What is plagiarism?
-
The American Heritage Dictionary of the
English Language (4th Ed.) defines
plagiarism as "a piece of writing that has
been copied from someone else and is presented
as being your own work."
-
The American Heritage Dictionary (2nd
College Ed.) defines plagiarize as "to take and
use as one's own the writings or ideas of
another."
- IEEE defines plagiarism as the reuse of
someone else's prior ideas, processes,
results, or words without explicitly
acknowledging the original author and source.
- It should also be noted that certain
corrective actions might apply to the
uncredited reuse of someone else's ideas.
Is there an
acceptable, minimum-level of copying where
crediting the original is not required?
Plagiarism in any form is unacceptable and is
considered a serious breach of professional
conduct, with potentially severe ethical and legal
consequences.
If I should discover
an example of suspected plagiarism in an IEEE
publication, where can I find information that
will help me determine my best next step?
- If you are an IEEE volunteer editor
(the person responsible for any IEEE
publication is termed "the editor") and have
either discovered on your own or have been
contacted by someone concerning an apparent
case of inappropriate copying, Section 8.2.4
of the PSPB Operations Manual provides
detailed guidelines for dealing with instances
of plagiarism and guidelines for proper
referencing.
- If you are an IEEE author and have
discovered that your IEEE work was
inappropriately reused either in another IEEE
publication or in a non-IEEE publication, then
you should prepare a "case" by collecting as
much material as possible. For example,
1) A marked copy of
your original paper showing the specific text that
was reused
2) A marked copy of the paper in
which your uncredited work appears highlighting
your specific text
3) A written description
of the alleged misconduct
4) Copies of any
communications you might have already had with the
"authors" who may have misused your work.
Once you have collected all the necessary
material, you should submit your case to the
editor of the publication (or the sponsoring IEEE
Society of the publication) in which the
misconduct occurred. If the contact information
for the editor is unavailable, you should send
your claim to the IEEE Intellectual Property
Rights Office (see below).
As an IEEE volunteer
editor, I'm concerned about the potentially
explosive nature of plagiarism. Is IEEE prepared
to support me in the event an alleged plagiarist
should respond with a threatened lawsuit?
- IEEE maintains liability insurance at limits
deemed appropriate by the IEEE Insurance
Committee for IEEE's current business
activities
- Volunteers are included as "Additional
Insureds" on this insurance.
-
from
IEEE Bylaw I.300.3. Indemnification.
"To the extent permitted by law, IEEE shall
indemnify… each person who serves as a
duly authorized voluntary member or employee
of a duly authorized IEEE activity…
against judgements, fines, amounts paid in
settlement and reasonable expenses, including
without limitation attorney's fees and
expenses, actually and necessarily incurred by
such person in connection with the defense of
any action, suit, or proceeding to which such
person is made or threatened to be made a
party by virtue of such service…"
