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I have just discovered the introduction of an Engineering Master's thesis defended some months ago in my ancient university has been made mostly by "cut & paste" (and literally translate from English to Spanish) part of a book chapter I wrote some time ago. About 80-90% of 10 pages have been copied verbatim from my work.

It is true the author of this thesis cites my work when he copies text without any reference in the original. But since he fails to include such sentences (or any other copied and translated text) as quotes, it seems as if he originally wrote those sentences. The order of the sentences has been somewhat modified, but there is no paraphrasing.

I understand this constitutes plagiarism and I would like to do something about it. I do not intend to undertake legal action or to report this to the university (I do not think it has any normative on the subject, anyway). So, what could I do? Writing the author and explaining him the seriousness of what he did and why? Warning the advisors (whom I know well) about it? Your suggestions will be much appreciated.

lodebari
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    I guess depends on why you want to do something about it. – Franck Dernoncourt Nov 25 '14 at 18:15
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    A related question is: "Should I report an accepted PhD thesis in which half the text is copied verbatim from sources?" – lodebari Nov 25 '14 at 18:16
  • @Franck: Well, in the first place I think it is unfair when other students work hard to read the necessary references and to properly organise the information extracted from them (and I myself worked hard to write that piece). On the second place, the author of the master's thesis might not know he was doing anything wrong (since he gives me credit for the sentences where there are no references in the original) and then he should be told about it. – lodebari Nov 25 '14 at 18:32
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    Apparently, APA states that translated word-for-word sentences do not need quotations as long as they are properly cited. – Compass Nov 25 '14 at 18:57
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    What do you want the result to be? If you just contact the author and he says, "Oops, sorry, okay, I won't do it again", will you be satisfied? – BrenBarn Nov 25 '14 at 19:18
  • @BrenBarn I hope the OP doesn't do that. This seems pretty blatant. I wouldn't trust someone like this in my line of work <_< – Compass Nov 25 '14 at 19:34
  • @BrenBarn Well, I am not sure, that's why I ask. I would like to do something that had an impact, but I'm not sure what that could be or if there is anything I could do. – lodebari Nov 25 '14 at 19:46
  • @lodebari: But you specifically say you don't want to contact the school, which seems like the action most likely to have an impact. If the person's thesis really is plagiarized, or even cited but contains little original work, the person could have their degree revoked. You need to decide what kind of impact you want to have before you can really know what to do to achieve that impact. – BrenBarn Nov 25 '14 at 19:49
  • @BrenBarn the alternative would be for us to provide answers of different levels of escalation. We have, so far, ignore, and throw the book via instructor. The remaining answer proposed would be contacting the author. There's probably other answers, as well. – Compass Nov 25 '14 at 20:33
  • @Compass I don't think contacting the advisor is "throw the book." Assuming the advisor has the students' best interests in mind, it's entirely possible that he can come up with a solution that doesn't involve revoking the degree or anything similarly extreme. (I think contacting the university administration would be the "throw the book" response.) – ff524 Nov 25 '14 at 20:56
  • @ff524 Fair point. Maybe pass the book would be more appropriate. – Compass Nov 25 '14 at 20:59
  • I did my undergrad in Spain, and the university had no official body to deal with ethical issues that I have heard of. So, if that is the case in yours, the institution may be a hopeless path. – Davidmh Nov 26 '14 at 07:52
  • This student did reference your work. Why do you object? A lack of quotation marks? A higher percentage of referencing that you are used to being permissible? Since his work was in Spanish, he may be required to meet the standards of Spain, or Mexico, or some South American nation; they may have different guidelines than the latest standards commonly found in the United States of America. I would recommend being prepared for the possibility that the student did nothing wrong according to the culture that the student is in. – TOOGAM Mar 17 '16 at 16:41
  • I'm wondering if you would be willing to share what you decided to do and how the story ended. – msouth Jul 24 '19 at 15:25

1 Answers1

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About 80-90% of 10 pages have been copied verbatim from my work.

80 TO 90%?!

This is a significant amount of content. Even translated, I feel like it demonstrates purposeful intent to plagiarize (akin to using Word's auto-summarize feature to summarize an article), rather than paraphrasing an amount of text to show a point. Translating word for word, as per my APA link above, with proper citation, for a single point is one thing, but when the bulk of the introduction is someone else's work, this seems to me as academic misconduct rather than poor use of citations. I mean... EIGHT TO NINE PAGES. It is literally 8 pages worth of your work, translated, as his introduction. It might as well be YOUR introduction, given how much you've put in, and someone else translated it.

Translated books are still accredited to their original author, with a translator tagged. The way this sounds cited, he's basically taking credit for what you've written, citing you as the person who provided information for the idea, as opposed to the person who actually wrote it and facilitated by his translation.

Unless he's cited and mentioned that it's a direct quote translated after every sentence, this seems like willful plagiarism.

I would recommend you talk to the advisers about this issue now that you've demonstrated the scope of the issue. While you may not have a significant vested interest in the outcome of the situation, the advisers definitely will, and they will likely know how to handle the situation. Also, confronting the student in question is not a good idea. The university awards the degree to the student (and the degree's worth is determined by the integrity of how it is awarded), so it is probably in the best interest of the university as well to determine the action resulting from something like this.

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