Academic integrity case study
Referencing a literature review without accidental misconduct
Nursing literature review mixing Harvard and APA 7 across eighteen sources.
Illustrative worked example. This describes how the workflow handles a common coursework situation. It is not a testimonial and is not attributed to any individual student. Genuine student accounts are published on /proof only with the student's consent.
The problem
Quotes were accumulating in a notes document with no page numbers and no consistent record of which claim came from where — the classic route to an unintentional plagiarism allegation at submission. Two referencing styles were in play across module handbooks, and eighteen sources is more than anyone can reliably hold in their head.
Stage by stage
Where the student started
A single unstructured notes file, some quotes pasted without attribution, and a growing uncertainty about which paraphrases were genuinely the student's own summarising.
During reading — source notes
Each source note recorded the claim, the method, the limitation and the page number at the moment of reading, so no quotation ever lost its origin.
During drafting — citation discipline
Citations were formatted only from sources the student had logged. Nothing was auto-filled from a language model's memory, which is where fabricated references come from.
Stage 5 — Integrity check
Every in-text citation was matched against the reference list. Three orphaned citations were traced back to their readings and either restored with a page number or removed before submission.
Where we stopped
OwnVoice cannot fabricate a source. A reference only exists on the page if the student logged the reading behind it — there is no path in the product by which a plausible-looking citation appears without a real document behind it.
What working this way achieves
- Every in-text citation matched to a logged source with a page number.
- Three orphaned citations caught before submission rather than at moderation.
- One consistent referencing style applied across all eighteen sources.
These are method outcomes. OwnVoice makes no promises about grades, and no case study on this site claims one.
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