Plagiarism

Plagiarism is an act of fraud. It involves both stealing someone else's work and lying about it afterward. Watching someone else take credit for your idea can be one of the most infuriating things to happen. While it is unethical and unfair, it is important not to lose cool. We must calm down and think about the real source of the anger…

Why are you reacting so strongly? Do you always feel undervalued and underappreciated? Is credit important to you? Finding out what it means to you can help you tackle it reasonably. It can also reveal the stories you tell yourself; sometimes we connect events that have no external connection.

We must frame our claim as a question, so the colleague has a chance to explain his or her actions. This could involve directly asking the credit-stealer about what happened, in neutral language. ‘Talking about the project, why did you say ‘I’ instead of ‘we.’ It sets strong boundaries by letting the plagiarizer know you know what they did.

You ultimately defeat plagiarism by making it clear who did what, so make sure your contributions are known to those around you and above you. And if credit-stealers persist, enlist your friends and colleagues to stand up on your behalf. But the best way is to focus on ‘doing’ things that are better. They can’t compete there!

plagiarism pirates can be challenged for false credit

but they cannot steal your inner process that led it!

- Pravin K Sabnis