Timeline for Should I report an accepted PhD thesis in which the literature review is copied verbatim from sources?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
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| Dec 26, 2020 at 9:55 | history | edited | einpoklum | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Dec 26, 2020 at 9:50 | comment | added | einpoklum | @DeboraWeber-Wulff: OP does not know whether any other thesis is plagiarized, either. They know of a (weaker) form of plagiarism in the literature review. They should act based on that knowledge, without assuming that anything else is plagiarized - although also without assuming nothing else is plagiarized. I'll try to clarify this further. | |
| Dec 26, 2020 at 9:34 | comment | added | Debora Weber-Wulff | my point is, that you just don't KNOW if there is plagiarism in the rest of the thesis! Software cannot find all plagiarism as it does not have access to all sources (and can't deal with translation plagiarism anyway). But if someone has demonstrated a willingness to plagiarize in one portion, why would you believe that the rest is okay? Where there is smoke, there is fire. | |
| Dec 24, 2020 at 23:27 | comment | added | einpoklum | @DeboraWeber-Wulff: 1. OP has not suggested they are in Germany. 2. German law does not decide what's true in principle and what isn't - only what's legal in Germany and what isn't. 3. The fact that a thesis is "submitted in one piece" does not mean that there is "no such thing as only a part of a dissertation is plagiarized." | |
| Dec 24, 2020 at 23:05 | comment | added | Debora Weber-Wulff | in case after case of German law, courts have found that a thesis is submitted in one piece. That is, you can't say: Oh, but the rest is fine, because you don't know about the rest. The copying of references without checking what they say is discussed here nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc1700150 with reference to this letter to the editor nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM198001103020221 stating that opiods are not addictive. One should always check a reference and never just copy it. | |
| Dec 23, 2020 at 17:56 | comment | added | einpoklum | @DeboraWeber-Wulff: "It is one indivisible piece of work!" <- Not only is it divisible, it is already divided into chapters and sections. "If they plagiarized in one section, how do you know that the others are not" <- I only know what OP knows; and we know that the thesis has been reviewed by knowledgeable experts who did not notice any plagiarism. Still, you have a point and I'll edit my answer accordingly. As for the US opioid crisis - I am not aware of what you're referring to and we'd probably better not discuss that here in the comments. | |
| Dec 23, 2020 at 17:54 | history | edited | einpoklum | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Dec 23, 2020 at 17:46 | comment | added | Debora Weber-Wulff | There is no such thing as "only" a part of a dissertation is plagiarized. It is one indivisible piece of work! If they plagiarized in one section, how do you know that the others are not, if they have demonstrated a willingness to cut corners? You just don't know! It is bad academic practice to just copy someone elses literature review without reading the literature yourself. The person you are copying from may have made mistakes that you are propagating. The opiod crisis, for example, is partially due to a heavily copied reference that was quite wrong. | |
| Dec 23, 2020 at 9:23 | history | edited | einpoklum | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Oct 23, 2016 at 21:57 | history | edited | einpoklum | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Nov 30, 2015 at 6:51 | history | edited | einpoklum | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jan 15, 2015 at 9:48 | history | answered | einpoklum | CC BY-SA 3.0 |