Helllppp! Advice needed on supervisor issue

[shakeitoff]

Long story short, I was reading my supervisor's recently published article and noticed that a whole paragraph was almost identical to a section of my thesis. I went back to look at the edits that he and I exhanged while working on it and it is fair to say that he made a lot of edits but at the same time it was based off of my writing. There are a few sentences here and there that he added but there are also some that were only slightly edited off my original writing.

I am very conflicted because I have a great relationship with my supervisor and do not think that he is the type of person to take students' work. How do I resolve this situation? I now feel the need to massively edit my thesis because I don't want to be charged for plagiarism. But at the same time I don't want to do that because it has been polished to its current state and I like the flow of it.

We have a good working relationship so I think I want to talk to him about it but don't want to sound like I'm accusing him of stealing my work. He was a big part in building the idea and editing of my writing so I don't know how to approach this situation. He could argue that it's his idea and edits. I don't know if he wrote the article before or after editing my thesis. It could be that he did it unconsciously...? I know that I sometime write in a similar way if I've been writing on a similar topic.

I wonder I should talk to other grad students in my lab, but don't want to color their perception of our supervisor.

Any advice would be appreciated!!

[Sigaba]

@shakeitoff

Can you get copies of other students' theses as well more of your professor's published works to see if there's a pattern?

Until you can verify a pattern of conduct, the professor can chalk it up to "oops."

[fuzzylogician]

We're talking about parts of one paragraph in a multi-page article, where the paragraph is similar but identical to your thesis? Unless there is reason to assume foul play, I would just let this go. It's hard to see what good can come of suggesting that he plagiarized your work.

[TakeruK]

First, a quick question -- are you a coauthor on this publication that uses a paragraph directly from your thesis?

 

Next, this depends on how you want to pursue this. If you see this as an act of academic misconduct and feel the need to report this, then you should document everything. Usually it is not your job to play detective but Sigaba's advice on finding out whether or not this is trend might help you determine what you want to do.

 

On the other hand, if your goal is to ensure that you can still use your own words in your own thesis, then I would encourage you to talk to your supervisor about this and phrase it as a question. I would actually agree with fuzzy that one paragraph of similar/identical text is not a big deal. But if you are still concerned, then just ask about it. I'd phrase it as something like "is it okay if we both use similar wording to describe X?" instead of accusing the professor of plagiarism. 

 

To provide more perspective though, in my field, theses are often verbatim copies of existing published papers (usually with the student as lead or coauthor). In this case though, each "copied" paper comes with the appropriate words that indicate this is reproduced with permission etc. In addition, in my field, a large number of people use the same or very similar techniques and there are only so many different ways you can describe one thing. So, it's not that uncommon to see a nearly identical paragraph in different publications by the same authors. Yes, I agree that this is still technically (self) plagiarism, but at least in my field, academics must acknowledge that it is not practical to rewrite a completely different description each time!

[shakeitoff]

@fuzzylogician

The part that was identical was a section composed of 2-3 paragraphs. I want to talk to my supervisor about this in the most civil and friendly way possible. I most definitely do not want to file a complaint or argue that he plagiarized my work. We do work with the same theoretical framework so it is hard to argue that one person copied the other. At the same time, I would like to understand why the paragraphs were almost identical. One of my goals in posting was to gauge if this is normal and I'm overreacting.

TakeruK - I am not an author on the paper. I would have not thought much of this if I were because I know that repeating your theoretical framework in different papers in more or less the same words happen.

All in all I really do have a deep respect for my supervisor and want to resolve the uneasy feeling I have by talking to him about it and I was not sure how I should approach it and if I should do it at all.

Edited March 18, 2015 by shakeitoff

[Adelantero]

I see a few options here. I would definitely have a meeting with another professor who is something of a mentor/someone you like and can speak confidentially to. These are people who have more experience with how your department works or how your professor works than you do, and can give you good, on-the-ground advice. It can be confidential and doesn't have to be a reporting misconduct kind of thing, but rather a meeting to ask for advice.

 

Depending on the personality of your supervisor, it can be really tricky to bring this stuff up and having another person's perspective could help you formulate your script in a better way. If your supervisor somehow flat-out denies it, then that sounds like it might be time for a formal complaint, but I wouldn't throw that around like a threat. If that comes up, it's time to schedule another meeting maybe with your department chair to discuss options. If your supervisor handles it in a better way, it might be a great time to ask (or gently demand) that you be made a co-author.

 

In short it's not normal to paraphrase or copy - even sentences and paragraphs - without attribution. It's your work and you own it.

[Sigaba]

@shakeitoff - -

Before you talk to anyone about this issue, I strongly recommend that you understand the difference among what you need, what you want, and what you will accept. Managing your expectations in situations like this one is pivotal to your peace of mind.