Welcome! edit

Hello, ProfTern! Welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. You may benefit from following some of the links below, which will help you get the most out of Wikipedia. If you have any questions you can ask me on my talk page, or place {{helpme}} on your talk page and ask your question there. Please remember to sign your name on talk pages by clicking   or by typing four tildes "~~~~"; this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you are already excited about Wikipedia, you might want to consider being "adopted" by a more experienced editor or joining a WikiProject to collaborate with others in creating and improving articles of your interest. Click here for a directory of all the WikiProjects. Finally, please do your best to always fill in the edit summary field when making edits to pages.
Getting Started
Getting Help
Policies and Guidelines

The Community
Things to do
Miscellaneous

Happy editing! Peaceray (talk) 01:09, 5 November 2023 (UTC)Reply

Thank you, @Peaceray! ProfTern (talk) 17:49, 12 November 2023 (UTC)Reply

Potential plagiarism by your student, Sedvabs, in the Iznik pottery article edit

Hi!

I was looking at this version of Iznik pottery. I noticed that some of the paragraphs had been copied verbatim from "The blue-white ceramics of China and İznik", an article in Hürriyet Daily News, as well as "Stories Ottoman Objects Tell", a 2018 class project from Boston College. I examined the page's history to try to figure out when these were added, and it appears that the paragraphs were added by one of your students, Sedvabs:

  • One edit by the student inserted a paragraph beginning with Alongside the Chinese porcelain. This paragraph can be directly found in the Hürriyet article.
  • The next edit by the student inserted a paragraph beginning with Blue-white may be divided into four types. Again, this parahraph is taken verbatim from the Hürriyet article.
  • The following edit by the student inserted two paragraphs. The first of the two appears to be in the student's own words, but the second of (the paragraph beginning with İznik ceramics on display including wares) was lifted verbatim in the Hürriyet article.
  • After making several other edits, the student inserted another paragraph (beginning with Iznik pottery both drew inspiration from). This paragraph was copied verbatim from the Boston College student project.

After noticing this, I began to remove the material that had been copied word-for-word from the sources and I left the student a note on their user talk page. In the message I left the student, I noted the following in bold print:

Aside from limited quotation, you must put all information in your own words and structure, in proper paraphrase. Following the source's words too closely can create copyright problems, so it is not permitted here; see Wikipedia:Close paraphrasing. Even when using your own words, you are still, however, asked to cite your sources to verify the information and to demonstrate that the content is not original research.

One minute after I left them the notice, the student re-inserted the paragraph beginning with Blue-white may be divided into four types into the Iznik pottery article, despite it being a copy-paste from Hürriyet. It is not clear to me if the student saw the notice before or after the re-insertion. Regardless, the edits by the student raises potential concerns as it pertains to Wikipedia's plagiarism guideline, our copyright policy, and our non-free content guidelines..

For copyright reasons, I have tagged several revisions on the page for revision deletion. At minimum, if the student wishes to add information to the article, the student will need to ensure that the content has been re-written in their own words. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns; I'd be more than happy to help.

Yours sincerely,

Red-tailed hawk (nest) 05:40, 6 December 2023 (UTC)Reply

CC: Brianda (Wiki Ed)Red-tailed hawk (nest) 05:40, 6 December 2023 (UTC)Reply
Hi @Red-tailed hawk! Thank you for the detailed report above. I've been in touch with this student to alert them to the helpful and clear reminder about close paraphrasing that you posted on their user talk page.
Students in this class have completed the plagiarism training module and should be familiar with identifying close paraphrasing in their own work. Additionally, plagiarism is a violation of community guidelines at our institution, so we do want to get this taken care of ASAP. I do believe that this error was committed in good faith and will work with the student to resolve the issue.
On a separate note, Hürriyet should not be treated as a reliable, neutral source in this case. I'll work with them on this as well.
Thanks again!
All best,
ProfTern (talk) 15:54, 6 December 2023 (UTC)Reply
Thank you for your reply. I appreciate your reaching out to the student to remind them of our plagiarism guidance. Unfortunately, the student has continued to restore the copyright violations and plagiarize their contributions, even after your reply. As such, I must regretfully alert you to the following:
  There is currently a discussion at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents regarding plagiarism and copyright violations by User:Sedvabs. The thread is Plagiarism and copyright violations by User:Sedvabs. Thank you. — Red-tailed hawk (nest) 21:41, 6 December 2023 (UTC)Reply
@Red-tailed hawk thank you for the alert and see my reply at above thread (Plagiarism and copyright violations by User:Sedvabs). ProfTern (talk) 00:14, 7 December 2023 (UTC)Reply