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In recent years, cheating in exams has been reported to be a serious issue in many countries. Some believe the problem to be more severe, due to the development of modern technologies. But academic dishonesty is not a new phenomenon. This article is going to look into the cheating methods used in the world’s first examination system in Imperial China and the means devised to prevent these malpractices. These are compared with examples of exam cheating observed in contemporary societies and the measures that institutions take to safeguard test and certificate validity. Cheating practices in Imperial exams are described on the basis of the available literature and the preserved artefacts. The state of the problem of cheating by contemporary students has been assembled, based on research articles. Despite all the changes that have occurred in educational systems over the years, cheating methods have not in essence changed significantly.

The Austrian Agency for Research Integrity counts 37 research institutions as member organizations. It was established as an association in accordance with the Austrian Associations Act. The agency has two major tasks. One is the investigation of cases of alleged scientific misconduct. The other is to raise awareness for good scientific practice and its significance for the daily work of a researcher. Plagiarism is just one category of academic misconduct. The scientific community often evaluates plagiarism as being a lesser form of scientific misconduct compared with others, e.g. data fabrication or data falsification, because fabricated data could have a more misleading influence on research, e.g. on the development of medical drugs or therapies. Nowadays detection of plagiarism is much easier with the help of appropriate software products. Furthermore plagiarism can easily be avoided by taking part in courses for correct referencing and citation. Certainly it would be very helpful to start with the prevention of academic misconduct already at secondary school level.