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[conjugate]

I'd rat them out in a heartbeat.  Allowing a plagiarist to retain his or her degree cheapens my degree and those of my colleagues and friends.

[larryc]

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.

*checks mignon's dissertation*

Uh-oh...

[mignon]

And I would've gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling kids.

[aandsdean]

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.

Reaming a plagiarist does make the world a better place.  How can we ask students to be honest, and punish them when they're not, if we don't hold ourselves to the same standard?

Reducing the net quantity of hypocrisy in the world, even if only microscopically, is a great service to humanity.

[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.

Reaming a plagiarist does make the world a better place.  How can we ask students to be honest, and punish them when they're not, if we don't hold ourselves to the same standard?

I didn't say it wouldn't. I just meant that it's good to ask that question, and if your answer is "yes", then do what you think is right.

[msparticularity]

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.

Reaming a plagiarist does make the world a better place.  How can we ask students to be honest, and punish them when they're not, if we don't hold ourselves to the same standard?

Reducing the net quantity of hypocrisy in the world, even if only microscopically, is a great service to humanity.

Not only that, but in the current era, and with the job market being what it is--wouldn't it be better if the people who have jobs had actually done their own work? And wouldn't it be preferable to get rid of those who hadn't, so people who had worked hard (rather than plagiarizing) could have a chance at those jobs?

[mad_doctor]

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.

Reaming a plagiarist does make the world a better place.  How can we ask students to be honest, and punish them when they're not, if we don't hold ourselves to the same standard?

Reducing the net quantity of hypocrisy in the world, even if only microscopically, is a great service to humanity.

Not only that, but in the current era, and with the job market being what it is--wouldn't it be better if the people who have jobs had actually done their own work? And wouldn't it be preferable to get rid of those who hadn't, so people who had worked hard (rather than plagiarizing) could have a chance at those jobs?

<heavy sigh>  That would be nice.

[instructorman]

So, uh, I guess we're not going to be calling "hu" out at the old national conference this year, huh?

[pinkmouse]

People just don't expect to get caught.
I heard of one case of self-plagiarism, in which a student came to do a PhD in the US from another country. This person was studying the literature of the country from which they came. There was an external reader called in to assess the dissertation, and this professor recognized what he was reading: he'd assessed it (in the student's native language) a few years before, as a Master's thesis the student had completed in their home country. Student had just translated it to English and submitted it as a PhD diss.

Back to the OP: drop the dime on this charlatan.

[august_leo]

Yes, you have to do something.

Given that you will do something, take a few hours and see how much you can find that is plagiarized. You said you found 3 passages already. 3 passages isn't sloppy, it's lazy, unprofessional and wrong.

[mad_doctor]

People just don't expect to get caught.
I heard of one case of self-plagiarism, in which a student came to do a PhD in the US from another country. This person was studying the literature of the country from which they came. There was an external reader called in to assess the dissertation, and this professor recognized what he was reading: he'd assessed it (in the student's native language) a few years before, as a Master's thesis the student had completed in their home country. Student had just translated it to English and submitted it as a PhD diss.

Back to the OP: drop the dime on this charlatan.

This raises an intersting question.  If it is possible to plagiarize oneself, at what point does it become plagiarism? 

(After that, I'd really like to know what is the sound of one hand clapping, or a tree falling in the forest when nobody is there to hear it?  Can water float? What would the world be like if babies could name themselves?) 

[conjugate]

(What would the world be like if babies could name themselves?) 

Lots of people named Gah Goo, for one thing.  It would make proper citation difficult.

"As Dr. Gah Goo said concerning Gah Goo's seminal explication of the poems of Gah Goo,...."

It might cause a redefinition of plagiarism as we know it.

[jerseyjay]

Sure it might have been copied from the dissertation, I'm willing to entertain this, but in that case why does it not appear as attributed in later publications and if he made the entry himself on wikipedia why doesn't she just cite herself on wikipedia (after all that exact same passage appears in two published articles).

This part is in jest, no? The only thing more pathetic than citing Wikipedia seriously is to cite your own Wikipedia entry. (The only thing more pathetic than that would be plagiarising Wikipedia, which is what seems to have happened).

I have to say that when I first read this thread it made me nervous, since there are certain Wikipedia entries I made (from, what it is worth, a foreign country) based on my dissertation. (However, I did cite my dissertation in the Wikipedia entry, which was actually the whole point, to publicise my thesis more: now, if you search my name, the Wikipedia entry comes up, which is either sorta cool or scary. It is also interesting how many other websites use Wikipedia copy as their own.) I am also not a rising star, however.

As for the person who plagiarised his own MA dissertation. Okay, this is bad. However, if an MA can then be resubmitted as a PhD thesis, and approved by his supervisor and committee, this indicates that a)the criteria for a MA dissertation are too high or b) the criteria for a PhD thesis are too low. For what it is worth, the basis for my own PhD thesis is a) my BA thesis (itself based on a term-paper in my Junior year) and b) a seminar paper I wrote in grad school. And some it has since made it into peer-reviewed publications. Of course, in the interim, it has undergone massive revisions, but probably some of the verbiage is the same. So my professor from Junior year might "recognize" part of my most recent article--and, maybe even my book, when I finally get it done.  (For what it is worth, I cited my BA thesis in my PhD thesis.)

[mad_doctor]

(What would the world be like if babies could name themselves?) 

Lots of people named Gah Goo, for one thing.  It would make proper citation difficult.

"As Dr. Gah Goo said concerning Gah Goo's seminal explication of the poems of Gah Goo,...."

It might cause a redefinition of plagiarism as we know it.

8-D

[threepoint14]

This concept makes me a bit nervous.  My thesis introduction shares a few sentences that I wrote for wikipedia a few years ago, so I hope anyone would take the time to find my non-anonymous user name in the list of editors.  

But it is funny that just yesterday I was reading a student's thesis and found they had plagiarized this very text.  I was rather proud that it was considered good enough to steal, but do plan to give them a hard time about it.