Postplagiarism Fundamentals: Integrity and Ethics in the Age of GenAI

In the opening presentation for the 2025-2026 Postplagiarism Speaker Series, I shared fundamentals of postplagiarism. The slides and recording of the presentation are now available. We had 329 registrants for this first session, which was a terrific way to kick off the series!

Here’s an overview of the presentation and a link to catch up if missed the live session.

Abstract

In this presentation, Dr. Sarah Elaine Eaton introduces the concept of postplagiarism as a framework for understanding integrity and ethics in the age of generative artificial intelligence. Drawing from the foundational work of Dr. Rebecca Moore Howard, who argued that the Internet fundamentally changed writing and that educators should focus on teaching, rather than policing student conduct. In this talk, Dr. Eaton presents six tenets that define the postplagiarism era. The framework acknowledges that hybrid human-AI writing will become the norm, making traditional attempts to separate human and artificial contributions both pointless and futile. The six tenets establish that although writers can delegate control over writing processes to AI tools, they cannot delegate responsibility for accuracy, fact-checking, and truth-telling. The framework positions technological tools as enhancing rather than threatening creative capacity, emphasizes that attribution practices remain important despite technological changes, and argues that language barriers will diminish as translation tools improve. Eaton argues that historical definitions of plagiarism will be transcended rather than rewritten, requiring policy adaptations while preserving core ethical principles. Eaton distinguishes between technical referencing skills and deeper attribution practices, arguing that the latter requires metacognitive awareness and evaluative judgment rather than mere rule compliance. She addresses common misconceptions about postplagiarism, clarifying that postplagiarism does not advocate for moral relativism, academic anarchy, or abandoning standards. Instead, it proposes shifting from a policing model to a teaching model in educational contexts. The postplagiarism framework has gained international recognition, receiving the 2025 Tracey Bretag Prize for Academic Integrity and being translated into multiple languages. Eaton concludes by outlining opportunities for community engagement and further development of these ideas through the global postplagiarism initiative.

Keywords: postplagiarism, academic integrity, artificial intelligence, generative AI, writing ethics, attribution, plagiarism, educational technology, hybrid writing, academic integrity, referencing, citing, attribution, academic misconduct, academic dishonesty

Reference (with a link to the slide deck):

Eaton, S. E. (2025, September 17). Postplagiarism Fundamentals: Integrity and Ethics in the Age of GenAI [Invited Presentation] 2025-2026 Postplagiarism Speaker Series, Centre for Artificial Intelligence Ethics, Literacy, and Integrity (CAIELI), University of Calgary. https://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/50445

Video recording

Check out a video recording of the session here: https://yuja.ucalgary.ca/v/postplagiarism-fundamentals

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Sarah Elaine Eaton, PhD, is a Professor and Research Chair in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary, Canada. Opinions are my own and do not represent those of my employer.