My Name on Plagiarized Papers

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by graymatter, Sep 24, 2013.

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  1. graymatter

    graymatter Member

    When I ran some papers through Turn-It-In, up came one of those pay-for-papers clearinghouses. What bothered me is that it MY NAME came up at the professor. So I "googled" my name along with the course title (I've taught the same UOP course for 6+ years) and there are DOZENS of plagiarized papers with my name on them. Since the students often redact their own names, mine is the only name on the title page.

    Is there anything to do about this? Should I bother? I'd hate to lose a teaching opportunity because they google my name and associate me with plagiarized papers.
     
  2. RAM PhD

    RAM PhD Member

    Are you the one guilty of plagiarism? No. It isn't your fault that students plagiarize.
     
  3. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef

    wow, I don't know WHAT you could do? You could try to nicely persuade the site to black out your name, since having it on there CLEARLY threatens their future business to some degree. I'm sure you're especially dedicated to sniffing out plagiarism in your future classes, which might deter your future students from hiring them...so it's in their best business to protect your privacy. Of course if that line doesn't work, I don't know if you'd have some kind of legal standing or not. I'm with you though, feels dirty.
     
  4. graymatter

    graymatter Member

    Right. I know that I'm not guilty. The question is appearance. If you google my name and the term "abnormal psychology" (the course I facilitate for UOP), the hits for for studymode.com, bignerds.com, cyberessays.com, papercamp.com, etc.

    My concern is with the APPEARANCE that it seems that I'm perhaps the one profiting from the posting of these papers. That a google search by a prospective employer will lead them to THINK that I've engaged in dishonest activity.
     
  5. NorCal

    NorCal Active Member

    I've run into the same problem. I took an English class at my old community college back in 2002'ish when I wrote a paper summarizing a book I read. A few years ago, I found it for sale on one of those sites. True be told, I wasn't pissed; I was flattered.
     
  6. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    Where is it located? I think I might like to plagiarize it. :smile:
     
  7. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    Where is it located? I think I might like to plagiarize it. :smile:
     
  8. graymatter

    graymatter Member

    "Where is it located? I think I might like to plagiarize it (Craniac, 2013, para. 1)."
     
  9. RBTullo

    RBTullo Member

    If you didn't sell the paper, how did they get it? Is this another method for Instructors to earn money, selling papers after they grade them? There should also be copyright issues here as well.
     
  10. graymatter

    graymatter Member

    My assumption is that the student sold it but my name is on the title page as the faculty member.

    Though I wonder if there have been faculty who have done that sort of things before...
     
  11. perrymk

    perrymk Member

    I've seen a published paper of mine available for re-write. My name was mentioned several times along with a description of the paper and some offerings of what they could do with it (modify for certain needs, etc.. It struck me as a form of identity theft although I'm not sure why. I think that as time goes on and these things become more common that future employers will be aware of them and hopefully not hold it against the original authors. In the meantime, we have to hope it doesn't negatively impact us.
     
  12. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef

    The student probably hired them to write it, and they are holding it up as an example.
     
  13. NorCal

    NorCal Active Member

    That's a great question, it's been so long I can't remember where I found it. Let me do some digging and I'll let you know if I can locate it again.
     
  14. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    Hey, you plagiarized my plagiarism remark. Good work!

    Good one. LOL.
     
  15. me again

    me again Well-Known Member

    That's what I was thinking too.
     

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