4 ms·

The core problem AFAICT is the academic worlds obsession with publication in the first place. If publication is the priority and at the heart of the reward syst

The core problem AFAICT is the academic worlds obsession with publication in the first place. If publication is the priority and at the heart of the reward system then plagiarism is a big deal. If the goal is producing useful results then it would be less of a big deal, though attribution still seems appropriate. If they would embrace replication studies as much as novelty this would also be less of an issue. Seriously, the world doesn't need papers for the sake of papers. It needs useful information and confirmation that information published is useful. Or if not directly useful, at least accurate as documenting something.

ghaff 5y ago
In general, even outside of a strictly academic setting (e.g. books), there would seem to be a lot of good reasons to attribute when possible. Does that mean that every concept needs to be traced back to its origin--even if that's possible? Mostly not. But especially if you're lifting a paragraph wholesale from someone, yes you should footnote it or otherwise attribute it. This is of course harder in other media.
mannykannot 5y ago
Plagiarism would still be a problem in a world without papers for the sake of papers. Someone I knew abandoned his PhD after plagiarism of his unpublished work-in-progress rendered his largely-completed thesis effectively useless. He never really found his way after that, and although his suicide had a number of causes, this did not help. Maybe you are thinking that the PhD mill is itself problematic, but there comes a point where saying "if things were different, this would not be a problem" becomes a way to avoid the issue.
ModernMech 5y ago
Papers are not written for the sake of writing papers. Papers are written for the sake of getting grants. Publishing is a proxy for increasing your chances of getting grants. Papers with more citations get bigger grants. The whole publish or perish idea is working at the wrong level; it's really get grants or perish. The reason why no one does replication studies is because no one offers grants to fund replication studies. If you want replication studies, lobby to pay for them at the federal level, because that's where everyone's grants come from. If that money comes available, you'll have as many replications studies as you could dream of.

ghaff 5y ago

In general, even outside of a strictly academic setting (e.g. books), there would seem to be a lot of good reasons to attribute when possible. Does that mean that every concept needs to be traced back to its origin--even if that's possible? Mostly not. But especially if you're lifting a paragraph wholesale from someone, yes you should footnote it or otherwise attribute it. This is of course harder in other media.

mannykannot 5y ago

Plagiarism would still be a problem in a world without papers for the sake of papers. Someone I knew abandoned his PhD after plagiarism of his unpublished work-in-progress rendered his largely-completed thesis effectively useless. He never really found his way after that, and although his suicide had a number of causes, this did not help. Maybe you are thinking that the PhD mill is itself problematic, but there comes a point where saying "if things were different, this would not be a problem" becomes a way to avoid the issue.

ModernMech 5y ago

Papers are not written for the sake of writing papers. Papers are written for the sake of getting grants. Publishing is a proxy for increasing your chances of getting grants. Papers with more citations get bigger grants. The whole publish or perish idea is working at the wrong level; it's really get grants or perish. The reason why no one does replication studies is because no one offers grants to fund replication studies. If you want replication studies, lobby to pay for them at the federal level, because that's where everyone's grants come from. If that money comes available, you'll have as many replications studies as you could dream of.