Plagiarism should be addressed specifically in the FAQ

Question

Recent cases of wholesale plagiarism like the four instances collected in this question (one, two, three, four) make me think, maybe there should be a clear policy on plagiarism in place in the FAQ?

A FAQ entry, say under the headline "Can I use other people's work?", could highlight the essentials:

• When quoting someone else's work, basic academic rules apply: always add attribution

• This applies to small snippets of code as well

• Do not do wholesale copying of content from copyright protected sites; link to them instead, and describe what the source says in your own words.

• Plagiarism will be punished (I hope!)

(Or something to this extent.)

Not that I think this will keep a malicious plagiarist from doing their thing. But it may not be clear to some people that quoting without attribution is always evil. There may be innocent mistakes here, also in light of the fact that linking has limitations for low-rep users.

As Tim Post puts it in the comments:

It would also help avoiding protracted arguments when taking action. "But I was just trying to be helpful! You're punishing me??" and we can say "Umm, did you read this?

A concrete example where the OP doesn't seem to see much of a problem in unattributed quoting, and adds the source only after being asked to do so, is here: What are the diffrences between utf8_general_ci and utf8_unicode_ci?

Answer 1

I've added this to the help center: https://meta.stackoverflow.com/help/referencing

Don't hesitate to suggest improvements, corrections, etc.

Answer 2

Blame Pekka for this answer, he put me up to it ;-) . Enough cats, Pekka?

Yes, we need something linkable. The FAQ is an ideal place for this, but there are lots of other similar things that can go there as well. We don't want to bloat the faq, too few people read it already. Still, this particular case I support for FAQ-ness.

Even if it doesn't get to /faq, we can still have an MSO faq for it. After all, we only really need it for linking--whoever should be reading the faq doesn't read it.

I've prepared a draft below of a faq Q&A MSO post. It is presented in a fun form, so that offenders don't just tl;dr it.

---

Can I copy stuff?

I am an inherently lazy cat. Can I plz plz copy stuff for my SO answers? You can see how much I like being lazy, and how much I like copying.

discussionfaqcatlegalalways-friday-in-iceland

protected by Tim Post♦ Jun 6 '12 at 7:00

This question is protected to prevent "thanks!", "me too!", or spam answers by new users. To answer it, you must have earned at least 10 reputation on this site.

(answer)

You can, but only if you follow some rules. Let me explain:

As you can see, one of the two cats is being lazy by copying the other's pose. Probably the larger one, since kittens are too cute to be evil.

Now, who looks cute? That's right, both of them. So one of them went through all the trouble to cook up this fantastic pose, and the other just copies it and laps up the extra kibble it is awarded.

Of course not. That's why, you must attribute stuff you've copied:

Anything you copy must be attributed.

Basic rules:

• When quoting someone else's work, basic academic rules apply: always add attribution

• This applies to small snippets of code as well

• Do not do whole-sale copying of content from copyright protected sites; link to them instead, and describe what the source says in your own words.

Otherwise, we will find you. And when we do.... :

Attribution for images (no hypocrisy here):

http://waxmarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/copy_cat.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_72-XGWCgZog/TI9ym0KoHkI/AAAAAAAADXE/bRurFsYEAJA/s1600/confused+cat.jpg

http://farm1.staticflickr.com/7/6298842_84740865cf_z.jpg

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSKAbiuvk_hlx66VJ1zA3oBTEzgRPjHaIoito8mfMOM3yc8zhea

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_i2QrhchYr4Y/SarQYPaqP5I/AAAAAAAABpI/Bt2obGw-8F0/s400/pointing+cat.jpg

http://x01.xanga.com/66ed8026d9c32131614874/m95988355.jpg

http://agreenliving.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/cat-stealing-shrimp-283x300.jpg

http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/thumblarge_297/1218072341sBOzhJ.jpg

Answer 3

I don't think it would deter the practice, but it would give Moderators a handy reference when writing a nice, succinct message to a user explaining to them why an action was taken.

For the blessed few users that actually read the FAQ, it would be a big help in showing them how to cite snippets borrowed from other questions or answers, or other sites.

I wouldn't call this a terribly rampant problem, in fact it is minuscule compared to the issue of those who republish SO content without attribution on other sites. However, I think adding this wouldn't hurt anything, and would make the lives of moderators a bit easier when dealing with the issue.

Answer 4

This does need to be addressed in the FAQ, and it also needs to be explained. But first, let's review the problem:

The problem I see is that a typical plagiarism accusation goes something like this:

• User A posts answer he copied from site A.
• User B leaves comment:

This is plagiarized from [link here].

• User A then indignantly replies:

Well, it is a good answer. What is the problem with you? I try to help. why u downvote?

• The conversation then degrades from there.

---

The problem is that the people who commit plagiarism don't understand that what they are doing is wrong because that person's education system failed them.

Thus, when we leave comments that just say, "this is plagiarism", the person doing the plagiarism has absolutely no freaking idea what we're talking about! :)

Therefore, the solution is to use comments to educate these individuals and kindly show them the way. I've said before that people who are angry, who have been insulted, won't learn anything from us. But if we patiently explain that plagiarism is frowned upon because it uses other people's work without their permission and without giving them credit, then that person is more likely to reflect and think about the issue on a deeper level.

So, while adding something to the FAQ will definitely be helpful, there are two major requirements that we must adhere to, assuming we all want this to be a success:

• The FAQ entry must not just say "don't plagiarize", but it must also constructively explain why one should not plagiarize. It should also list the alternatives, like paraphrasing and using proper attribution. The key is to educate.

• If we are to leave a comment on a post with a link to the FAQ, we must also explain and educate. Link only comments in [Whathaveyoutried] format don't educate in the same manner as a polite, friendly comment.

While we're all a bit sickened by remorseless and indignant plagiarism, this is the best method that I know of that will turn a so-so contributor into a better one. Good Stack Overflow users aren't always good users on day one, sometimes we have to mold them into good users.

Answer 5

The text is now in the help center. Yay!

Seeing as most cases of plagiarism are seen from ESL users, this FAQ section should be made extremely clear, with the most simple language possible. The Alice in Wonderland citation example is cool, but I fear it will hopelessly confuse a user struggling to get to terms with the very basics of the English language.

Suggestion:

---

How to use material written by others

Never use others' work without attribution

Plagiarism - posting the work of others with no indication that it is not your own - is not welcome in our community, and may result in your answers being down-voted or deleted.

When you find a useful resource that can help answer a question - from another web site or in another answer on {SITE_NAME} - make sure you do the following:

• provide a link to it
• quote the relevant portion only
• name the author.

Example:

According to this biography, Hemingway indeed saw combat when he was a teenager. It says:

After the United States entered the First World War, he joined a volunteer ambulance unit in the Italian army. Serving at the front, he was wounded, was decorated by the Italian Government, and spent considerable time in hospitals ....

[other sources, quotes, explanations, etc. necessary to complete the answer]

Do not duplicate external sources in their entirety; use their words and ideas to support your own. And always give proper credit to the author and site where you found the text, including a direct link to it.

If you have been accused of plagiarism, see here how you can fix the situation.

If you suspect a contribution to have been plagiarism, see here on how to report it.

Answer 6

StackOverflow has stated, and this IS in the FAQ in the "People can edit my posts?!" section, they have said "All contributions are licensed under Creative Commons" Thus, if you post in StackOverflow, people are free to copy/change your work.

If you post something that includes code, and someone goes and copy your code, they are free to do so.

This is the licence that StackOverflow content is under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

and it clearly states, and I quote:

You are free:

to Share — to copy, distribute and transmit the work

to Remix — to adapt the work

to make commercial use of the work

They do have conditions though, mainly being

Attribution — You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).

So you are free to copy the work, and use it commercially, etc... As long as due credit is given, otherwise, it very much is plagiarism, and the verdict is that this SHOULD be addressed in the FAQ, and told around the StackOverflow community.