[1][2][3][4] Her research and advocacy focused on promoting ethical practices in academia and addressing issues related to academic misconduct.
Bretag spent much of her career at the University of South Australia, where she served as the director of the UniSA Business School Office for Academic Integrity.
She published numerous articles and book chapters addressing topics such as plagiarism[17] and self-plagiarism,[18][19] and contract cheating.
[4] The project led to evidence-based recommendations about how to develop and maintain academic integrity policies in higher education.
Although this project began in Australia, it had a ripple effect of influencing academic integrity policy and procedure development across the world.
The second edition was led by Thomas Lancaster and Sarah Elaine Eaton, who maintained a focus on quality throughout the process to continue to honour Bretag's original contributions.
Starting in 2011 Bretag led four large Australian Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT) funded research projects.
This project included the largest survey anywhere in the world of students and teaching staff to gather data about their attitudes towards, and experiences with contract cheating.
[36] From 2005 to 2015 the IJEI was hosted by the University of South Australia's Open Journal System (OJS), before being moved to Springer.
In this role, she contributed to global dialogue, education, and advocacy on topics related to research integrity and publication ethics.
[52] Through her research, teaching, and advocacy, Bretag continues to be a vital influence in promoting integrity within academia, ensuring that educational institutions uphold the highest ethical standards.