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[tom74]

I'll bet there is plenty more in that diss that is plagiarized from different sources. I'd put together your evidence and send it to the plagiarist's diss advisor, the dean of graduate studies, and the department chair.

Thanks larryc

[galactic_hedgehog]

I know about the history section of Wikipedia, but how can you find out which country they're in?  If I post something as Hegemony on Wikipedia, can you tell whether I'm posting it from the U.S. or Outer Mongolia?  My other question, of course, would be whether you know that the author of the dissertation was never in the country you identified as the origin of the post.

I've certainly posted on my subject to Wikipedia, for what that's worth.  So it could happen.

IP addresses, which can be traced geographically, are recorded for anonymous edits.  If the contributor/editor is logged-in, however, the IP is not recorded.

[hegemony]

So if the contributor was logged in, you can click on the name and get the list of other things they've edited.  Which might help point toward the dissertation author, or not, but it's a start.  But I'm guessing the contributor was not logged in?

[tom74]

I know about the history section of Wikipedia, but how can you find out which country they're in?  If I post something as Hegemony on Wikipedia, can you tell whether I'm posting it from the U.S. or Outer Mongolia?  My other question, of course, would be whether you know that the author of the dissertation was never in the country you identified as the origin of the post.

I've certainly posted on my subject to Wikipedia, for what that's worth.  So it could happen.

You just need to know what the numbers in their IP address mean, then you can tell roughly where its posted from, say with the specificity of (in the US) what state they are in when they posted it. But you are right, there is reason to be skeptical.

-Thanks galactic_hedgehog

I'm sure it does happen, and I am a great proponent of wikipedia. But why would you publish to wikipedia without referencing the quotation of yourself (which is plagiarism) or copy from your own post to wikipedia without referencing wikipedia (which is also plagiarism).

Luckily another direct uncited quote from another source (not wikipedia) has just emerged.

[galactic_hedgehog]

I know about the history section of Wikipedia, but how can you find out which country they're in?  If I post something as Hegemony on Wikipedia, can you tell whether I'm posting it from the U.S. or Outer Mongolia?  My other question, of course, would be whether you know that the author of the dissertation was never in the country you identified as the origin of the post.

I've certainly posted on my subject to Wikipedia, for what that's worth.  So it could happen.

You just need to know what the numbers in their IP address mean, then you can tell roughly where its posted from, say with the specificity of (in the US) what state they are in when they posted it. But you are right, there is reason to be skeptical.

There are websites that do it for you, of course.  For example: http://www.ip-adress.com/ip_tracer/

[tom74]

A third case was just found... again non-wikipedia.

larryc is right ounce again!

[history_grrrl]

I'm as opposed to plagiarism as the next person, but OP: do you have a lot of time on your hands to be looking up passages from someone's dissertation on line, or is it that you're so familiar with others' work that you're recognizing it as you read the dissertation? I hope it's the latter.

[larryc]

Somewhere a rising star is sleeping soundly, never dreaming that his career is coming apart...

Tom74, you need to do the right thing and bring this to light. But do not revel in this ugly business. Build the case, send it off, then mourn a bit for the poor bastard.

[peppergal]

Somewhere a rising star is sleeping soundly, never dreaming that his career is coming apart...

Tom74, you need to do the right thing and bring this to light. But do not revel in this ugly business. Build the case, send it off, then mourn a bit for the poor bastard.

I agree with all of this except the last bit.  The poor bastard deserves no mourning -- s/he knew what could happen when s/he plagiarized the dissertation.

[tom74]

Somewhere a rising star is sleeping soundly, never dreaming that his career is coming apart...

Tom74, you need to do the right thing and bring this to light. But do not revel in this ugly business. Build the case, send it off, then mourn a bit for the poor bastard.

You're right dude, I'm out...

[mignon]

I'm in the minority, but I say drop it.

If you're going to "do the right thing," bike to work and volunteer at a homeless shelter, for God's sake.

[seniorscholar]

I'll bet there is plenty more in that diss that is plagiarized from different sources. I'd put together your evidence and send it to the plagiarist's diss advisor, the dean of graduate studies, and the department chair.

And, if the author is currently employed in academia, to the department chair and dean. At my university, at least, they would really want to know -- and, after an internal review of the evidence, would not renew the contract of an untenured person and possibly (depending on various issues) even start a process to de-tenure an already tenured faculty member.

[buglet]

You know, if the dissertation was mostly plagiarized, then I wouldn't have a problem with the person losing their job, tenured or not.  (I don't know why their tenure status would be a distinction, really....). But to me it depends on the degree.  Was it sloppiness, or was it deliberate copying of pages and pages and pages? Is it 2% of the total, or 92% that is copied?   I've found very close paraphrases of my work in other scholars' stuff that wasn't acknowledged in a footnote, but my book was in their bibliography.  That technically is plagiarism, but I've not thought it worth ruining someone's career over it.  It may have been an oversight, something may have gone amiss with copyediting.  It happens.

I also do wonder about the motivations of the accuser.  Rival?  Jealous? Is it a case they are being plagiarized themselves?  Ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend?  Seems a strange past time to be looking over others' work hoping to catch them out and/or ruin their life and career.

[aandsdean]

You know, if the dissertation was mostly plagiarized, then I wouldn't have a problem with the person losing their job, tenured or not.  (I don't know why their tenure status would be a distinction, really....). But to me it depends on the degree.  Was it sloppiness, or was it deliberate copying of pages and pages and pages? Is it 2% of the total, or 92% that is copied?   I've found very close paraphrases of my work in other scholars' stuff that wasn't acknowledged in a footnote, but my book was in their bibliography.  That technically is plagiarism, but I've not thought it worth ruining someone's career over it.  It may have been an oversight, something may have gone amiss with copyediting.  It happens.

I also do wonder about the motivations of the accuser.  Rival?  Jealous? Is it a case they are being plagiarized themselves?  Ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend?  Seems a strange past time to be looking over others' work hoping to catch them out and/or ruin their life and career.

Cut and paste of 100 words is very close to the line.  Significantly more than that (say a page or more), and I'd have no reservations whatever about terminating someone over it.  It would take our faculty senate maybe 10 minutes to give me the authorization to revoke someone's tenure over this kind of thing.

At my school, before I got here, we caught someone who'd plagiarized from the dissertation of the (get this) brother of someone on our faculty (they were all in the same discipline and had state bureaucracy reasons for looking at each others' work).  Our people notified the doctoral institution and the degree was revoked, though the malefactor is still employed at the institution where hu worked before the discovery.  It tells me something about that institution that I'd rather not know.

[cranefly]

A wise person once said to me, that before they do something along these lines, they ask themselves, "will my actions make the world a better place"?


Of course, there's always the blackmail option.