Academic Honesty at Florida Tech

Academic Honesty is an important policy at Florida Tech and throughout any university. Without honesty in academia, learning can be compromised and results can be fraudulent. Adhering to the tenets of Academic Honesty ensures an environment of integrity and maintains the value of your education. During the Florida Tech 101 talk at Orientation, Dean Bowers spoke with our new students to make sure they understood how seriously we take Academic Honesty at our university.

Most students are familiar with the concept of Academic Honesty because they have been made aware of plagiarism. Plagiarism is one of the most common threats to academic honesty on college campuses and may be punished by removal of a grade for an assignment, a failing grade in the course, or even dismissal from the university.
For some students, plagiarism can be difficult to recognize. Some common examples of plagiarism are:

Using another person’s words as your own. This includes copying homework, lab notes, computer code, or any other material created by another person that you will turn in for a grade. Paying someone to write papers is also considered academically dishonest; those who sell their writing to aid another person in academically dishonest activities can also face serious consequences. In most cases, both (or all) students who plagiarize in this fashion will receive no credit for the assignment and could face additional reprimand.
Using another person’s ideas or theories and not giving them credit. Learning how to properly cite sources for quotes, facts, diagrams, tables, and images is important to maintaining the tenets of academic honesty. The most common example is when students write papers and do not cite their sources. This can cause students to lose points during grading, or in some cases, not receive credit for the entire project.
Using information that is not considered common knowledge. This usually happens when a student writes a paper and does not properly cite sources. When in doubt, cite your sources!

Learn about Academic Honesty by reading “Academic Integrity & Academic Dishonesty: A Handbook About Cheating & Plagiarism” by Dr. Lars R. Jones.