Cryptomnesia and Research Integrity: The Case of TEFL International Postgraduate Students at the Iranian Universities

The vast body of research on research integrity and research violations/dishonesties demonstrates that cryptomnesia (unwitting plagiarism) is still rising, especially among international postgraduate students from various socio-cultural backgrounds. The present research paper aimed to review the state of art highlighting elements prompting academic misconducts (in our case, plagiarism) by international postgraduate students in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) at Iranian universities. The findings revealed that assistive initiatives such as face-to-face workshops, webinars, and tutorials were not sufficient in their quality to meet students’ needs. Although various practices were conducted in academic research integrity across the globe, having a high degree of academic writing skills (academic literacy) was inadequate for students to control cryptomnesia in professional and academic contexts. Regarding the mentioned elements, this research paper proposed two substantially established programs to contribute to international postgraduate students becoming mindful of academic research principles to avoid unwitting plagiarism in their academic writings.