Alejandro Luis Garcia

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Recent edit reversion

Is very possible you will be tempted to react strongly to my decision to remove a recent edit you made to Direct simulation Monte Carlo.

Before you do so, consider the following.

Wikipedia deliberately makes it easy for people to contribute. One doesn't even have to register to make an edit, but there are advantages to registering a username. We do not routinely take steps to see if a username chosen by an editor is the real name of the editor. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't and most cases we don't care.

Therefore, while I suspect you really are the author of the textbook whose content you added to the article, I don't know for certain.

If you happen to be that author, then your edit was a violation of an important guideline: WP:COI. We can discuss ways in which you can contribute to Wikipedia about subjects with which you have a conflict of interest but you cannot simply add your text to an article.

If you do not happen to be that author, then your edit was a violation of copyright rules. The material added came from a document with a clearly stated license:Creative Commons Attribution- Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. That license does not permit inclusion in Wikipedia articles.

Sorry for a less than positive start to your Wikipedia experience. (As an aside, in my professional career and use Monte Carlo simulation extensively so I'm interested in the subject, but I do want to make sure that it is edited properly.) S Philbrick(Talk) 01:00, 23 December 2022 (UTC)

Hello, I don't understand why my edit to the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo article is a Conflict of Interest violation. I did not put my book in the references or promote it in any way. I've used the DSMC method for many years and published many papers on it but I also refrained from adding those to the references. I respect and agree with Wikipedia's policies but I'm genuinely confused.

As for whether I'm actually the author of "Numerical Methods for Physics" what's the best way to prove this? You can reach me at my university email address if that's simpler: Alejandro.Garcia@sjsu.edu

Please advise as to how to proceed. Thank you. Alejandro Luis Garcia (talk) 01:13, 23 December 2022 (UTC)

Please start by reading the guideline at WP:COI. Promotion of a book would qualify as a conflict but the term is much broader than that. Using text you wrote as part of a textbook definitely qualifies. Even if you are the author, it's still a copyright violation. I'm not sure I see the value in trying to resolve whether you are the author of the textbook. S Philbrick(Talk) 01:39, 23 December 2022 (UTC)

Let me clarify that the material that I wrote for the "Direct Simulation Monte Carlo" article used my textbook as a starting point but it was not a copy/paste. Instead I wrote a general description of the algorithm in a form that I hoped would be suitable for an encyclopedic entry (admittedly, I'm still new at this). You'll find a similar description of DSMC in many published journal articles. I honestly believe that my entry is simply a generic, scientific description of the algorithm that would not be considered plagiarism or a copyright violation.

What's the best way forward? Alejandro Luis Garcia (talk) 02:08, 23 December 2022 (UTC)

While you're at it wasn't 100% copy and paste, it had very long stretches that exactly match the source.

I don't know whether you can see the ithenticate report:

https://api.ithenticate.com/en_us/dv/20220511?o=93774957&lang=en_us

If you can't, I'll figure out some way of letting you know the problems. S Philbrick(Talk) 15:43, 23 December 2022 (UTC)

Okay, I can rewrite the material if you think that might resolve the issue. That iThenticate link didn't work. I created an account but it tells me that I don't have access to that item. Alejandro Luis Garcia (talk) 15:51, 23 December 2022 (UTC)

Update: I've rewritten the material and it's in my Sandbox. It should be different enough that no one, including iThenticate, would consider it self-plagiarism. You'll find it here: User:Alejandro Luis Garcia/sandbox#DSMC Algorithm

Please let me know what you think. Alejandro Luis Garcia (talk) 18:54, 23 December 2022 (UTC)

Looks good. thanks S Philbrick(Talk) 13:18, 1 January 2023 (UTC)

Thank you. I've added the material to the DSMC article. Alejandro Luis Garcia (talk) 14:31, 1 January 2023 (UTC)