APA Style as Internationalised Institutional Knowledge

I consider APA Style to be an example of internationalised institutional knowledge.  APA Style is a common citation style recommendation made by journals, including those in the education arena (Fairbairn et al., 2009).  Additionally, it is one method of defining what counts (and does not count) as possessing academic integrity.  Drawing on MacFarlane (2003) and Larkham and Manns (2002), Flint, Clegg, and Macdonald (2006, p. 153) describe "the notion of intellectual integrity and originality... [as] paramount to academic achievement" and "inherent" in higher education.  Further, this notion is "perpetuated by external processes such as the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), which rates single authorship journal articles as the highest form of academic output" (ibid.).  Despite its role in supporting the "importance of originality" as an objective, culturally-neutral ideal (ibid.), APA Style continues relatively unchallenged.

I am considering:

(1)     Whether internationalised institutional knowledge is experienced differently by domestic source, transfer, and recipient populations;

(2)     That the American Psychological Association, as the APA Style's source population, have a defined position on originality;

(3)     Whether 'transfer' is the correct term for populations which receive and transfer knowledge to another population;

(4)     Whether institutions as 'transfer' agents act consciously in promoting APA Style;

(5)     If recipient populations are offered opportunities to critique the importance of originality as a core academic construct.

These ideas are forming into the basis for quite a good doctoral dissertation!

REFERENCES (in APA Style, of course)

Fairbairn, H., Holbrook, A., Bourke, S., Preston, G., Cantwell, R., & Scevak, J. (2009). A profile of educational journals. Retrieved from http://www.aare.edu.au/08pap/fai08605.pdf

Flint, A., Clegg, S., & Macdonald, R. (2006). Exploring staff perceptions of student plagiarism. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 30(2), 145-146. Retrieved from http://www.leedsmet.ac.uk/carnegie/files/CJFH_30_02_03.pdf

Larkham, P. J., & Manns, S. (2002) Plagiarism and its treatment in higher education. Journal of Further & Higher Education, 26(4), 339-349. Retrieved from http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/0309877X.asp

Macfarlane, B. (2003). Teaching with integrity: The ethics of higher education practice. London, UK: Routledge Falmer.