Academic Dishonesty

Palm Beach State College considers Academic Dishonesty, as defined in the Student Code of Conduct in this Handbook, to be a serious issue. The College and its Faculty understand that students may not fully understand what academic dishonesty means. The following is provided to clarify what constitutes academic dishonesty and the consequences that will result.

Students accused of Academic Dishonesty for the first time are bound by the syllabus policy of the course in which the infraction occurred. Furthermore, the faculty will report the infraction in the Maxient database, where it will be flagged should the student commit a subsequent infraction. Should a student feel that they have been wrongly accused they can appeal the result to the Academic Hearing Committee by emailing the Associate Dean responsible for the course and request to be heard by the committee.

Any student who is found to have engaged in a repeated act of Academic Dishonesty even if in a different course or term, or an act of Academic Dishonesty that involves other students, will be considered a violation of the Student Code of Conduct. The student will be referred to the Dean of Student Services or designee for review. This may result in consequences ranging from disciplinary probation to dismissal from the college.

WARNING: STUDENTS MAY NOT WITHDRAW FROM A CLASS TO AVOID A FAILING GRADE RECEIVED AS A RESULT OF ACADEMIC DISHONESTY OR ANY SUBSTANTIATED ACCUSATION OF ACADEMIC DISHONESTY.

Academic dishonesty including, but is not limited to, unauthorized use of aids, cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, or facilitating academic dishonesty in the classroom or other college environments, as defined below:

Plagiarism

  • Taking the words or specific substance of another and either copying or paraphrasing the work without giving credit to the source.
  • Submitting a term paper, examination or other work written by someone else.
  • Submitting the same paper, slightly altered paper, other work, or examination, for more than one course, whether in the same term or another term. This is self-plagiarism.
  • Failure to give credit in a footnote for ideas, statements of facts or conclusions derived by another.
  • Failure to use quotation marks when quoting directly from another person, whether it is a paragraph, a sentence or even a part thereof.
  • Similar and extended paraphrasing of another.

For more information to help you understand and recognize plagiarism, please refer to the Library Guide.

Plagiarism-Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Programs

Artificial intelligence programs (AI) such as ChatGPT can search the internet and craft papers that resemble the work of human researchers. AI has many legitimate uses in business, government, and other aspects of society.

A primary mission of Palm Beach State College is to advance human intelligence, so presenting work completed by AI rather than by the student's own efforts is counterproductive and deceptive. Palm Beach State College has state-of-the-art software to detect the use of AI writing. The use of AI directly violates Palm Beach State College's standards for plagiarism, specifically "Submitting a term paper, examination, or other work written by someone else." Students submitting work completed by AI, in whole or in part, without proper citations and explicit instructor permission, are guilty of academic dishonesty and subject to the process and penalties described in the Student Handbook under Academic Policies.

Cheating

Using unauthorized notes, study aids, or information from another student or student’s paper on an in-class examination; altering a graded work after it has been returned, then submitting the work for regrading; and allowing another person to do one’s work and to submit the work under one’s own name or otherwise not following the rules or instruction to gain an advantage.

Fabrication

Presenting data in a piece of work not gathered in accordance with guidelines defining the appropriate methods for collecting or generating data and failing to include a substantially accurate account of the method by which the data were generated or collected.

Aiding and Abetting Dishonesty

Providing material or information to another person with knowledge that these materials or information will be used improperly pursuant to Florida Statutes 877.17 (1).