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I believe bestselling author Mark Dawson is a serial plagiarist

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Re: I believe bestselling author Mark Dawson is a serial plagiarist

#171

Post by A_D_E_P_T »

w0de0 wrote: post #165
A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we're going to be pedantic: No. Pulp fiction was fiction written for the popular pulp magazines of the 1900s through roughly the 1960s. Those magazines don't really exist anymore. The "modern equivalent of pulp fiction" -- which is to say, the modern equivalent of writing for the pulps, writing to earn a quick buck -- is self-publishing low-effort fare on Kindle Unlimited or something similar. So the guy you were…

The medium doesn't matter: it's metonymy, pars pro toto. Pulp fiction remains pulp fiction despite literal pulp's retirement.

I realize well how pedantic I am being, but let's say there are two ways to interpret the term "pulp fiction." (1) As a reference to the pulp stories on newsstand racks in the early-mid 20th century; (2) as you note, as a stand-in for low-quality mass-produced fiction.

As such there should be absolutely no issue with somebody saying "modern equivalent of pulp fiction" -- because they're using the first definition. And it so happens that there is a perfect modern equivalent, which is essentially the author in OP's publishing style.

Re: I believe bestselling author Mark Dawson is a serial plagiarist

#172

Post by smeej »

toxik wrote: post #74
smeej wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got accused of plagiarizing myself once, and I've never even figured out what that phrase means. Isn't the assumption supposed to be that anything I haven't cited is my idea? What does it matter if it's not the first time I had the idea? It's not less mine because I still have it. I could sort of understand if I had published it somewhere and somehow given rights to it to another party, but this was just some rando…

You cannot copy from yourself. Reusing material and passing it off as new, no matter its author, is plagiarism.

I never presented it as new. I presented it as mine. Any work I don't cite in a paper should be presumed to be mine.

Re: I believe bestselling author Mark Dawson is a serial plagiarist

#173

Post by smeej »

uxp100 wrote: post #153
astura wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which would be fine, as long as they cited their first experiment.

Many academics do not believe that this is necessary. Maybe the experiment example is a bad one, since it would make sense to cite a related experiment. Perhaps writing a pop science article that uses a paragraph from a paper they wrote is a better example. But I think my example would not be acceptable for a student. You may not re-use a paragraph you wrote, even if you cite it. Double submission is often treated si…

> But I think my example would not be acceptable for a student. You may not re-use a paragraph you wrote, even if you cite it. Double submission is often treated similarly to plagiarism.

Why not? That's the part I (top level commenter) have never understood.

Why am I limited to having or expressing my ideas in one venue only, and only once? Why don't I have unlimited right to use my own thoughts as often as I care to?

Re: I believe bestselling author Mark Dawson is a serial plagiarist

#174

Post by smeej »

matthewdgreen wrote: post #149
mijoharas wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You’re turning in work for academic credit that you didn’t do This doesn't sound true if you're copying your own work surely? If that's the case it must by definition be work that you did, right?

If I turn in the same project for two different courses without flagging it, that's considered a violation of many academic (teaching) integrity codes. Similarly if you hire me to write a bespoke piece of software (with copyright assigned to you) and I re-use code I've delivered to other clients, that could be considered a damaging violation of our contract. You could refer to both of these cases as "self-plagiarism"…

There's a difference between a school writing up its own set of conduct rules and plagiarism.

Any two entities can agree to any set of terms they want. If a school says you have to sign a code of conduct to go there, and it prohibits submitting the same work for more than one course, fine. If someone breaks that rule, accuse them of violating the code of conduct.

But that's not plagiarism. "Self-plagiarism" is a contradiction in terms.

Re: I believe bestselling author Mark Dawson is a serial plagiarist

#175

Post by smeej »

shmeeed wrote: post #150
mijoharas wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You’re turning in work for academic credit that you didn’t do This doesn't sound true if you're copying your own work surely? If that's the case it must by definition be work that you did, right?

Let's phrase it differently: how many times do you think one should be allowed to turn in the same piece of work for additional academic credit? The issue with self plagiarism isn't that you are quoting your own previous work (you are free to do that), it's because you're not tagging it as a citation and thereby passing it off as new.

> how many times do you think one should be allowed to turn in the same piece of work for additional academic credit?

As many as it meets the requirements for.

Heck, I submitted the exact same "tell us about a significant experience in your life" story to every single university I applied for.

And I guarantee the teachers are duplicating lessons or parts of lessons when they teach related classes. Have you ever seen a professor cite, "Me, the first time I taught this class"?

That's just being smart and efficient. I see absolutely nothing wrong with any of these examples.

Re: I believe bestselling author Mark Dawson is a serial plagiarist

#176

Post by smeej »

ColinWright wrote: post #100
malfist wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry but what? If I can't grant myself rights to my work, then who can?

Plagiarism is not the same as copyright infringement. It's about passing off material as new when it isn't. You can quote any previous work, others and/or your own, but you must highlight/identify it as such.

Whose definition is this "newness"? Plagiarism is about passing other people's work off as your own. It comes from a Greek root about kidnapping, not about how old something is.

Re: I believe bestselling author Mark Dawson is a serial plagiarist

#177

Post by smeej »

yrro wrote: post #97
malfist wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry but what? If I can't grant myself rights to my work, then who can?

It's fine to re-use your own work as long as you cite. If you don't site then you're plagiarising yourself.

The default assumption is that everything I do not cite is my own. I'm the one doing the writing.

Re: I believe bestselling author Mark Dawson is a serial plagiarist

#178

Post by smeej »

vorticalbox wrote: post #93
malfist wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry but what? If I can't grant myself rights to my work, then who can?

I believe the key point is > passing it off as new If you're not doing that then I would assume it's fine?

When did newness become part of the definition? It's not on the etymological history of the word. It's not in dictionary definitions of the word. Where is this coming from?

Re: I believe bestselling author Mark Dawson is a serial plagiarist

#179

Post by taspeotis »

donatj wrote: post #16
taspeotis wrote: post #2

(2023)

I’ve never understood why people on Hacker News feel the need to make these year comments? Particularly in cases like this where it adds nothing at all to the conversation. It has the air of indicating that the content is potentially outdated, but the post is quite little less than a month old. If the content was a couple days newer would there be value in commenting “(2024)”? Beyond that, everything on that page has…

It was on the front page of Reddit a month ago. Why would it be interesting to read again one month later? This is Hacker News, not Hacker Olds.

Re: I believe bestselling author Mark Dawson is a serial plagiarist

#180

Post by Erratic6576 »

nigamanth wrote: post #38
MattGaiser wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was in high school/university, they taught us that plagarism was taking even ideas and reusing them directly. Copying a sentence like that was an explicit example, even if generic. We were told that it gets suspicious at even 4 more complex words that are the same. Even reusing your own work between classes was an example of plagiarism. Plagiarism, at least as presented to me, is a very strict standard.

> Even reusing your own work between classes was an example of plagiarism. As a high school student, this is still true. People literally get suspended/expelled for plagiarism.

Plagiarism is a lack of citing sources. If you haven’t published your school work, you cannot cite yourself. Or can you
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