Academic Honesty

Academic Honesty: Statement For Students: (developed by the PSC Faculty Senate) Academic honesty is vital to the Prairie State College community. It is a cornerstone of the faculty-student relationship and central to your success as a student. Both faculty and students must uphold standards of academic honesty and institutional integrity.
  • Submit your own original work.
  • Carefully and clearly cite all language and ideas that are not your own.
  • Be aware of the challenges and complexities of source use.
  • Understand the appropriate level of collaboration allowed for an assignment: working with others is helpful, but it can make it hard to separate your work from your classmates'.
  • Know that it is ultimately your responsibility to be academically honest: being unaware of the rules of academic honesty is not an excuse.
  • Ask for help when you are unclear.

  • Define academic honesty in the context of their courses.
  • Clarify the consequences for violations.

  • Cheating: Turning in work that is not your own, copying answers, acquiring advance copies of exams, using materials that are not permitted, etc. This includes using a website or app to solve problems for you and then presenting the answers or work as your own.
  • Plagiarism: Inappropriate source use such as poor paraphrasing, incorrect citations, and unattributed source use. All language from sources must be in quotation marks and all ideas taken from sources should be cited.
  • Repurposing: Submitting work from another class or institution and without instructor's consent.
  • Imitation/Proxy: Having someone else represent you for the purpose of doing your work.
  • Falsification/Fabrication: Falsely attributing ideas or language to a source. This includes falsifying data in a lab.
  • Enabling Dishonesty: Knowingly allowing another student to submit or copy from your own work.

Consequences for academic dishonesty are based on the severity of the offense and are determined at the discretion of the instructor. Consequences can include mandatory revision of an assignment, failure of an assignment, failure of a class, or suspension from the college.

Remember: academic dishonesty is avoidable. If you have questions, ask your instructor

Right to Know

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