Plagiarism

[thesauce]

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Three years ago, I did a poster presentation for a summer research program. I worked my tail off making the poster perfect and I won an award for it at the end of the summer.

Today, I was searching online for information on that work and I found a poster that was virtually identical to mine that was submitted 2 years ago by someone who worked in that lab with me. Normall this wouldn't bother me, but it didn't mention my contribution at all, not even in the acknowledgments section. It mentioned every other person in the lab and even some of the surrounding labs, but not a word about me, and I did all of the work. I did mention the individual on my poster, BTW.

So now I'm wondering what to do about this. Would you report it? It doesn't effect me, but it's still unethical and I may have an obligation to do something. I would appreciate your input.

 

[Ignition]

I would contact the author, inform him of the issue and see how he responds. If he ignores the inquiry or responds in a way that is less-than-acceptable for you, then it is probably appropriate to start looking at other options if this is something that is personally/professionally important to you.

 

[schrizto]

I would report it. That would piss me off.

 

[FlowRate]

I hate plagiarism. IMO it's the worst sort of academic offense. I agree with Ignition on what you should do.

 

[thesauce]

I would contact the author, inform him of the issue and see how he responds. If he ignores the inquiry or responds in a way that is less-than-acceptable for you, then it is probably appropriate to start looking at other options if this is something that is personally/professionally important to you.

I hadn't considered contacting them directly. What kind of response should I be looking for? Now that "the damage" is done, does it make sense to give them the chance to talk their way out of it?

 

[Compass]

Contact the PI of the lab you worked with. He should be more capable of handling this matter, and would probably be able to IMPARTIALLY assist you in the destruction of this plagiarist like a pugilist. He will probably also contact the journal. Whoever did this is going to get his life RUINED X_X.

Plagiarism cannot be safely terminated at the source, IMO. If he did this on yours, who's to say he hasn't done it to others? Normally, following plagiarism, work from the person is examined again to verify if there are any other possible cases.

 

[schrizto]

I agree, find the PI! I'm surprised he/she didn't catch onto this.

 

[Ignition]

I hadn't considered contacting them directly. What kind of response should I be looking for? Now that "the damage" is done, does it make sense to give them the chance to talk their way out of it?

Well ultimately whether you wish to pursue the matter further is your decision, not his.

If you send such a message using email, it may be worthwhile to CC your PI. This will inform him of the situation well as send a message to your colleague that you are serious about this.

Personally, I always like giving people a chance to explain themselves and reserve escalating situations if I find their response unsatisfactory. It will also demonstrate to your PI that you are seeking less intrusive avenues, which no doubt he will appreciate considering BOTH of you were part of his team and any negative PR from this may come back to reflect poorly upon him.

From your post it seems that your primary objective is to ensure your receipt of proper credit, not create as much collateral damage as possible. I think the above recommendations would be in line with accomplishing this.

 

[Chemdude]

I know plagiarism is a really stupid/low act, but I wouldn't tell on the plagiariser. If you decide to turn this guy in, then you are basically ruining the rest of his academic life. I'd contact him and try to see why he plagiarized my work. Then I'd demand an apology and ask for some kind of compensation($$$).

 

[schrizto]

If you decide to turn this guy in, then you are basically ruining the rest of his academic life.

So? Do you want the plagiarizer to keep doing it?

 

[Chemdude]

So? Do you want the plagiarizer to keep doing it?

No...I wouldn't tell on a plagiarizer because I would feel guilty about messing up the persons life.

 

[Compass]

No...I wouldn't tell on a plagiarizer because I would feel guilty about messing up the persons life.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adnan_Hajj_photographs_controversy

Oops. It's what you get for doing so. It's just punishment for an unjust act.

 

[Ignition]

No...I wouldn't tell on a plagiarizer because I would feel guilty about messing up the persons life.

Good luck defending that position in an interview setting.

 

[235009]

is this person you're talking about a fellow undergrad or does he outrank you in the hierarchy (grad student, post-doc, etc)?

if it's the latter you should proceed with caution

chemdude, i hope you're joking about the monetary compensation...that's ridiculous

basically the best idea is send the person an email and CC the PI and see what happens. also don't be too confrontational. at the end of the day the person might just say that they overlooked you and that's that. it's only a poster ...who cares. if it were a publication then that would be a different story. your goal should be to remind that person and the PI of your contribution so you aren't left out of the publication.

 

[Chemdude]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adnan_Hajj_photographs_controversy

Oops. It's what you get for doing so. It's just punishment for an unjust act.

The Adnan Hajj controversy doesn't have any relation to plagiarism...

Anyway, I totally agree with you; plagiarizers should get punished. It's just that I don't want to play a role in their punishment. Again, I would feel guilty about screwing over the persons life.

 

[RochChalk]

No...I wouldn't tell on a plagiarizer because I would feel guilty about messing up the persons life.

They knew what risks they were taking when they plagiarized. It would be their fault for cheating and messing their own life up.

 

[Chemdude]

chemdude, i hope you're joking about the monetary compensation...that's ridiculous

Why? If you take a plagiarizer to court what happens? Their life gets ruined and they have to compensate you for illegally benefiting from your work.

 

[Compass]

The Adnan Hajj controversy doesn't have any relation to plagiarism...

Anyway, I totally agree with you; plagiarizers should get punished. It's just that I don't want to play a role in their punishment. Again, I would feel guilty about screwing over the persons life.

Oops I posted the wrong link as I was wikiscouring. Grrr, I can't find remember what the story was *bangs head on keyboard.*

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/41458/title/Study_finds_lots_of_apparent_plagiarism

Lives ruined.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,535842,00.html

Life ruined.

 

[thesauce]

is this person you're talking about a fellow undergrad or does he outrank you in the hierarchy (grad student, post-doc, etc)?

if it's the latter you should proceed with caution

Quite the opposite, I was a med student and the individual was, and as far as I know still is, an undergrad.

 

[schrizto]

Quite the opposite, I was a med student and the individual was, and as far as I know still is, an undergrad.

So what are you going to do? If you do decide to contact the people involved, let us know what happens, I'm interested in the result.

 

[235009]

the work is technically not yours it's your PI's

also noone's life is gonna get ruined because they didn't put an undergrad's name on a poster. ppl on here need to put things into perspective...the articles linked above are many orders of magnitude above what you guys are talking about here.

 

[thesauce]

the work is technically not yours it's your PI's

also noone's life is gonna get ruined because they didn't put an undergrad's name on a poster. ppl on here need to put things into perspective...the articles linked above are many orders of magnitude above what you guys are talking about here.

By "work," I meant not only the experiments themselves, but every bit of the writing, image-creation, and image-formatting on the poster. The latter contributions do not belong to the PI. BTW, I was a med student at the time.

 

[thesauce]

So what are you going to do? If you do decide to contact the people involved, let us know what happens, I'm interested in the result.

I need to think on it a bit more. Regardless of skinMD's opinion, I believe it will be a serious blemish on the individual's record and I don't know if the act warrants that. I would like an explanation, though.

No, I'm not going to ask for money (even though god knows I need it!)

 

[Disinence2]

Who cares?

 

[loveoforganic]

I agree with messaging the individual and cc'ing the PI. Academic plagiarism is the suck.

 

[greatnt249]

Why? If you take a plagiarizer to court what happens? Their life gets ruined and they have to compensate you for illegally benefiting from your work.

What part of the bolded word doesn't bother you enough to seek clarification of the issue in a civil manner? It's not about seeking punishment for the act; it's about not letting others walk all over you after you've done an enormous amount of work on a project.

 

[Compass]

I need to think on it a bit more. Regardless of skinMD's opinion, I believe it will be a serious blemish on the individual's record and I don't know if the act warrants that. I would like an explanation, though.

No, I'm not going to ask for money (even though god knows I need it!)

Talk to the PI then. The PI at the very least needs to know. If it's not your stuff, it's his stuff.

 

[dartmed]

Edit

 

[1TB4RKSB4CK]

Forget him, report his plagiarizing butt! Give him no chance, if it will ruin his career chances then so be it. He chose to do that himself by copying word from word and not even mentioning your name.
Sickening.

 

[thesauce]

I spoke to the person who copied my poster and she apologized. I let it go at that. I didn't want to ruin her life, just thought this was in bad taste. I'm too busy to care anymore and she's a med student now.

 

[dartmed]

I spoke to the person who copied my poster and she apologized. I let it go at that. I didn't want to ruin her life, just thought this was in bad taste. I'm too busy to care anymore and she's a med student now.

Do you think I did the right thing?
I mean plagiarism is one thing, but stealing from the college? I guess I already reported it so it doesn't matter.

I thought I would get implicated if I didn't say anything. 🙁

 

[kduck]

Do you think I did the right thing?
I mean plagiarism is one thing, but stealing from the college? I guess I already reported it so it doesn't matter.

I thought I would get implicated if I didn't say anything. 🙁

Ethics are always tricky, but I think you did the right thing. Of course you feel conflicted and upset that someone you know has done something wrong and now must be punished. However, if everyone let this kind of behavior slide, the world would be chaos. It's not fair that someone has decided to appropriate resources meant to benefit the entire university for her own benefit, and she knew it was wrong when she did it. You don't need to feel badly about anything.

 

[werd]

sauce, i agree, i think that's probably what i would have done too.

undergrads can feel (and actually be) pretty lost working in labs... omitting credit for others' work can often be an error or omission rather than an intent to take the credit. on the other hand, they need to know that your name should be on it, and to talk to you before making such a similar poster. if it were a grad student i'd be less forgiving.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

I am going to (mostly) disagree with the sentiments here.

If the plagiarism was an honest mistake, that's one thing. If someone uses a figure you created and forgets to reference it, that's not that big of a deal.

But the sense I get from what's posted here is that the person basically completely copied thesauce's work and presented it as their own. I think it should be completely clear, to anyone at any level, that this is wrong. So, the person involved either 1) doesn't care and just takes the easy way out and copies someone else's work, or 2) was under "pressure" to produce something, and hence copied.

In either case, this will happen again to this person. Bad decisions like this are not usually one time things. (I have no evidence for this statement, but it does seem to match what I've seen in real life. Then again, I guess I'd be unlikely to discover the person who plagiarizes once and then stops).

So:

1. This person is likely to plagiarize again. As they move forward in their training, the net effect of being caught increases exponentially.

2. If you "turn someone in" for plagiarism at a very early stage in their career, it's usually recoverable. perhaps this person would no longer be able to get a letter from this research mentor. That wouldn't end their medical career, but would be a big bump in the road. But, hopefully, this would teach them the price that can be paid for taking the easy way out.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that, IMHO, the humane thing to do is report this to their supervisor. Any problems created in their life are their own. And, if you don't, behavior like this is likely to repeat and will only lead to bigger problems down the road.

 

[gettheleadout]

I have to say I would have reported the undergrad, apology or not. He/she intentionally copied thesauce's work nearly word for word, and I agree with APD that this only gives them license to do it again.

 

[adagio]

This is also, in the spirit of this thread, very interesting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Darsee

 

[LizzyM]

One interesting point that has been overlooked: The accused was an author on the first poster. Does recyling a previous poster on which you were an author rise to the level of plagiarism? I agree that the student who contributed most of the work to the first poster should have been acknowledged or offered authorship the second time around but I do think that being an author on a poster and then producing a second poster out of the same lab is a gray area.

 

[thesauce]

One interesting point that has been overlooked: The accused was an author on the first poster. Does recyling a previous poster on which you were an author rise to the level of plagiarism? I agree that the student who contributed most of the work to the first poster should have been acknowledged or offered authorship the second time around but I do think that being an author on a poster and then producing a second poster out of the same lab is a gray area.

This was really my view on the whole thing. The UG helped with the experiments and gave credit to all involved except me. Why not me is a little unclear, but I got the impression that it was an honest mistake and, knowing the hot button topic that plagiarism is, I didn't want to inhibit this UG's future career options.

The individual had worked hard for years through school and research, MCAT, volunteering, shadowing, etc. and I didn't want everything they had done to be washed away by one (possibly incidental) mistake.

However, I did want to point out the error so they might be more careful in the future. I think it was appropriate to speak to the person directly to rectify the matter before escalating to higher levels. I did this and I hope that they learned their lesson.

 

[soundnin]

good handling of situation, good result.

on another note, why does everyone in this thread think this would destroy the other person's career? 😕

 

[LizzyM]

good handling of situation, good result.

on another note, why does everyone in this thread think this would destroy the other person's career? 😕

Because this is seen as an unforgivable sin in academic circles.

 

[soundnin]

Because this is seen as an unforgivable sin in academic circles.

i agree that the ex-labmate should have asked OP for permission to use the poster as a courtesy (or given some acknowledgement, whatever), but i disagree that it is an unforgivable sin. from my experience poster recycling from conference to conference between lab members (current and ex) is quite common in academic circles.

 

[LizzyM]

i agree that the ex-labmate should have asked OP for permission to use the poster as a courtesy (or given some acknowledgement, whatever), but i disagree that it is an unforgivable sin. from my experience poster recycling from conference to conference between lab members (current and ex) is quite common in academic circles.

Having an IA on one's record for plagiarism is an application killer. Whether somone who recycles a poster that they co-authored is guilty of plagiarism is debatable and I would argue that it is not. It seems that the injured party decided to be judge and jury, find the accused "not guilty" and let it go. I agree that the outcome was reasonable in that case. Other cases are more clear cut cases of outright theft and most academics will take a hard line on such a act.

 

[soundnin]

Having an IA on one's record for plagiarism is an application killer. Whether somone who recycles a poster that they co-authored is guilty of plagiarism is debatable and I would argue that it is not. It seems that the injured party decided to be judge and jury, find the accused "not guilty" and let it go. I agree that the outcome was reasonable in that case. Other cases are more clear cut cases of outright theft and most academics will take a hard line on such a act.

totally agree IA's are serious and totally agree if OP had tried to take that path, it would have been over the top and probably wouldn't be able to follow through even if he wanted to.

hence my original question - why does everyone in this thread seem to think OP had any chance of destroying this person's career. in my mind, people were blowing this wayyyyyyyyyyyy out of proportion.

 

[thesauce]

totally agree IA's are serious and totally agree if OP had tried to take that path, it would have been over the top and probably wouldn't be able to follow through even if he wanted to.

hence my original question - why does everyone in this thread seem to think OP had any chance of destroying this person's career. in my mind, people were blowing this wayyyyyyyyyyyy out of proportion.

I'm not sure how many different ways we can explain it. The person copied a poster for a school project and didn't acknowledge the first author on the original work, who wrote all the figures and texts. If you don't think this is unethical, do not go into research.

 

[soundnin]

I'm not sure how many different ways we can explain it. The person copied a poster for a school project and didn't acknowledge the first author on the original work, who wrote all the figures and texts. If you don't think this is unethical, do not go into research.

ok serious question - do you honestly think you could have gotten that person in formal trouble? (as in IA, etc.)

and no i don't think it's unethical - i think it was rude. and yes, i am in research.

this is a poster for crying out loud. posters are recycled all the time, like i pointed out above. so yes, it was rather rude of the person to not even acknowledge you.

 

[gettheleadout]

ok serious question - do you honestly think you could have gotten that person in formal trouble? (as in IA, etc.)

and no i don't think it's unethical - i think it was rude. and yes, i am in research.

this is a poster for crying out loud. posters are recycled all the time, like i pointed out above. so yes, it was rather rude of the person to not even acknowledge you.

To take his work without acknowledging him is by definition plagiarism. I don't care if it's a poster or a paper or a presentation at an elementary school. Recycling a poster is fine as long as you leave the names of the contributors (especially the first author) on there. Because this was a formal presentation in an academic setting, I would certainly hope thesauce would have been able to succeed in getting formal action taken against the plagiarizer had he tried.

 

[soundnin]

To take his work without acknowledging him is by definition plagiarism. I don't care if it's a poster or a paper or a presentation at an elementary school. Recycling a poster is fine as long as you leave the names of the contributors (especially the first author) on there. Because this was a formal presentation in an academic setting, I would certainly hope thesauce would have been able to succeed in getting formal action taken against the plagiarizer had he tried.

i agree it's weird that the ugrad student didn't include him in the new authorship but included everyone else on the original poster, but as someone brought up before, the data/work is not OP's to claim ownership of (though the OP would like to claim ownership of the actual poster itself 🙄). these two people worked in the same lab; they even worked on the same project.

i think if there was something truly fishy going on, the PI would have caught wind of it. i mean, we're missing a lot of details. virtually identical? what does that mean (why not just say identical)? so how identical are they? also, where did OP present his work? where did the ugrad present the work? these are just examples of important details that i feel if fleshed out, would explain why the PI didn't stop the ugrad student (illustrating my point that this situation was blown out of proportion in thread).

 

[sector9]

i agree it's weird that the ugrad student didn't include him in the new authorship but included everyone else on the original poster, but as someone brought up before, the data/work is not OP's to claim ownership of (though the OP would like to claim ownership of the actual poster itself 🙄). these two people worked in the same lab; they even worked on the same project.

i think if there was something truly fishy going on, the PI would have caught wind of it. i mean, we're missing a lot of details. virtually identical? what does that mean (why not just say identical)? so how identical are they? also, where did OP present his work? where did the ugrad present the work? these are just examples of important details that i feel if fleshed out, would explain why the PI didn't stop the ugrad student (illustrating my point that this situation was blown out of proportion in thread).

Why are you so defensive of this issue? This thread was essentially dead. Perhaps you have some poster copying issues to explain🙄

 

[gettheleadout]

Why are you so defensive of this issue? This thread was essentially dead. Perhaps you have some poster copying issues to explain🙄

He's actually the undergrad in the story. 😱

 

[soundnin]

Why are you so defensive of this issue? This thread was essentially dead. Perhaps you have some poster copying issues to explain🙄

He's actually the undergrad in the story. 😱

real mature guys haha.

i just can't stand the mob mentality that's based on incorrect generalizations i see on here from time to time.