There Is An Epidemic Among Us!
There is an epidemic, a pandemic, an outbreak of infectious disease that is affecting 90% of the users on this site! What is this deplorable affliction you might ask?
The lack of citations on one's work!
This post is for everyone who has ever posted on this site, ever! Make sure you cite your sources. Cite your picture sources and cite your information sources. Whenever I am reading a "how to" post and there is no source cited, one of only two possibilities emerge:
1. Either you are an expert and the first person to present the information
or
2. You are a criminal who is stealing someone else's work without properly crediting them!
Don't be that 2nd one!
I used the word epidemic to describe the situation taking place here, but perhaps pandemic might be a more accurate description...
Pandemic: is an epidemic of infectious disease that has spread through human populations across a large region; for instance multiple continents, or even worldwide.
Take out the disease part and it fits perfectly don't you think? Actually scratch that, it is a disease...
I have been spending the last several days digging through the site trying to find good posts that have been ignored by the larger community. In doing so I have noticed that 90% of authors don't properly cite their information or their images in their posts.
How to properly research and cite one's work:
1. Spend some time reading on the topic you are going to post about.
2. Take the information you have learned and present it in your own words.
3. Once you have presented it in your own words, add some pictures to add to the overall visual appeal of the post.
4. Then, and most importantly, Type the word "Resources" or "Sources" at the bottom and list any all places that you gathered information or pictures used in your post!
Stealing: the taking (of another person's property) without permission or legal right and without intending to return it.
If you don't do this you will be flagged and possibly hidden if this is a repeat offense. It doesn't sound like a big deal but when you think about the time and effort the original author went into researching and compiling that information and then you come along and present his work as your own and don't even credit him as you are trying to make a quick buck off his labor... yea it rubs people the wrong way, don't let that be you!
Would you want to spend the time, and resources compiling a bunch of information only to have someone else get credit for your hard work? No, well neither does anyone else... so stop it, stop it right now!
Sources:
1. https://www.google.com/?ion=1&espv=2#q=pandemic+definition
2. https://www.google.com/?ion=1&espv=2#q=stealing
Image Sources:
1. http://evenews24.com/2015/04/18/pandemic-hordes-2-weeks-in-space/
2. https://www.arenasimulation.com/healthcare-emergency-response
Follow: @jrcornel
I thought this was a social media site. I didn't know it was an academic presentation. I thought we were just chatting among friends.
Silly me.
Once again the regulators strike..
That's fine if you want to chat your own ideas... but if you are stealing someone else's pictures and research you absolutely need to say where you got it from.. especially since you are earning money for it!
Yes, being paid means that if you use others' work, you are using it commercially.
Yep!
who invented those words you are using?
I get it but I think you are missing the point of the argument...
General language isn't intellectual property but try opening a shop and calling it McDonalds.
The point to the argument is avoiding being sued.
I agree. Same is so with music. people just downloading others efforts for free without compensating the artist cannot be right.
Yes, that is another 'epidemic problem' :)
who invented those words you are using?
I agree. If someone is "borrowing" content, the creator of the content should get credit.
Yep, especially when money is involved!
Well said, @jrcornel
Reading this post title I thought about complaining, not plagiarism.
But also plagiarism or undocumented sources is an epidemic :)
Complaining is certainly an epidemic as well! Just remember to hear the message, not how it is presented because some of these complaints are spot on... we will see what these new changes to the site bring about for the new users...
who invented those words you are using?
i cite all the photos and quotations i use. i think there are bots that call you on it if you don't. are you talking about citing everything we have learned throughout our whole lives? it would be near impossible to cite all of the sources that came together out of thousands of books to form all of the thoughts that i use in conversation every day. socrates said, "the beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms." now, that citation is not quite accurate. socrates was born in about 470 bc and died in 399 bc, the greek that was spoken then is not what is known as greek today. i don't speak greek, do i need to cite the people who translated this to english so i could read it? at some point we need to be able to communicate without getting lost in the weeds. the onus of proof is on the person making the claim, fine, but can you imagine taking every statement you make in friendly conversation back to first principles and proving it forward from there? it would be stifling, bound and gagged. this might be a symptom of control issues. i'll have to get back to you with citations. if you doubt, look it up. it is easier than ever before, if you trust the citations on the internet.
"there are bots that call you on it if you don't..." yes there are bots that will call you on it, but they miss a lot... If you go to the new posts section, 9 out of 10 posts coming out don't properly cite their information or the images they are using... which implies the images and information is their own.
There is no need to cite every day language, but when people are stating facts and presenting them as their own it becomes a problem... especially when money is earned off of it
To your comment, no I can't image citing everything we say, but that isn't really what we are talking about here. Interesting thought though..
what is the point? i have spent the last 30 years creating actual things. i don't get royalties every time someone uses one of the pieces of furniture that i created. i don't get paid every time someone uses one of the toys i made, et cetera. if enough of us stop worrying what other people are doing and start doing the right thing ourselves, maybe, we can begin to find some equity in this world. i have had one job after another sold out from under me to be done poorly by the chinese. at least people get to pay less for poor quality crap that is often broken before it comes out of the box. now we have lost a couple of generations of knowledge that is required to create and sustain civilization, but at least we got some cheap crap. if people aren't willing to pay for something, either it is not worth it or people don't understand value. there is no reason to stifle the rest of us because some people want the world to fail. people who want to endlessly get paid for something they did, once, are just resting on their laurels. we all have access to the vast amounts of information that is the aggregate intellectual property of mankind. if someone wants to, and are ingenious enough, they can create something that people find valuable enough to pay for. there will always be wreckers and thieves. this is something i understand intimately. if all the people commenting here put their energy into learning or making, what could we not accomplish? yes, i recognize the potential irony here. i am commenting here to exercise my long atrophying writing skills not used for anyone but myself, lo these many years. i'm enjoying the translation of thoughts, to persuasive argument. sometimes i find that i come across not quite clearly or somehow incompletely. this is where the desire for practice is born. i don't see many others here to learn. they seem to only want to complain or ridicule. i find that even my meager writing is more of an exploration of ideas than much of the rest of what i am finding here. i wish to find more people of ideas, not complainers, wreckers and thieves. i do not think i will be here on steemit much longer. i'm not sure that the problem lies in failure to cite sources as much as it lies in the lack of desire to create. if you are interested look at my posts. please don't upvote unless you find something of value. i need to know what to make more of and what is trash. if you find examples about which your post speaks, and you will, i would like examples. I've been working in trades full of ignorant men. In twenty years i've not met one person in the trades who knows what the pythagorean theorem is, let alone used any form of citation. i fall into the same traps as does any man. i aspire to do better.
There was a lot in here... I'll take a look at some of your posts though. The best thing you can do is write about what you know and then market yourself and your post. Visit that chat room and promotion pages. Thats the only way I've gained any traction on my posts..
I often use graphics from openclipart.org in my posts. Looking at their terms of use, they make it clear that the pictures are free to use for unlimited commercial use. Should I still cite the source every time? I've mentioned it before, but haven't felt the need to credit each and every picture.
https://openclipart.org/share
Possibly, but it really is up to you. You might do it so that people dont think you are stealing someone else's work... I know I hesitate to nominate posts to Project Curie if I am uncertain about sources... Better safe than sorry perhaps?
if I have done the research and present the ideas in my own words, the work is mine. If I quote from the research, I need to cite it. That is normal writing.
Bingo! Take a look at the new posts section and you will be shocked to see how many posts that come out that don't follow that simple procedure...
One more tidbit though, if you present any facts you need to say where you go them from...
maybe in academia but not in the real world. If I quote from another source I need to say where I got the quote from. ideas are not copyright, how they are presented is. Facts are not owned by anyone, how they are presented is.
I create all my own images and whenever you use information from another website and put it in your own words, a simple link to the article will suffice. Pick up a physical newspaper one of these days and read the articles in there if you want to learn how to do it properly. It's not necessary to have a "sources" section at the bottom of your article as long as you are linking to the original article that you are getting information from. Also, the only situation where it's necessary to create a "bibliography" like section at the bottom of your article is if you take data or quotes of any kind and use them word for word.