tom74
tumescent but
Junior member
Posts: 83
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« on: October 29, 2009, 10:19:19 PM » |
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I was looking at a PhD Thesis online and noticed that a 100 word passage was cut and paste (it is exactly the same words, same odrer) directly from wikipedia (uncited). This is absolutely irrefutable, the same passage also appears in two of this scholars official publications.
This person is now a rising star in their subfield.
What should I do? Advice please!
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mad_doctor
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« Reply #1 on: October 29, 2009, 10:22:22 PM » |
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How do you know the author of the dissertation [or someone else] didn't copy from the dissertation and post it to Wikipedia?
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svenc
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« Reply #2 on: October 29, 2009, 10:23:26 PM » |
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Presumably the PhD thesis was written some time ago. Are you sure that the scholar in question didn't post the excerpt to Wikipedia afterward?
You can check the Wikipedia page's edit history to see when the material was posted, and if it was posted all in one go.
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In foris veritas.
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tom74
tumescent but
Junior member
Posts: 83
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« Reply #3 on: October 29, 2009, 10:25:34 PM » |
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Oh good point, I should probably mention that I used various tools available on wikipedia to track the date of that entry and its three years previous to the dissertation, oh and it was made in a location that was in another country on the other side of the world.
Thanks mad_doctor
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mended_drum
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« Reply #4 on: October 29, 2009, 10:26:28 PM » |
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Okay, tell us who it is.
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helpful
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« Reply #5 on: October 29, 2009, 10:27:15 PM » |
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I know of an entire dissertation that was plagarized. The supervisor in question is no longer teaching at the university in question.
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tom74
tumescent but
Junior member
Posts: 83
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« Reply #6 on: October 29, 2009, 10:28:12 PM » |
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Okay, tell us who it is.
I was kind of hoping that I could get some feedback on whether this is a big deal or not, before I started naming names. |
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peppergal
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« Reply #7 on: October 29, 2009, 10:30:05 PM » |
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Wasn't there a case of a degree being revoked when it was discovered that the dissertation was plagiarized? I forget the details, but I have a vague recollection of having read this somewhere.
You could contact the person's committee (aren't they listed in the front matter of the thesis), but I don't know how effective that would be. Or if it might backfire on you?
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helpful
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« Reply #8 on: October 29, 2009, 10:32:13 PM » |
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Just give us the wiki page. Then you aren't naming names or pointing fingers; only leaving it up to enterprising forumites to do the searching.
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instructorman
New member
Posts: 48
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« Reply #9 on: October 29, 2009, 10:33:05 PM » |
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Take "hu" down!
(Best done during hu's presentation at hu's national conference.)
And time it so the school paper's in on the stunt!
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hegemony
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« Reply #10 on: October 29, 2009, 10:36:58 PM » |
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How can you tell which country the Wikipedia entry was posted from?
Also, how do you know that the Wikipedia entry wasn't copied from the dissertation? I know this has been asked already, but I don't follow. Presumably the dissertation-writer wrote much of the dissertation before the final deadline, so the fact that the Wikipedia entry was posted three years before doesn't mean that it couldn't have been posted on Wikipedia direct from a draft of the dissertation.
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Tragedy tomorrow, comedy tonight.
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mad_doctor
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« Reply #11 on: October 29, 2009, 10:40:18 PM » |
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I'd make sure I knew for certain that the author of the dissertation isn't also responsible for the Wikipedia entries before I made a big deal about it. Three years isn't so long that he couldn't have done it while he was dissertating, perhaps even dissertating while in the field in some far corner of the world. I posted a lot of stuff in various places while I was dissertating, and most of it's probably still out there. Using the same reasoning, somebody might conclude that I plagiarized some other mad doctor's posts on an obscure message board or website on some back alley of the Internet.
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tom74
tumescent but
Junior member
Posts: 83
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« Reply #12 on: October 29, 2009, 10:52:04 PM » |
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hegemony & mad_doctor,
Thank you for your very reasoned posts.
hegemony: everyone who edits wikipedia is traceable based on their IP address which is public in the history section of every entry.
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).
I appreciate the levity mad_doctor, I'm just here to get a consensus from the community, thanks to everyone who has posted.
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larryc
Hu hatin'
Distinguished Senior Member
Posts: 17,571
Eschew the hu.
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« Reply #13 on: October 29, 2009, 11:00:50 PM » |
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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.
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hegemony
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« Reply #14 on: October 29, 2009, 11:08:08 PM » |
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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.
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Tragedy tomorrow, comedy tonight.
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