Wikipedia:Plagiarism
- Plagiarism may also be a copyright violation, which is a blockable offense.
This guideline is under construction, see Wikipedia:Copyright problems for the current guideline on plagiarism on Wikipedia.
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The following is a proposed Wikipedia policy, guideline, or process. The proposal may still be in development, under discussion, or in the process of gathering consensus for adoption. Thus references or links to this page should not describe it as "policy". |
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This page in a nutshell: Don't make the work of others look like your own; give credit where it's due. |
Plagiarism is the copying of material produced by others without attributing that material to the original author, whether verbatim or with only minimal changes. The copyright status of the work is irrelevant; directly copying a public-domain work is still plagiarism unless the original work is noted. Some, but not all, common facts and data (eg. material commonly found in infoboxes, such as corporate data, species taxonomy, etc.) can be freely copied, though copying the method of presentation of such data is sometimes considered plagiarism. Material has been plagiarized from books and printed media, websites, and GFDL-licensed works (including the work of other Wikipedia editors).
Even when material is not covered by copyright, it is still important to state its origin, including its authors or creators. Failure to include the origin of a work is misleading and also makes it more difficult for readers and editors to refer to the material's source. It may also violate the terms of the GFDL. If correctly attributed when submitted to Wikipedia, the resulting text can be edited by subsequent editors, within the bounds of Wikipedia polices and guidelines. However, subsequent rewritings should not lose the sense of the original, or lose track of where a concept, idea, or phrase originated from, unless the text has been so substantially rewritten as to be a new piece of work.
A clear distinction should also be drawn between work submitted by Wikipedia editors as their own work (which can be "edited mercilessly"); work marked as a quotation or paraphrase of other people's actions or words (which can be edited as long as the original sense is not lost); and direct copying of large blocks of free content written by other people. Unless the goal is to use text of this last sort as part of the article, which can be mercilessly edited, it may be better to use smaller pieces as direct quotations.
Note that making a charge of plagiarism towards another editor is a serious statement, and may be regarded as uncivil if the situation is not blatant. Please use care to frame concerns in an appropriate way.
Material from public domain and free sources can be copied into Wikipedia and used in articles verbatim. Even though a source is labeled as "free", you cannot copy it and pass it off as your own work. You should indicate the source of the copied material. Wikipedia policy requires that you must provide sources for material which might be challenged.
Copyright and free are short words but complex concepts.
- Public domain works
- See also Wikipedia:Public domain
There are two main classes of public domain:
- Copyright-expired works - works like the plays of Shakespeare that are old enough that no copyright applies anymore. They have passed into the public domain without the consent of the authors.
- Copyright-ineligible works - these are works which are not copyrightable. An example is any publication produced entirely by the US Federal Government or its agencies, such as NASA.
- Free (libre) works
- GFDL works - anything you contribute to any WMF wiki such as English Wikipedia is automatically released under the GFDL. GFDL is an example of a "free" license.
- Creative Commons - another example of a free license. There are several CC licenses which the author can pick. Some of these do not require attribution, however Wikipedia does not recognize this aspect, we insist that all copied work is attributed (TODO: Opinions?).
In all cases, the moral rights of the original authors whose works are copied must be respected during the term of their rights, which means that it is imperative that their work is distinguishable from the prose of the Wikipedia article. Because articles normally evolve through incremental changes, it is important to retain an anchor to the originally copied text, so that subsequent changes can be traced.
Wikipedia will naturally refer to and include some material that comes from outside sources. This material may be in the public domain, may be included under a fair use argument, or it may be under a license compatible with the license used on Wikipedia, the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL). Examples of public-domain works include text and images from United States Government publications, and older works—such as the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica—that are no longer, or never were, covered by copyright. Some further examples are at Category:Attribution templates.
- See also: Wikipedia:When to cite
The purpose of citation is to provide educated conclusions drawn on a subject which back up a statement. In some cases it is not necessary to provide citation, and the reuse of such material is not considered plagiarism. Some such cases include:
- Factual information found in infoboxes.
- Lists of information [need some copyright opinions here!].
- Common knowledge; that is, a statement which is not likely to be challenged. [2]
- Simple mathematical calculations which can easily be reproduced.
- Simple logical deductions. However, complex logical deductions may require a citation in some cases.
- etc.
- See also: Category:Attribution templates
Material from public domain and free sources is welcome on Wikipedia, provided it is properly identified and attributed. The best practice is to copy free content verbatim and indicate in the edit summary the source of the material. Further changes such as modernizing language and correcting errors should be done in separate edits after the original insertion of text. This allows a clear comparison to be made between the original source text and the current version in the article.
If you base an article on a public domain source, you should place a note to that effect in the references section. You can use an attribution template or you can write your own note. For an example, see the references section in planetary nomenclature,[1] which uses a large amount of text from the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature.
If you want to quote a reasonably large amount of text, but such text is a small portion of the article (say, a paragraph or two) you should use a blockquote followed by a reference to the resource. For example:
OSTM/Jason 2's five primary instruments are improved versions of those flying on Jason 1. These technological advances will allow scientists to monitor conditions in ocean coastal regions—home to about half of Earth's population. Compared with Jason 1 measurements, OSTM/Jason 2 will have substantially increased accuracy and provide data to within 25 kilometers (15 miles) of coastlines, nearly 50 percent closer to shore than in the past. Such improvements will be welcome news for all those making their living on the sea, from sailors and fishermen to workers in offshore industries. NOAA will use the improved data to better predict hurricane intensity, which is directly affected by the amount of heat stored in the upper ocean.[3]
If the amount of text you want to use is small (i.e. less than a sentence) quotation marks and an inline citation will suffice. Example: Small craters on Mars (typically with diameters less than 60 km) are named after "[s]mall towns and villages of the world with populations of approximately 100,000 or less".[4]
Large portions of text used in the article can be changed through the normal process of wiki editing; the article history will show the evolution of the text. Material within blockquotes and normal quotation marks should not be altered, with the exception of adding wiki-links or minor formatting changes for stylistic consistency (for example, replacing " -- " with "—" when denoting an endash). If material inside a quotation is inaccurate or out-of-date, the entire quotation must be replaced with rewritten text.
For images, you must specify correct source and licensing information otherwise they run the risk of deletion (see Commons:Licensing and Wikipedia:Image use policy). In particular, you should never use {{PD-self}}, {{GFDL-self}} or {{self}} if the image isn't yours. If the source requests a credit line, e.g. "NASA/JPL/MSSS", you should put one in the author field of {{information}}.
Attribution consists of more than just the words used in the copied text. It also applies to the structure of the article and the way the topics are covered. For this reason, once public domain attribution notices are placed in an article they should not be removed without checking that none of the structure, phrasing, language, or specific ideas of the original source are used in the article.
Plagiarized text usually demonstrates a sudden change of style and tone from a writer's usual style; it is often more advanced in grammar and vocabulary. Plagiarized material may contain unexplained acronyms or technical jargon (that had been described in an earlier part of the plagiarized document). Because plagiarized material was written for other purposes, it is often slightly off topic or unencyclopedic in tone. An editor who plagiarizes multiple sources will appear to change writing style abruptly.
An easy way to test for plagiarism of online sources is to cut and paste passages into a search engine. Exact matches or near matches may be plagiarism. When running such tests, be aware that some other websites reuse content from Wikipedia. So when in doubt, double check search engine results with an experienced Wikipedian.
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- Elgoog hcraes
- Plagiarism detector
- Source checking, the hard way
- Editor's "reputation"
- ...
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- Is it likely that the uploader took the picture?
- Google image search
- Consistency of EXIF data
- Uploader's "reputation"
- ...
Large portions of many articles have been directly copied from other free content sources. For instance, Encyclopaedia Britannica 1911 was used as a source to build many articles in 2002. These articles were marked with the {{1911}} template to make it clear that text had been taken from this source. Similar templates for other free content can be found at Category:Attribution templates. These templates are an accepted way to give credit to free content when that free content is used to build Wikipedia and there is no immediate need to change articles that use them.
From time to time, editors encounter articles that contain text directly copied from other sources without adequate attribution. If you find an article where this has occurred, do something. If the material is a copyright violation, remove it or tag the article with the {{copyvio}} template. If the material is not a copyright violation, then attribute it, change it, or flag it with template such as {{copypaste}} so that others can deal with it.
Plagiarism doesn't have to be immediately removed, unlike copyright violations. It does need to be properly attributed to its source. If you find an example of plagiarism, contact the editor responsible, point them to this guideline page and ask them to provide the proper attribution. You can also change the copied material or provide the attribution on your own. If you find that an editor persists in plagiarising other work after being notified of this guideline, report them at the administrators' noticeboard so that an administrator can deal with the issue. Be sure to include diffs which show both the plagiarisation, and that multiple warnings were given and ignored.
Material that is plagiarised but which does not violate copyright does not need to be removed from Wikipedia if it can be properly sourced. Add appropriate source information to the article wherever possible, or move unsourced material to an article's talk page until sources can be found.
Direct copying of copyrighted works may be a copyright violation. Doing so without attribution is also plagiarism. Such additions can be dealt with either by attribution, turning it into a quote with a source, or by truncation or removal of the copied material.
If the material added is short and properly attributed and quoted, it is usually possible to use it under fair use. See Wikipedia:Non-free content policy:
Brief quotations of copyrighted text may be used to illustrate a point, establish context, or attribute a point of view or idea. Copyrighted text must be attributed and used verbatim. Any alterations must be clearly marked, i.e. [brackets] for added text, an ellipsis (...) for removed text, and emphasis noted after the quotation as "(emphasis added)" or "(emphasis in the original)". Extensive quotation of copyrighted text is prohibited.
Brief and relevant quotes from copyrighted material may also be used in footnotes. See Style recommendations for footnoted quotes.
Sometimes material from a copyrighted work is copied into Wikipedia with minimal rewriting. This may still be a violation of copyright as a derivative work, though the same concerns about plagiarism would apply if the phrases, concepts and ideas in the copied material were not attributed to the original author.
If an editor has copied text or figures into Wikipedia without proper attribution, politely refer them to Wikipedia:Verifiability, Wikipedia:Citing sources, and/or Help:Citations quick reference. Editors who have difficulties or questions about this guidance can be referred to the Help Desk.
If you find a plagiarized image, you can correct the source and licensing data or point the problem out to the uploader. If the original image is non-free content, you can tag it as a copyvio with {{db-i9}} or {{copyvio}} on Commons for deletion. Be sure to provide the real source in both cases.
(this is a tricky issue - but we do need some firm guidelines on copying around en:wiki itself)
Language translations between various WMF wiki's are perfectly acceptable provided that the original source is clearly indicated. This can be done via the edit summary or preferably by putting a note on the article talk page with a link to the original source. See Wikipedia:Translation and Category:Interwiki translation templates.
For guidelines on copying and moving material within Wikipedia itself, see WP:MERGE, WP:SPLIT and WP:SUMMARY.
- University of New South Wales resource on plagiarism
- List of plagiarism resources at FamousPlagiarists.com
- similar links
- probably a (free) plagiarism detector here
- ^ Quoted from GFDL text written by various Wikipedia editors, taken from the this version (dated 23:43, 20 June 2008, oldid=220665934), retrieved on 21 June 2008.
- ^ Be aware, however, that using another person's words to discuss a topic that is common knowledge still qualifies as plagiarism. If an outside source uses a particular wording to state a fact that is common knowledge, that particular wording must be in quotes or reworded if it is included in a Wikipedia article; replicating another person's exact wording is plagiarism no matter what the content of that wording was.
- ^ Jet Propulsion Laboratory (2008-06-20). NASA Launches Ocean Satellite to Keep a Weather, Climate Eye Open. Press release. http://jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2008-115. Retrieved on 2008-06-21.
- ^ "Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature (Appendix 6)". United States Geological Survey. Retrieved on 2008-06-21.
- ^ Quoted from GFDL text written by various Wikipedia editors, taken from the this version (dated 02:03, 19 June 2008, oldid=220274073), retrieved on 21 June 2008.
- Copyscape (website for detecting Internet plagiarism)
