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[boston]

What are your thoughts on plagiarizing your own unpublished papers? When you are working on your dissertation, is it unethical to recycle phrases or even whole paragraphs from earlier coursework? Most plagiarism guidelines say this is a gray area so I was wondering what my fellow forumites thought about it. Thanks in advance for your answers.

[mouseman]

If using your own unpublished work is plagiarism, than how could you publish anything?  Doesn't that describe anything you write until it's accepted for publication?

[hipgeek]

I though the ideal grad school situation was to have previous work feed/ inform your dissertation.

[boston]

I was always taught that it was unethical to reuse academic papers, even if they were unpublished. For example, a paper written for one class should not be submitted to fulfill a course requirement in another class.  I've heard that this is called "double-dipping."

I just wondered if this logic held true for the dissertation as well.

[hipgeek]

I was always taught that it was unethical to reuse academic papers, even if they were unpublished. For example, a paper written for one class should not be submitted to fulfill a course requirement in another class.  I've heard that this is called "double-dipping."

I just wondered if this logic held true for the dissertation as well.

As an undergrad, this could be unethical.  For the dissertation, I think reusing phrases or paragraphs is perfectly fine.

[boston]

As an undergrad, this could be unethical.  For the dissertation, I think reusing phrases or paragraphs is perfectly fine.

What about whole sections? How much is too much? What are the official guidelines?

[systeme_d_]

Boston, there are no official guidelines, and this is not a gray area.

You can drop the entirety of a paper you wrote during coursework, or an entire comprehensive exam into your dissertation.  Just cut, then paste.  I did.

I now encourage my MA students to tailor their coursework research papers so they can be used in their theses.

The example that you called "double dipping" is a problem because each professor expects a student to carry out a certain amount of work for their class, not just substitute assignments from another class.

Using previous unpublished work in a diss is not at all the same thing.

[heynonnynonnymouse]

You're talking about two different situations:

Taking a paper you submitted for one class and resubmitting the same paper in another class (or even large chunks of the same paper) is not, per se, plagiarism, but it is cheating, because each prof is expecting you to do original work for his/her class. (Unless, of course, you've spoken with the professor and s/he is on the same page as you, and knows what you're recycling from a previous course. I've done this before successfully by simply asking, and then expanding upon a shorter paper/project in the new class, because I wanted to retool something for possible publication.)

Taking a paper (or parts of a paper) you submitted for one class and putting it into your thesis/dissertation is not just not plagiarism, but expected.

[nowave]

If you feel bad about recycling something, why not put it in a footnote and see if anyone finds it odd?

[soupandsalad]

Although I'm also under the impression diss. work often draws pretty directly from seminar papers, etc. - I would check your university's code of "ethics" or honor that defines the ins-and-outs of what it considers to be unethical.  Using any past coursework to fulfill other courses' requirements is usually on there as "unethical" - though I'm not sure if that applies to a disseratation.

[jerseyjay]

When I was in grad school (in history), we were encouraged to use our seminar papers as sort of rough drafts for part  of our dissertation. What better way to get to know both the primary and secondary sources? In fact, if a student didn't base his dissertation at least in part on previous writings, I would think he had needlessly wasted his earlier research.

Most of what I write is somehow connected to something else I have written. As an undergraduate, I wrote a term paper in a class and the professor suggested I expand it into my senior thesis. My doctoral dissertation consisted of a massively expanded senior thesis along with the revised results of different seminar papers. My first few articles were based on my dissertation. My current work, while very different, uses this work as a stepping off point. (I also have work that has nothing to do with any of this.)

Rules against "Self-plagiarism" (in inverted commas because it is not the same as normal plagiarism) are meant to make sure that somebody doesn't use the same work and claim it is actually two different works. Examples include a student turning in the same paper for two classes--which defeats the purpose of the assigned work in the first place--or publishing the same paper in two different journals. There is not intellectual theft going on, but there is intellectual dishonesty.

[boston]

I would check your university's code of "ethics" or honor that defines the ins-and-outs of what it considers to be unethical.  Using any past coursework to fulfill other courses' requirements is usually on there as "unethical" - though I'm not sure if that applies to a disseratation.

This is exactly what prompted my question in the first place! My university's code of academic integrity forbids the practice of using one paper to fulfill requirements in more than one class. Dissertations or theses are not specifically mentioned. This issue has sparked an interesting debate among my fellow grad students, most of whom think that the dissertation would be an exception to the integrity rule.

Like I said, I was just looking for some outside opinions. Thanks to everyone who replied.

[systeme_d_]

For goodness' sake, ask your DGS.

And your dissertation is not "a class."

And are you sure you're looking at the Graduate Student Handbook, and not the Student Handbook (for undergrads)?  They're two completely separate things at my university, and I would guess at most.

[mouseman]

Actually, I have an article published in Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society which is an expanded version of a paper from a class.  The professor who taught the class is my co-author.

I only got a B on the paper.

[boston]

For goodness' sake, ask your DGS.

For goodness' sake, I will. Like I said (twice), I wanted some outside opinions first. Thanks for your compassionate advice.