts, and literature. It explains why integrity breaches like plagiarism and contract-cheating are difficult to define and detect in creative practice, due to legitimate adaptation, contested boundaries between inspiration and copying, and non-exam production processes. The document also links integrity to copyright, moral rights, fair dealing, Creative Commons, and protocols for Indigenous cultural material.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages8

Reading Time20 min

AccessFree to download

Academic integrity in the creative arts: a special case

Academic integrity as authentic learning

Embedding academic integrity in the curriculum

Academic integrity in the creative arts June 2022 1. Academic integrity in the creative arts: a special case The creative arts encompasses many fields of study and practice, including: • performing arts, such as dance, drama, and theatre • media arts, such as film and screen-based works • interactive works, such as digital games and experimental art • music, including composition, recording, and performance • visual arts, such as painting, photography, design, sculpture, and mixed media • literature, such as literary fiction and children’s literature. Work produced during a course of study in the creative arts may differ from assessment in other disciplines in the following ways: 1. It is non-text-based: work may consist of a performance, video recording, digital or interactive work, music composition, audio recording, or physical artefact. 2. It is creative: works demonstrate individual authorship, incorporating original and subjective elements. While breaches of academic integrity, such as plagiarism and contract-cheating, can occur in the creative arts, defining academic integrity, and detecting breaches of integrity in creative arts works is complex because: • Creative practice occurs within established artistic traditions and networks of influence. Creative works may adapt, reference, or integrate elements of pre-existing creative works as a legitimate form of creativity. • The distinction between copying, inspiration, and coincidence in a creative work can be contested, as demonstrated by the frequency of copyright and plagiarism disputes in this area: • In 2013, the song ‘ Blurred Lines’ was the subject of a copyright dispute. Songwriters Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke were successfully sued for infringement by the estate of Marvin Gaye, who argued that the song intentionally copied Gaye’s song ‘Gotta Give It Up’. • Visual artist Damien Hirst has been publicly accused of plagiarism by multiple artists who argue that Hirst’s works show overwhelming similarities of subject matter, technique, and style to their own. • Creative works are not typically produced under examination conditions: they are usually the result of a lengthy creative process in which the creator engages with various research materials, sources, and often collaborators. • Common understandings of appropriate uses of non-text content, such as video, audio, and images, can be shaped by external influences such as social media and not aligned with academic, industry, and legal practices. • Expectations and requirements surrounding the use of existing materials can vary by task, medium, and discipline (e.g. performing, remixing or composing a musical work). • Creative works can consist of multiple elements (e.g. a film includes a script and a soundtrack). • Attribution practices for non-text materials (e.g. a music score or performed work) are medium-and discipline-specific, and can be unfamiliar to students. • While similarity detection tools for non-text works exist (e.g. Shazam for recorded music, Google Image Search, and YouTube Content ID for video), these are not integrated into learning management systems. • Similarity detection tools rely on matching submitted content to online databases of content. Databases may be incomplete, or tools may be unable to match content due to manipulation of the submitted work. Academic integrity in the creative arts 2 2. Academic integrity as authentic learning Integrity, and ethical conduct more broadly, is crucial for creative arts practitioners. Academic integrity practices of attribution and citation help to develop awareness of ownership and permitted use, which connects to the following ethical, legal, and practical considerations in the creative arts: • Copyright constitutes a legal framework for ownership and usage. Relevant areas to the creative arts include moral rights; fair dealing; assigning and licensing rights; fees and ownership; and rights

FAQs

Why is defining academic integrity in the creative arts more complex than in other disciplines?

Creative practice happens within artistic traditions and networks, where legitimate adaptation, referencing, and integration of existing works are common. The lines between copying, inspiration, and coincidence are often contested, and creative outputs are rarely produced under examination conditions.

What kinds of creative work may be non-text-based, affecting how integrity is assessed?

Work produced in creative arts coursework may be performances, video recordings, digital or interactive works, music composition, audio recordings, or physical artefacts rather than traditional text.

How can academic integrity be embedded into creative arts curricula?

The document recommends teaching concepts like authorship, originality, remix, homage, and pastiche; analyzing creative re-use and adaptation; and discussing relevant public plagiarism and copyright disputes using legal and ethical perspectives and evidence outcomes.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Mia