plagiarism (Re: palladium drydown and developer)

From: Peter Marshall <petermarshall@cix.co.uk>
Subject: Re: palladium drydown and developer (albumen & collodion)
Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2006 17:08:39 +0100

> I don't think plagiarism is likely to be a problem either. As you are
> doubtless aware it is simply a matter of making clear when you are using
> the work of others (as we all do) rather than claiming it or implying it
> as your own work. I don't really see where it comes in here.

What you said above is a very narrow sense of plagiarism. Although it
is very important to avoid this problem, it is not end of the story.

Good technical writing should refer to a credible source for
everything that's not original work or common knowledge. If one steals
someone else's idea, that's automatically unethical. But what if one
states idea, opinion or other form of work that is not common
knowledge without citing the work? It is plagiarism. Even if the
originator of the idea or opinion is not clearly identifiable, if the
information is not common knowledge, the author is in trouble if
proper reference is not given.

Also, one common way to avoid quoting the original text is to
paraphrase the original text into own writing. Without getting into
unnecessary details, in technical writing, it's very difficult to go
this approach without going to trouble. This is partly because the
idea would have to be very close after paraphrasing, and partly
because technical terms are rather rigidly defined and the same terms
would have to be used even in the paraphrased versions.

Another case I see is when one find some idea, and he tries it himself
to confirm it. Or he pretends he confirmed it himself. Or he argues he
also read the same idea somewhere else. Anyhow, none of these
overrides the need to credit the original author, unless the idea is
widely accepted as common knowledge.

Despite of Peter Marshall's opinion quoted above, plagiarism is a
common problem and it requires some attention to avoid it. In
particular, review articles, tutorial articles, textbook, etc. are
written by authors who also closely read other's work, and it often
requires some concious effort to make sure the work is free of
plagiarism.

There are some brief guidelines online.

http://www.indiana.edu/%7Ewts/pamphlets/plagiarism.shtml

http://www.utoronto.ca/writing/plagsep.html

After all, the reason I brought up this issue was to point out that
avoiding copyright issues is not the end of story, and there are other
problems. For that matter, I see no reason to continue this discussion
on this list.
Received on 07/23/06-09:24:05 PM Z