Advise needed

[Jona Lendering]

Dear friends,

I maintain a website on ancient history. Recently, I have learned that some of my articles are being copied by students and presented as their own work. Now this is in itself a compliment, but I don't like the idea that my website is used by cheaters.

I do not know what I can do. Perhaps it is inevitable. I have already removed some references to modern literature, but this is, I think, putting things upside down. I have also been thinking about including deliberate errors that a cheating student will not see, but the teacher will recognize immediately. :wink:

Has anyone a better idea? Thanks! (Other suggestions for improving my website are also appreciated, but I intend to post a special message with a poll for that subject.)

[Dagann]

It's really bad.
But putting delibarate errors is not a good idea.
How could people know what is wrong and not, except doctors, historians?

Here is my idea:
You must know from wich school or university these students are from.

You have 2 solution:
1 contact the students to have an explanation

2 contact the teacher (if you know the university, you will find him) by mail, and tell him what happend with a link to your website and your articles.

This is "nasty", but in my mind, the behave like thiefs.

[Praefectusclassis]

Well, perhaps it helps to know that universities are implementing anti-plagiarism software. We have it too now. It's a program that compares student's papers with other and older papers and/or looks for sentences on internet. In other words, prevention is being done where it needs to be done: where the students are taught. I would certainly not degrade the content of your excellent website.
Maybe it helps to post somewhere that your content has been put in the database of anti-plagiarism software? :wink:

[Jeroen Pelgrom]

perhaps you can prevent users to select the text and CTRL-C it to WORD. I know that some websites with pictures do this.

[Robert Vermaat]

Hi Jona,

I have the same problem - over 300 pages on several websites. My solution, from the start 6 years ago, was to do away with notes, and only present a skeleton bibliography.

After that, it's up to the teachers. If those students still present my work as theirs, a good teacher will ask them where they got the info from.

It does not bother me further. If they would have used books, they would also have been able to copy passages from those sources. a lazy student is only lazy at his own expense.

However.

If I see my work on the net with another name added, i take action. I have done so twice in 6 years, which is not that often when you think about it. Of course, I'm a household name by now (as are you!!) and many who know the field support me in those cases, which makes it easy to get the neccesary changes made.

[Gaivs Antonivs Satvrninvs]

Hi,Jona.
Please don't do anything that would lessen the experience
for those of us who merely wish to learn .
Cheaters probably cannot be stopped without hurting
others much as locked doors keep out honest people.
Yours was one of the first sites I discovered months ago
and was totally impressed with the amount of info there.
It is still one of my best sources(along with RAT,of course).
Thanks for the site.

[Jona Lendering]

I'm afraid that my joke to put unreliable information was not recognized by all of you - sorry. This has never been my intention, although I once spent an evening inventing fake information. The French historian Henri Mensonge ("lie") was one of the authorities we invented.

I think the idea to present only a skeleton biography is okay; mentioning software is also a good one; and I will ask my "techneut" if it is possible to block copy/paste for texts only (I don't mind people copying photos).

Thanks all.

[Praefectusclassis]

I will ask my "techneut" if it is possible to block copy/paste for texts only (I don't mind people copying photos).

Your techneut will have to install a Java thingie for that on every page (unless you start using frames). People who disable Java will still have access to your site and can copy at will (on gallery-sites as Jeroen mentioned, disabling Java usually disables the gallery too, so there it is effective).
Moreover, it'll disable right-click for everything. In short: won't work.

[Jona Lendering]

Thanks Jasper, you've met my techneut Marco; he will be grateful!

[Sangue]

My mother who is a teacher, says that whenever a student is using conspicuous language and/or arguments out of their regular style, the teacher runs a web search on some passages from the essay in question. They often catch the fishy fish that way.

So if teachers are as good googlers as the students are, I guess it isn't a problem.

Trying to repress the access to information on the internet is getting it all backwards. On the contrary, easy access to the best information is the only way to do the internet a favour because we all know how much muck will accumulate out there on its own accord. And students should learn to access this information and use it - while also learning to use it the right way, and to be critical to their sources of course. That is the real challenge.

Plagiarism is a problem, I see that. You could try contacting the student in question and demand that the plagiarism is removed/undone on threat of taking it to the teacher in question. Also put up something in your site FAQ to that effect so your back is covered.

[Tarbicus]

Here you go Jona, some online resources on the subject:

[url:zeuww1n0]http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FCR/is_3_39/ai_n15384389[/url]

[url:zeuww1n0]http://www.web-miner.com/plagiarism[/url]

[url:zeuww1n0]http://www.csd99.k12.il.us/north/library/plagiarism.htm[/url]

[url:zeuww1n0]http://www.murraystate.edu/msml/plagres.htm[/url]

[url:zeuww1n0]http://www.lib.utexas.edu/services/instruction/faculty/plagiarism/detecting.html[/url]

Hope you get it sorted out. I suspect that if you place a [size=100:zeuww1n0]BIG [/size]warning on your site, like Johannes said, that you are aware of what happens, it could act as an initial deterrent and at least cut down the number of plagiarisms.