Someone plagiarized my Thesis acknowledgments!

[happyresearcher]

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This is very weird and may not have bothered some people but I thought I would post here and get some advice.

I graduated from my thesis lab last year. I saw that the fellow junior graduate student in the lab (also an MD-PhD student) basically took my acknowledgments section and copied it in format and key phrases. Every paragraph lines up as far as who is being acknowledged. The style is copied (i.e. the parts that are informal line up). It looks as if just sentences are changed slightly. He basically changed a few adjectives here and there and the names to keep it original. Given that the thesis is such a long endeavor, and personal, it makes me mad to think someone would copy my acknowledgments section! Even the last paragraph devoted to my family and significant other is basically copied!

I also found my former labmate to be a jealous person though I don't think he realized this himself....of note, interestingly, despite using my format, he did not even acknowledge me in his thesis despite probably using my thesis as a template!

 

[Neuronix]

I wouldn't make a stink over it. It's pretty strange, but what are you gonna do? Heck, since he copied you, maybe he meant to thank your family instead 🙂

This is why I wrote a really unusual acknowledgement (http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=7298307&postcount=10). Nobody is going to steal that 😀

 

[QofQuimica]

This is very weird and may not have bothered some people but I thought I would post here and get some advice.

I graduated from my thesis lab last year. I saw that the fellow junior graduate student in the lab (also an MD-PhD student) basically took my acknowledgments section and copied it in format and key phrases. Every paragraph lines up as far as who is being acknowledged. The style is copied (i.e. the parts that are informal line up). It looks as if just sentences are changed slightly. He basically changed a few adjectives here and there and the names to keep it original. Given that the thesis is such a long endeavor, and personal, it makes me mad to think someone would copy my acknowledgments section! Even the last paragraph devoted to my family and significant other is basically copied!

I also found my former labmate to be a jealous person though I don't think he realized this himself....of note, interestingly, despite using my format, he did not even acknowledge me in his thesis despite probably using my thesis as a template!

Obviously third year is not keeping you busy enough. 😉

Joking aside, I can see why you'd be annoyed since you didn't get along with the person in question, but it's definitely not worth getting mad about. If anything, it's actually kind of funny that someone could be so pathetic as to plagiarize another person's acknowledgments page. My advice to you is to keep reading your own post a few times until you start seeing the humor in this situation. Repeat this process as many times as necessary, and also show it to your significant other so that s/he can laugh about it with you. Then continue to chuckle to yourself every time you think about it, until you forget about it altogether. 🙂

 

[happyresearcher]

things that occur in the lab can annoying, and then later seem funny. it botheres me because it's just so dishonest, but then I came to see it as a pathetic laziness, that i expect it from that labmate anyway.

If you're that lazy, why do an md-phd?

 

[fMRI]

Print out this thread and leave it on his lab bench.
Then quietly observe.

🙄

 

[LadyLightning20]

Joking aside, I can see why you'd be annoyed since you didn't get along with the person in question, but it's definitely not worth getting mad about. If anything, it's actually kind of funny that someone could be so pathetic as to plagiarize another person's acknowledgments page. My advice to you is to keep reading your own post a few times until you start seeing the humor in this situation. Repeat this process as many times as necessary, and also show it to your significant other so that s/he can laugh about it with you. Then continue to chuckle to yourself every time you think about it, until you forget about it altogether. 🙂

All my friends think I'm completely crazy for doing this and have no idea how or why I always tell all these awful stories about stupid things I did and laugh....but honestly, that's how I cope. And apparently other people share that strategy. Honestly, this is some of the best advice ever.

 

[gbwillner]

Print out this thread and leave it on his lab bench.
Then quietly observe.

🙄

THIS!!!!!!

Also, make sure you print out their acknowledgements and yours side-by-side.

 

[fMRI]

THIS!!!!!!

Also, make sure you print out their acknowledgements and yours side-by-side.

I wouldn't bother to supply both versions of the acknowledgments. This could look like an accusation, just leave the thread around and let him worry if this is really about him or the strangest of all coincidences. Or better, leave it on somebody else's lab bench so that an other person will ask around who lost this and turn it into small talk.

And definitively print out this bit as well, it should be mind boggling enough.

Step back & enjoy.