Plagiarism of code by other PhD studentWhat can I do when some people stole my master thesis work and...

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Plagiarism of code by other PhD student


What can I do when some people stole my master thesis work and published it as their own work?Report blatant self-plagiarism to journal editor or PubPeer?How to report plagiarism in a publicationWhen should you not report plagiarism?What to do if a referee plagiarises the result after rejecting a paper?Should I report an accepted PhD thesis in which the literature review is copied verbatim from sources?Self-Plagiarism in PhD thesisPhD advisor wrote a review of my PhD work without me, any grounds for complaint?How to mention a completely rewritten article in PhD thesis?I included some results in my thesis that some other PhD students included in theirs. Is this plagiarism?How to deal with past unintentional and unpunished plagiarism?Can an advisor write a student's PhD thesis?I think my PhD thesis has been plagiarised. What are the professional steps to take?Question on whether I have committed plagiarism (modifying paragraphs from an unpublished document sent as email attachment for PhD thesis)













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Abit about my background first: I'm currently undertaking a PhD but have previously worked in healthcare for around 4-5 years. During this time I developed a suite of code to produce results from clinical sequencing data (a NGS pipeline plus filtering steps).



Recently while looking for example PhD theses to use as the basis for my own write up I came across a recent PhD thesis that contained a reference to a github account, which contained code I had written.



The code in the repo is over 97% direct copy of code that I had produced while working in my previous employment - the remaining 3% appears to be a cut and paste of lines from my original pipeline into a popular pipeline management system.



edit I should note here that this remaining 3% had previously been submitted by another ex-colleague as part of an external qualification - for which I was the internal assessor, this person claimed sole authorship at the time.



There is no direct reference to my own Github repo which contains the original code (with GNU public license) and no acknowledgment of my authorship (I am mentioned indirectly as a maintainer of the code elsewhere in the thesis). I had no knowledge that the author of thesis was using my code as part of their thesis.



The author of the thesis was in the same department as me, however was at no point involved in the development of the code while I was present. They have since submitted and passed their PhD and are now employed as a PostDoc in the same department.



I can show continuous development of the code over a period of 4 years previously via my Github logs. The author of the thesis has only a single commit and no history in the github logs.



The person in question has essentially written a PhD chapter based on analysis of sequencing data that I did. The code is just part of the story, since the person also claimed that in addition to writing the code they used the code to produce the results in that chapter. They didn't - since I know that I ran the batches in question (this was around 2 years of work).



What steps should I take (if any)!










share|improve this question




















  • 13





    AFAIK GPL(v2,v3) does not require attribution, so purely on license terms there's no failure. In academic terms this is the same as any other plagiarism case, given that the code is essential to the work.

    – Nox
    23 hours ago






  • 11





    Thanks @Nox, yeh I have to be more careful of the license I put on the work I do - although the person has also removed the GPL from the repo, which I thought was against the license terms.

    – Pasted
    22 hours ago






  • 21





    I may be missing something in the original post, but did the thesis author claim to have written the code? Is the development of the code a contribution of the thesis? I'm not sure how this is different from someone using any other open source software in their research. If these details are missing, please edit your post to add them.

    – ff524
    21 hours ago








  • 2





    @Pasted if your school has a Dean of students, you can talk to them. Your school probably has a code of student conduct which is much broader than these arguments over the letter of the laws and license terms.

    – A Simple Algorithm
    19 hours ago






  • 3





    @MattP The problem is not that someone used the OP's code (sharing code is what github is for, after all). The problem is that if you use someone else's code in a paper, you need to cite that fact, and depending on what exactly "(I am mentioned indirectly as a maintainer of the code elsewhere in the thesis)" means, that citation may be missing.

    – Ray
    19 hours ago


















34















Abit about my background first: I'm currently undertaking a PhD but have previously worked in healthcare for around 4-5 years. During this time I developed a suite of code to produce results from clinical sequencing data (a NGS pipeline plus filtering steps).



Recently while looking for example PhD theses to use as the basis for my own write up I came across a recent PhD thesis that contained a reference to a github account, which contained code I had written.



The code in the repo is over 97% direct copy of code that I had produced while working in my previous employment - the remaining 3% appears to be a cut and paste of lines from my original pipeline into a popular pipeline management system.



edit I should note here that this remaining 3% had previously been submitted by another ex-colleague as part of an external qualification - for which I was the internal assessor, this person claimed sole authorship at the time.



There is no direct reference to my own Github repo which contains the original code (with GNU public license) and no acknowledgment of my authorship (I am mentioned indirectly as a maintainer of the code elsewhere in the thesis). I had no knowledge that the author of thesis was using my code as part of their thesis.



The author of the thesis was in the same department as me, however was at no point involved in the development of the code while I was present. They have since submitted and passed their PhD and are now employed as a PostDoc in the same department.



I can show continuous development of the code over a period of 4 years previously via my Github logs. The author of the thesis has only a single commit and no history in the github logs.



The person in question has essentially written a PhD chapter based on analysis of sequencing data that I did. The code is just part of the story, since the person also claimed that in addition to writing the code they used the code to produce the results in that chapter. They didn't - since I know that I ran the batches in question (this was around 2 years of work).



What steps should I take (if any)!










share|improve this question




















  • 13





    AFAIK GPL(v2,v3) does not require attribution, so purely on license terms there's no failure. In academic terms this is the same as any other plagiarism case, given that the code is essential to the work.

    – Nox
    23 hours ago






  • 11





    Thanks @Nox, yeh I have to be more careful of the license I put on the work I do - although the person has also removed the GPL from the repo, which I thought was against the license terms.

    – Pasted
    22 hours ago






  • 21





    I may be missing something in the original post, but did the thesis author claim to have written the code? Is the development of the code a contribution of the thesis? I'm not sure how this is different from someone using any other open source software in their research. If these details are missing, please edit your post to add them.

    – ff524
    21 hours ago








  • 2





    @Pasted if your school has a Dean of students, you can talk to them. Your school probably has a code of student conduct which is much broader than these arguments over the letter of the laws and license terms.

    – A Simple Algorithm
    19 hours ago






  • 3





    @MattP The problem is not that someone used the OP's code (sharing code is what github is for, after all). The problem is that if you use someone else's code in a paper, you need to cite that fact, and depending on what exactly "(I am mentioned indirectly as a maintainer of the code elsewhere in the thesis)" means, that citation may be missing.

    – Ray
    19 hours ago
















34












34








34


4






Abit about my background first: I'm currently undertaking a PhD but have previously worked in healthcare for around 4-5 years. During this time I developed a suite of code to produce results from clinical sequencing data (a NGS pipeline plus filtering steps).



Recently while looking for example PhD theses to use as the basis for my own write up I came across a recent PhD thesis that contained a reference to a github account, which contained code I had written.



The code in the repo is over 97% direct copy of code that I had produced while working in my previous employment - the remaining 3% appears to be a cut and paste of lines from my original pipeline into a popular pipeline management system.



edit I should note here that this remaining 3% had previously been submitted by another ex-colleague as part of an external qualification - for which I was the internal assessor, this person claimed sole authorship at the time.



There is no direct reference to my own Github repo which contains the original code (with GNU public license) and no acknowledgment of my authorship (I am mentioned indirectly as a maintainer of the code elsewhere in the thesis). I had no knowledge that the author of thesis was using my code as part of their thesis.



The author of the thesis was in the same department as me, however was at no point involved in the development of the code while I was present. They have since submitted and passed their PhD and are now employed as a PostDoc in the same department.



I can show continuous development of the code over a period of 4 years previously via my Github logs. The author of the thesis has only a single commit and no history in the github logs.



The person in question has essentially written a PhD chapter based on analysis of sequencing data that I did. The code is just part of the story, since the person also claimed that in addition to writing the code they used the code to produce the results in that chapter. They didn't - since I know that I ran the batches in question (this was around 2 years of work).



What steps should I take (if any)!










share|improve this question
















Abit about my background first: I'm currently undertaking a PhD but have previously worked in healthcare for around 4-5 years. During this time I developed a suite of code to produce results from clinical sequencing data (a NGS pipeline plus filtering steps).



Recently while looking for example PhD theses to use as the basis for my own write up I came across a recent PhD thesis that contained a reference to a github account, which contained code I had written.



The code in the repo is over 97% direct copy of code that I had produced while working in my previous employment - the remaining 3% appears to be a cut and paste of lines from my original pipeline into a popular pipeline management system.



edit I should note here that this remaining 3% had previously been submitted by another ex-colleague as part of an external qualification - for which I was the internal assessor, this person claimed sole authorship at the time.



There is no direct reference to my own Github repo which contains the original code (with GNU public license) and no acknowledgment of my authorship (I am mentioned indirectly as a maintainer of the code elsewhere in the thesis). I had no knowledge that the author of thesis was using my code as part of their thesis.



The author of the thesis was in the same department as me, however was at no point involved in the development of the code while I was present. They have since submitted and passed their PhD and are now employed as a PostDoc in the same department.



I can show continuous development of the code over a period of 4 years previously via my Github logs. The author of the thesis has only a single commit and no history in the github logs.



The person in question has essentially written a PhD chapter based on analysis of sequencing data that I did. The code is just part of the story, since the person also claimed that in addition to writing the code they used the code to produce the results in that chapter. They didn't - since I know that I ran the batches in question (this was around 2 years of work).



What steps should I take (if any)!







phd plagiarism






share|improve this question















share|improve this question













share|improve this question




share|improve this question








edited 2 hours ago







Pasted

















asked 23 hours ago









PastedPasted

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301312








  • 13





    AFAIK GPL(v2,v3) does not require attribution, so purely on license terms there's no failure. In academic terms this is the same as any other plagiarism case, given that the code is essential to the work.

    – Nox
    23 hours ago






  • 11





    Thanks @Nox, yeh I have to be more careful of the license I put on the work I do - although the person has also removed the GPL from the repo, which I thought was against the license terms.

    – Pasted
    22 hours ago






  • 21





    I may be missing something in the original post, but did the thesis author claim to have written the code? Is the development of the code a contribution of the thesis? I'm not sure how this is different from someone using any other open source software in their research. If these details are missing, please edit your post to add them.

    – ff524
    21 hours ago








  • 2





    @Pasted if your school has a Dean of students, you can talk to them. Your school probably has a code of student conduct which is much broader than these arguments over the letter of the laws and license terms.

    – A Simple Algorithm
    19 hours ago






  • 3





    @MattP The problem is not that someone used the OP's code (sharing code is what github is for, after all). The problem is that if you use someone else's code in a paper, you need to cite that fact, and depending on what exactly "(I am mentioned indirectly as a maintainer of the code elsewhere in the thesis)" means, that citation may be missing.

    – Ray
    19 hours ago
















  • 13





    AFAIK GPL(v2,v3) does not require attribution, so purely on license terms there's no failure. In academic terms this is the same as any other plagiarism case, given that the code is essential to the work.

    – Nox
    23 hours ago






  • 11





    Thanks @Nox, yeh I have to be more careful of the license I put on the work I do - although the person has also removed the GPL from the repo, which I thought was against the license terms.

    – Pasted
    22 hours ago






  • 21





    I may be missing something in the original post, but did the thesis author claim to have written the code? Is the development of the code a contribution of the thesis? I'm not sure how this is different from someone using any other open source software in their research. If these details are missing, please edit your post to add them.

    – ff524
    21 hours ago








  • 2





    @Pasted if your school has a Dean of students, you can talk to them. Your school probably has a code of student conduct which is much broader than these arguments over the letter of the laws and license terms.

    – A Simple Algorithm
    19 hours ago






  • 3





    @MattP The problem is not that someone used the OP's code (sharing code is what github is for, after all). The problem is that if you use someone else's code in a paper, you need to cite that fact, and depending on what exactly "(I am mentioned indirectly as a maintainer of the code elsewhere in the thesis)" means, that citation may be missing.

    – Ray
    19 hours ago










13




13





AFAIK GPL(v2,v3) does not require attribution, so purely on license terms there's no failure. In academic terms this is the same as any other plagiarism case, given that the code is essential to the work.

– Nox
23 hours ago





AFAIK GPL(v2,v3) does not require attribution, so purely on license terms there's no failure. In academic terms this is the same as any other plagiarism case, given that the code is essential to the work.

– Nox
23 hours ago




11




11





Thanks @Nox, yeh I have to be more careful of the license I put on the work I do - although the person has also removed the GPL from the repo, which I thought was against the license terms.

– Pasted
22 hours ago





Thanks @Nox, yeh I have to be more careful of the license I put on the work I do - although the person has also removed the GPL from the repo, which I thought was against the license terms.

– Pasted
22 hours ago




21




21





I may be missing something in the original post, but did the thesis author claim to have written the code? Is the development of the code a contribution of the thesis? I'm not sure how this is different from someone using any other open source software in their research. If these details are missing, please edit your post to add them.

– ff524
21 hours ago







I may be missing something in the original post, but did the thesis author claim to have written the code? Is the development of the code a contribution of the thesis? I'm not sure how this is different from someone using any other open source software in their research. If these details are missing, please edit your post to add them.

– ff524
21 hours ago






2




2





@Pasted if your school has a Dean of students, you can talk to them. Your school probably has a code of student conduct which is much broader than these arguments over the letter of the laws and license terms.

– A Simple Algorithm
19 hours ago





@Pasted if your school has a Dean of students, you can talk to them. Your school probably has a code of student conduct which is much broader than these arguments over the letter of the laws and license terms.

– A Simple Algorithm
19 hours ago




3




3





@MattP The problem is not that someone used the OP's code (sharing code is what github is for, after all). The problem is that if you use someone else's code in a paper, you need to cite that fact, and depending on what exactly "(I am mentioned indirectly as a maintainer of the code elsewhere in the thesis)" means, that citation may be missing.

– Ray
19 hours ago







@MattP The problem is not that someone used the OP's code (sharing code is what github is for, after all). The problem is that if you use someone else's code in a paper, you need to cite that fact, and depending on what exactly "(I am mentioned indirectly as a maintainer of the code elsewhere in the thesis)" means, that citation may be missing.

– Ray
19 hours ago












4 Answers
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active

oldest

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This is a tricky one. It probably sounds like academic plagiarism, but your licensing concerns are probably not going to resolve the problem at the core of this. There's two sides to this, the academic (plagiarism) side and the commercial (licensing) side. They're almost entirely separate, so I'm going to break them up.





Academic/Plagiarism Claim




The code in the repo is over 97% direct copy of code that I had produced while working in my previous employment...




Without attribution, this is plagiarism, and may be grounds to have the PhD rescinded, but this would be a serious procedure as it's likely to have life-altering affects on the PhD student in question. You'd need to be 100% sure of what you're doing and the validity of your claims going into this. Even if the case was black and white (which I don't think this one necessarily is), the student's University isn't going to take rescinding a PhD lightly as it reflects badly on them.



Additionally, it sounds like there is a some attribution within the work:




The indirect mention of my name is as a maintainer not the sole developer




...which might well be sufficient for the University to write this off as a referencing error, maybe requiring the student to make a small addendum to their thesis.




The code is just part of the story, since the person also claimed that in addition to writing the code they used the code to produce the results in that chapter. They didn't - since I know that I ran the batches in question (this was around 2 years of work).




If you can prove it, the experiments that they claim to have run, that you performed while under the employ of their department are probably your strongest leg to stand on here. But you'd have to have good evidence, and be able to show they haven't run the experiments themselves. If yours were not published previously, and they've generated the data themselves using your code, this may well be null and void.





Commercial/Licensing Claim



The licensing perspective of this is completely separate to the plagiarism side - if the work was published as GPL, they can basically do what they like with it, without attribution, provided that any code based upon it remains GPL. This bit is important, as it's probably where you have a leg to stand on, based on this comment:




although the person has also removed the GPL from the repo, which I thought was against the license terms




That is absolutely in breach of the terms, which is why most industrial entities won't touch GPL code with a bargepole (due to what's commonly called "license bleed").



Based on this, you might have a valid claim to get their repo pulled, but that's not going to solve your actual problem.



Again, from the comments:




...I feel that the supervisor (who used to be my boss)...




I understand this to mean that the PhD student in question is supervised by your old boss, which means you had a contract with their institution. Depending on the contract you had with them, they could therefore own all the rights to it regardless, making your initial GPL license in breach of your contract with them without prior stated agreement. This wouldn't affect the legitimacy of your plagiarism complaint, as that's a genuine academic concern, but might affect how the department deals with your request.






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n00dle is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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  • 9





    +1 I think this answer is most on the right track -- it's not a question of whether they cited OP or obeyed license terms, it's a question of whether they misrepresented the amount of work they had performed to fraudulently obtain a PhD. Going to the ombudsman and/or the student's advisor with your concerns is probably the only path forward, though I would be surprised if anything came of it (sadly).

    – cag51
    10 hours ago











  • The GPL clearly states: "You may convey verbatim copies of the Program's source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate copyright notice; keep intact all notices stating that this License and any non-permissive terms added in accord with section 7 apply to the code; keep intact all notices of the absence of any warranty; and give all recipients a copy of this License along with the Program." See also: opensource.stackexchange.com/a/4582

    – Pharap
    3 hours ago








  • 1





    Thanks for the information @n00dle, seems to be a good summary of the points from other posts as well. Guess the best I can do is to raise the issue with the academic in charge of plagiarism and ask for a review. Given the supervisors status within the department and the ex-student's qualification, a slap on the wrist will be the best I can hope for - but at least it will mean that they can't claim to have produced the code themselves in the future.

    – Pasted
    3 hours ago



















17














You want to accuse a peer of plagiarism on the basis of the following (emphasis added):




I came across a recent PhD thesis that contained a reference to a github account, which contained code I had written...There is no direct reference to my own Github repo which contains the original code (with GNU public license) and no acknowledgment of my authorship (I am mentioned indirectly as a maintainer of the code elsewhere in the thesis).




You've stated that the accused has acknowledged you and, as stated in a comment, "GPL(v2,v3) does not require attribution," so the accused was not required to reference your Github repository from their own.



This doesn't seem like plagiarism.





Response to comments by the OP:




The indirect mention of my name is as a maintainer not the sole developer




This seems like a minor quibble over the accused's word choice.




Please note my emphasis on sole developer of the original code




The accused has not claimed to be the developer of the code (at least, that's not mentioned in the original question).




The mention is in a different chapter and is not in the Github repo




If the mention is in an earlier chapter, then that surely suffices (code has been attributed to you, the owner), otherwise, well, it should have been, but that's easily explained away (e.g., due to changing the order of chapters). Regarding Github, we've established that you didn't require a mention.





Response to comments regarding maintainer vs. developer:




I'm shocked that this answer is [highly rated]. Being mentioned as a "maintainer" is nowhere near the same thing as being the sole developer. We can talk about technicalities all day, but the other student is clearly being deceptive.




and




I agree with the others in the comments here complaining about it--this person is certainly being dishonest by referring to the actual author as the "maintainer".




Wikipedia offers the following definitions:




  • A software developer is a person concerned with facets of the software development process, including the research, design, programming, and testing of computer software.


  • A software maintainer...is usually one or more people who build source code into a binary package for distribution, commit patches, or organize code in a source repository



I appreciate that software developer is the more appropriate term. However, the accused's first language mightn't be English and the accused (presumably) isn't an expert in software engineering (they work in clinical sequencing).



I really do not think that using maintainer as opposed to developer is a big deal. I certainly would not make a plagiarism case on the basis of a misused term.






share|improve this answer





















  • 2





    The indirect mention of my name is as a maintainer not the sole developer of the code. Please note my emphasis on sole developer of the original code - the additional 3% is their own cut and paste job. The mention is in a different chapter and is not in the Github repo, I guess is similar concept would be if something took the results of someones published lab work, and then added then to the acknowledgments.

    – Pasted
    22 hours ago






  • 5





    I guess I don't understand your opinion that a unrelated mention in the text is the same as a reference. In particular that the person in question has presented the code as their own work - and benefited academically from this. This wasn't a small section of their thesis, and the results made up the only first author paper that the person in question produced.

    – Pasted
    22 hours ago






  • 14





    Let me note that plagiarism (using without citing) is different from breaking (or not) a GPL license whatever it is. It can be either without the other. In other words, the license may not require attribution, but it can still be plagiarism if it you imply that you claim the work as your own.

    – Buffy
    21 hours ago








  • 4





    I agree with @Pasted. One doesn't need to be the author to be a "maintainer" of a code repository. They might simply be support personnel. Or the next student tasked to work on the code the plagiarizer supposedly produced.

    – A Simple Algorithm
    19 hours ago








  • 3





    @JimClay Deceptive, perhaps, but that's not the same as plagiarizing. They are not claiming to be the author of the code, so it's not plagiarism. As it stands, it sounds like the real issue is that OP doesn't feel like they are getting the credit they deserve, which might be a valid concern but it's also a situation where you have to ask yourself what making all this fuss is actually going to accomplish in the end.

    – Abion47
    15 hours ago



















15














Talk to your advisor.



Talk to the other student's advisor, with the support of your own. Or even have your own advisor make the complaint to the other.



Complain to GitHub.



But, most important, make sure that your own advisor will agree that this other, seemingly prior, work doesn't prejudice your own degree.



As to publishing, I'm pretty sure that the code supports your work, rather than being the essence of your work. If that is the case, as is normal, then the issue of plagiarism shouldn't affect your own ability to publish your own results.






share|improve this answer



















  • 2





    Thanks @Buffy - have taken this to my supervisor(s) but they were reluctant to become involved due to the plagiarism being of work I did prior to my PhD.. and the reputation of the offenders supervisor. Which is fair enough and I completely understand. I could make a complaint directly however I feel that the supervisor (who used to be my boss), would ignore my complaint. The other recourse may be to get an impartial review by someone outside the department (say in computer science), then go on their recommendation.

    – Pasted
    22 hours ago






  • 5





    What complaint can be made to GitHub?

    – user2768
    20 hours ago






  • 4





    GitHub's Terms of Service state "You agree that you will not under any circumstances upload, post, host, or transmit any content that ... infringes on any proprietary right of any party, including patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, right of publicity, or other rights." 1/2

    – shoover
    20 hours ago






  • 3





    Also "you will only submit Content that you have the right to post; and that you will fully comply with any third party licenses relating to Content you post." 2/2

    – shoover
    20 hours ago






  • 9





    @shoover OP's code was put on Github under the GPL license, which allows anyone to take and use the code without requiring attribution. As such, there are no proprietary rights to infringe upon.

    – Abion47
    16 hours ago



















4














Do nothing.



You provided some code that somehow ended up online.



That person has been the profit of your code, but I am sure a lot of what they did was more than just some code.



Be more generous.



If someone had used my code for successful research I would be pleased!






share|improve this answer



















  • 12





    The person in question was working in the same department as myself and has essentially written a PhD chapter based on analysis of sequencing data that I did. The code is just part of the story, since the person also claimed that in addition to writing the code they used the code to produce the results in that chapter. They didn't - since I know that I ran the batches in question (this was around 2 years of work). I would question whether you would be as pleased to have a colleague use your work without attribution - it is kind of a core principle of science to recognize others work!

    – Pasted
    22 hours ago






  • 2





    Ok, please adapt your question to account for the extra information in this comment. I agree with you, but at the same time, my code would only end up on a website after I have something published. Then you would have a much more valid arguement and It would be much easier to prove.

    – Zarina Akhtar
    22 hours ago






  • 2





    Thanks @zarina I'll add the additional details in - didn't want to put too much detail in the question, since the person in question is now an active researcher.

    – Pasted
    22 hours ago






  • 6





    @Pasted "since the person also claimed that in addition to writing the code they used the code to produce the results in that chapter" If they directly claimed they wrote the code that needs to be added in to the question. Also if they directly claimed to have done work you actually did, that also needs to be added into the question.

    – Murphy
    18 hours ago











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4 Answers
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26














This is a tricky one. It probably sounds like academic plagiarism, but your licensing concerns are probably not going to resolve the problem at the core of this. There's two sides to this, the academic (plagiarism) side and the commercial (licensing) side. They're almost entirely separate, so I'm going to break them up.





Academic/Plagiarism Claim




The code in the repo is over 97% direct copy of code that I had produced while working in my previous employment...




Without attribution, this is plagiarism, and may be grounds to have the PhD rescinded, but this would be a serious procedure as it's likely to have life-altering affects on the PhD student in question. You'd need to be 100% sure of what you're doing and the validity of your claims going into this. Even if the case was black and white (which I don't think this one necessarily is), the student's University isn't going to take rescinding a PhD lightly as it reflects badly on them.



Additionally, it sounds like there is a some attribution within the work:




The indirect mention of my name is as a maintainer not the sole developer




...which might well be sufficient for the University to write this off as a referencing error, maybe requiring the student to make a small addendum to their thesis.




The code is just part of the story, since the person also claimed that in addition to writing the code they used the code to produce the results in that chapter. They didn't - since I know that I ran the batches in question (this was around 2 years of work).




If you can prove it, the experiments that they claim to have run, that you performed while under the employ of their department are probably your strongest leg to stand on here. But you'd have to have good evidence, and be able to show they haven't run the experiments themselves. If yours were not published previously, and they've generated the data themselves using your code, this may well be null and void.





Commercial/Licensing Claim



The licensing perspective of this is completely separate to the plagiarism side - if the work was published as GPL, they can basically do what they like with it, without attribution, provided that any code based upon it remains GPL. This bit is important, as it's probably where you have a leg to stand on, based on this comment:




although the person has also removed the GPL from the repo, which I thought was against the license terms




That is absolutely in breach of the terms, which is why most industrial entities won't touch GPL code with a bargepole (due to what's commonly called "license bleed").



Based on this, you might have a valid claim to get their repo pulled, but that's not going to solve your actual problem.



Again, from the comments:




...I feel that the supervisor (who used to be my boss)...




I understand this to mean that the PhD student in question is supervised by your old boss, which means you had a contract with their institution. Depending on the contract you had with them, they could therefore own all the rights to it regardless, making your initial GPL license in breach of your contract with them without prior stated agreement. This wouldn't affect the legitimacy of your plagiarism complaint, as that's a genuine academic concern, but might affect how the department deals with your request.






share|improve this answer








New contributor




n00dle is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
















  • 9





    +1 I think this answer is most on the right track -- it's not a question of whether they cited OP or obeyed license terms, it's a question of whether they misrepresented the amount of work they had performed to fraudulently obtain a PhD. Going to the ombudsman and/or the student's advisor with your concerns is probably the only path forward, though I would be surprised if anything came of it (sadly).

    – cag51
    10 hours ago











  • The GPL clearly states: "You may convey verbatim copies of the Program's source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate copyright notice; keep intact all notices stating that this License and any non-permissive terms added in accord with section 7 apply to the code; keep intact all notices of the absence of any warranty; and give all recipients a copy of this License along with the Program." See also: opensource.stackexchange.com/a/4582

    – Pharap
    3 hours ago








  • 1





    Thanks for the information @n00dle, seems to be a good summary of the points from other posts as well. Guess the best I can do is to raise the issue with the academic in charge of plagiarism and ask for a review. Given the supervisors status within the department and the ex-student's qualification, a slap on the wrist will be the best I can hope for - but at least it will mean that they can't claim to have produced the code themselves in the future.

    – Pasted
    3 hours ago
















26














This is a tricky one. It probably sounds like academic plagiarism, but your licensing concerns are probably not going to resolve the problem at the core of this. There's two sides to this, the academic (plagiarism) side and the commercial (licensing) side. They're almost entirely separate, so I'm going to break them up.





Academic/Plagiarism Claim




The code in the repo is over 97% direct copy of code that I had produced while working in my previous employment...




Without attribution, this is plagiarism, and may be grounds to have the PhD rescinded, but this would be a serious procedure as it's likely to have life-altering affects on the PhD student in question. You'd need to be 100% sure of what you're doing and the validity of your claims going into this. Even if the case was black and white (which I don't think this one necessarily is), the student's University isn't going to take rescinding a PhD lightly as it reflects badly on them.



Additionally, it sounds like there is a some attribution within the work:




The indirect mention of my name is as a maintainer not the sole developer




...which might well be sufficient for the University to write this off as a referencing error, maybe requiring the student to make a small addendum to their thesis.




The code is just part of the story, since the person also claimed that in addition to writing the code they used the code to produce the results in that chapter. They didn't - since I know that I ran the batches in question (this was around 2 years of work).




If you can prove it, the experiments that they claim to have run, that you performed while under the employ of their department are probably your strongest leg to stand on here. But you'd have to have good evidence, and be able to show they haven't run the experiments themselves. If yours were not published previously, and they've generated the data themselves using your code, this may well be null and void.





Commercial/Licensing Claim



The licensing perspective of this is completely separate to the plagiarism side - if the work was published as GPL, they can basically do what they like with it, without attribution, provided that any code based upon it remains GPL. This bit is important, as it's probably where you have a leg to stand on, based on this comment:




although the person has also removed the GPL from the repo, which I thought was against the license terms




That is absolutely in breach of the terms, which is why most industrial entities won't touch GPL code with a bargepole (due to what's commonly called "license bleed").



Based on this, you might have a valid claim to get their repo pulled, but that's not going to solve your actual problem.



Again, from the comments:




...I feel that the supervisor (who used to be my boss)...




I understand this to mean that the PhD student in question is supervised by your old boss, which means you had a contract with their institution. Depending on the contract you had with them, they could therefore own all the rights to it regardless, making your initial GPL license in breach of your contract with them without prior stated agreement. This wouldn't affect the legitimacy of your plagiarism complaint, as that's a genuine academic concern, but might affect how the department deals with your request.






share|improve this answer








New contributor




n00dle is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
















  • 9





    +1 I think this answer is most on the right track -- it's not a question of whether they cited OP or obeyed license terms, it's a question of whether they misrepresented the amount of work they had performed to fraudulently obtain a PhD. Going to the ombudsman and/or the student's advisor with your concerns is probably the only path forward, though I would be surprised if anything came of it (sadly).

    – cag51
    10 hours ago











  • The GPL clearly states: "You may convey verbatim copies of the Program's source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate copyright notice; keep intact all notices stating that this License and any non-permissive terms added in accord with section 7 apply to the code; keep intact all notices of the absence of any warranty; and give all recipients a copy of this License along with the Program." See also: opensource.stackexchange.com/a/4582

    – Pharap
    3 hours ago








  • 1





    Thanks for the information @n00dle, seems to be a good summary of the points from other posts as well. Guess the best I can do is to raise the issue with the academic in charge of plagiarism and ask for a review. Given the supervisors status within the department and the ex-student's qualification, a slap on the wrist will be the best I can hope for - but at least it will mean that they can't claim to have produced the code themselves in the future.

    – Pasted
    3 hours ago














26












26








26







This is a tricky one. It probably sounds like academic plagiarism, but your licensing concerns are probably not going to resolve the problem at the core of this. There's two sides to this, the academic (plagiarism) side and the commercial (licensing) side. They're almost entirely separate, so I'm going to break them up.





Academic/Plagiarism Claim




The code in the repo is over 97% direct copy of code that I had produced while working in my previous employment...




Without attribution, this is plagiarism, and may be grounds to have the PhD rescinded, but this would be a serious procedure as it's likely to have life-altering affects on the PhD student in question. You'd need to be 100% sure of what you're doing and the validity of your claims going into this. Even if the case was black and white (which I don't think this one necessarily is), the student's University isn't going to take rescinding a PhD lightly as it reflects badly on them.



Additionally, it sounds like there is a some attribution within the work:




The indirect mention of my name is as a maintainer not the sole developer




...which might well be sufficient for the University to write this off as a referencing error, maybe requiring the student to make a small addendum to their thesis.




The code is just part of the story, since the person also claimed that in addition to writing the code they used the code to produce the results in that chapter. They didn't - since I know that I ran the batches in question (this was around 2 years of work).




If you can prove it, the experiments that they claim to have run, that you performed while under the employ of their department are probably your strongest leg to stand on here. But you'd have to have good evidence, and be able to show they haven't run the experiments themselves. If yours were not published previously, and they've generated the data themselves using your code, this may well be null and void.





Commercial/Licensing Claim



The licensing perspective of this is completely separate to the plagiarism side - if the work was published as GPL, they can basically do what they like with it, without attribution, provided that any code based upon it remains GPL. This bit is important, as it's probably where you have a leg to stand on, based on this comment:




although the person has also removed the GPL from the repo, which I thought was against the license terms




That is absolutely in breach of the terms, which is why most industrial entities won't touch GPL code with a bargepole (due to what's commonly called "license bleed").



Based on this, you might have a valid claim to get their repo pulled, but that's not going to solve your actual problem.



Again, from the comments:




...I feel that the supervisor (who used to be my boss)...




I understand this to mean that the PhD student in question is supervised by your old boss, which means you had a contract with their institution. Depending on the contract you had with them, they could therefore own all the rights to it regardless, making your initial GPL license in breach of your contract with them without prior stated agreement. This wouldn't affect the legitimacy of your plagiarism complaint, as that's a genuine academic concern, but might affect how the department deals with your request.






share|improve this answer








New contributor




n00dle is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.










This is a tricky one. It probably sounds like academic plagiarism, but your licensing concerns are probably not going to resolve the problem at the core of this. There's two sides to this, the academic (plagiarism) side and the commercial (licensing) side. They're almost entirely separate, so I'm going to break them up.





Academic/Plagiarism Claim




The code in the repo is over 97% direct copy of code that I had produced while working in my previous employment...




Without attribution, this is plagiarism, and may be grounds to have the PhD rescinded, but this would be a serious procedure as it's likely to have life-altering affects on the PhD student in question. You'd need to be 100% sure of what you're doing and the validity of your claims going into this. Even if the case was black and white (which I don't think this one necessarily is), the student's University isn't going to take rescinding a PhD lightly as it reflects badly on them.



Additionally, it sounds like there is a some attribution within the work:




The indirect mention of my name is as a maintainer not the sole developer




...which might well be sufficient for the University to write this off as a referencing error, maybe requiring the student to make a small addendum to their thesis.




The code is just part of the story, since the person also claimed that in addition to writing the code they used the code to produce the results in that chapter. They didn't - since I know that I ran the batches in question (this was around 2 years of work).




If you can prove it, the experiments that they claim to have run, that you performed while under the employ of their department are probably your strongest leg to stand on here. But you'd have to have good evidence, and be able to show they haven't run the experiments themselves. If yours were not published previously, and they've generated the data themselves using your code, this may well be null and void.





Commercial/Licensing Claim



The licensing perspective of this is completely separate to the plagiarism side - if the work was published as GPL, they can basically do what they like with it, without attribution, provided that any code based upon it remains GPL. This bit is important, as it's probably where you have a leg to stand on, based on this comment:




although the person has also removed the GPL from the repo, which I thought was against the license terms




That is absolutely in breach of the terms, which is why most industrial entities won't touch GPL code with a bargepole (due to what's commonly called "license bleed").



Based on this, you might have a valid claim to get their repo pulled, but that's not going to solve your actual problem.



Again, from the comments:




...I feel that the supervisor (who used to be my boss)...




I understand this to mean that the PhD student in question is supervised by your old boss, which means you had a contract with their institution. Depending on the contract you had with them, they could therefore own all the rights to it regardless, making your initial GPL license in breach of your contract with them without prior stated agreement. This wouldn't affect the legitimacy of your plagiarism complaint, as that's a genuine academic concern, but might affect how the department deals with your request.







share|improve this answer








New contributor




n00dle is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.









share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer






New contributor




n00dle is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.









answered 20 hours ago









n00dlen00dle

37614




37614




New contributor




n00dle is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.





New contributor





n00dle is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.






n00dle is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.








  • 9





    +1 I think this answer is most on the right track -- it's not a question of whether they cited OP or obeyed license terms, it's a question of whether they misrepresented the amount of work they had performed to fraudulently obtain a PhD. Going to the ombudsman and/or the student's advisor with your concerns is probably the only path forward, though I would be surprised if anything came of it (sadly).

    – cag51
    10 hours ago











  • The GPL clearly states: "You may convey verbatim copies of the Program's source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate copyright notice; keep intact all notices stating that this License and any non-permissive terms added in accord with section 7 apply to the code; keep intact all notices of the absence of any warranty; and give all recipients a copy of this License along with the Program." See also: opensource.stackexchange.com/a/4582

    – Pharap
    3 hours ago








  • 1





    Thanks for the information @n00dle, seems to be a good summary of the points from other posts as well. Guess the best I can do is to raise the issue with the academic in charge of plagiarism and ask for a review. Given the supervisors status within the department and the ex-student's qualification, a slap on the wrist will be the best I can hope for - but at least it will mean that they can't claim to have produced the code themselves in the future.

    – Pasted
    3 hours ago














  • 9





    +1 I think this answer is most on the right track -- it's not a question of whether they cited OP or obeyed license terms, it's a question of whether they misrepresented the amount of work they had performed to fraudulently obtain a PhD. Going to the ombudsman and/or the student's advisor with your concerns is probably the only path forward, though I would be surprised if anything came of it (sadly).

    – cag51
    10 hours ago











  • The GPL clearly states: "You may convey verbatim copies of the Program's source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate copyright notice; keep intact all notices stating that this License and any non-permissive terms added in accord with section 7 apply to the code; keep intact all notices of the absence of any warranty; and give all recipients a copy of this License along with the Program." See also: opensource.stackexchange.com/a/4582

    – Pharap
    3 hours ago








  • 1





    Thanks for the information @n00dle, seems to be a good summary of the points from other posts as well. Guess the best I can do is to raise the issue with the academic in charge of plagiarism and ask for a review. Given the supervisors status within the department and the ex-student's qualification, a slap on the wrist will be the best I can hope for - but at least it will mean that they can't claim to have produced the code themselves in the future.

    – Pasted
    3 hours ago








9




9





+1 I think this answer is most on the right track -- it's not a question of whether they cited OP or obeyed license terms, it's a question of whether they misrepresented the amount of work they had performed to fraudulently obtain a PhD. Going to the ombudsman and/or the student's advisor with your concerns is probably the only path forward, though I would be surprised if anything came of it (sadly).

– cag51
10 hours ago





+1 I think this answer is most on the right track -- it's not a question of whether they cited OP or obeyed license terms, it's a question of whether they misrepresented the amount of work they had performed to fraudulently obtain a PhD. Going to the ombudsman and/or the student's advisor with your concerns is probably the only path forward, though I would be surprised if anything came of it (sadly).

– cag51
10 hours ago













The GPL clearly states: "You may convey verbatim copies of the Program's source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate copyright notice; keep intact all notices stating that this License and any non-permissive terms added in accord with section 7 apply to the code; keep intact all notices of the absence of any warranty; and give all recipients a copy of this License along with the Program." See also: opensource.stackexchange.com/a/4582

– Pharap
3 hours ago







The GPL clearly states: "You may convey verbatim copies of the Program's source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate copyright notice; keep intact all notices stating that this License and any non-permissive terms added in accord with section 7 apply to the code; keep intact all notices of the absence of any warranty; and give all recipients a copy of this License along with the Program." See also: opensource.stackexchange.com/a/4582

– Pharap
3 hours ago






1




1





Thanks for the information @n00dle, seems to be a good summary of the points from other posts as well. Guess the best I can do is to raise the issue with the academic in charge of plagiarism and ask for a review. Given the supervisors status within the department and the ex-student's qualification, a slap on the wrist will be the best I can hope for - but at least it will mean that they can't claim to have produced the code themselves in the future.

– Pasted
3 hours ago





Thanks for the information @n00dle, seems to be a good summary of the points from other posts as well. Guess the best I can do is to raise the issue with the academic in charge of plagiarism and ask for a review. Given the supervisors status within the department and the ex-student's qualification, a slap on the wrist will be the best I can hope for - but at least it will mean that they can't claim to have produced the code themselves in the future.

– Pasted
3 hours ago











17














You want to accuse a peer of plagiarism on the basis of the following (emphasis added):




I came across a recent PhD thesis that contained a reference to a github account, which contained code I had written...There is no direct reference to my own Github repo which contains the original code (with GNU public license) and no acknowledgment of my authorship (I am mentioned indirectly as a maintainer of the code elsewhere in the thesis).




You've stated that the accused has acknowledged you and, as stated in a comment, "GPL(v2,v3) does not require attribution," so the accused was not required to reference your Github repository from their own.



This doesn't seem like plagiarism.





Response to comments by the OP:




The indirect mention of my name is as a maintainer not the sole developer




This seems like a minor quibble over the accused's word choice.




Please note my emphasis on sole developer of the original code




The accused has not claimed to be the developer of the code (at least, that's not mentioned in the original question).




The mention is in a different chapter and is not in the Github repo




If the mention is in an earlier chapter, then that surely suffices (code has been attributed to you, the owner), otherwise, well, it should have been, but that's easily explained away (e.g., due to changing the order of chapters). Regarding Github, we've established that you didn't require a mention.





Response to comments regarding maintainer vs. developer:




I'm shocked that this answer is [highly rated]. Being mentioned as a "maintainer" is nowhere near the same thing as being the sole developer. We can talk about technicalities all day, but the other student is clearly being deceptive.




and




I agree with the others in the comments here complaining about it--this person is certainly being dishonest by referring to the actual author as the "maintainer".




Wikipedia offers the following definitions:




  • A software developer is a person concerned with facets of the software development process, including the research, design, programming, and testing of computer software.


  • A software maintainer...is usually one or more people who build source code into a binary package for distribution, commit patches, or organize code in a source repository



I appreciate that software developer is the more appropriate term. However, the accused's first language mightn't be English and the accused (presumably) isn't an expert in software engineering (they work in clinical sequencing).



I really do not think that using maintainer as opposed to developer is a big deal. I certainly would not make a plagiarism case on the basis of a misused term.






share|improve this answer





















  • 2





    The indirect mention of my name is as a maintainer not the sole developer of the code. Please note my emphasis on sole developer of the original code - the additional 3% is their own cut and paste job. The mention is in a different chapter and is not in the Github repo, I guess is similar concept would be if something took the results of someones published lab work, and then added then to the acknowledgments.

    – Pasted
    22 hours ago






  • 5





    I guess I don't understand your opinion that a unrelated mention in the text is the same as a reference. In particular that the person in question has presented the code as their own work - and benefited academically from this. This wasn't a small section of their thesis, and the results made up the only first author paper that the person in question produced.

    – Pasted
    22 hours ago






  • 14





    Let me note that plagiarism (using without citing) is different from breaking (or not) a GPL license whatever it is. It can be either without the other. In other words, the license may not require attribution, but it can still be plagiarism if it you imply that you claim the work as your own.

    – Buffy
    21 hours ago








  • 4





    I agree with @Pasted. One doesn't need to be the author to be a "maintainer" of a code repository. They might simply be support personnel. Or the next student tasked to work on the code the plagiarizer supposedly produced.

    – A Simple Algorithm
    19 hours ago








  • 3





    @JimClay Deceptive, perhaps, but that's not the same as plagiarizing. They are not claiming to be the author of the code, so it's not plagiarism. As it stands, it sounds like the real issue is that OP doesn't feel like they are getting the credit they deserve, which might be a valid concern but it's also a situation where you have to ask yourself what making all this fuss is actually going to accomplish in the end.

    – Abion47
    15 hours ago
















17














You want to accuse a peer of plagiarism on the basis of the following (emphasis added):




I came across a recent PhD thesis that contained a reference to a github account, which contained code I had written...There is no direct reference to my own Github repo which contains the original code (with GNU public license) and no acknowledgment of my authorship (I am mentioned indirectly as a maintainer of the code elsewhere in the thesis).




You've stated that the accused has acknowledged you and, as stated in a comment, "GPL(v2,v3) does not require attribution," so the accused was not required to reference your Github repository from their own.



This doesn't seem like plagiarism.





Response to comments by the OP:




The indirect mention of my name is as a maintainer not the sole developer




This seems like a minor quibble over the accused's word choice.




Please note my emphasis on sole developer of the original code




The accused has not claimed to be the developer of the code (at least, that's not mentioned in the original question).




The mention is in a different chapter and is not in the Github repo




If the mention is in an earlier chapter, then that surely suffices (code has been attributed to you, the owner), otherwise, well, it should have been, but that's easily explained away (e.g., due to changing the order of chapters). Regarding Github, we've established that you didn't require a mention.





Response to comments regarding maintainer vs. developer:




I'm shocked that this answer is [highly rated]. Being mentioned as a "maintainer" is nowhere near the same thing as being the sole developer. We can talk about technicalities all day, but the other student is clearly being deceptive.




and




I agree with the others in the comments here complaining about it--this person is certainly being dishonest by referring to the actual author as the "maintainer".




Wikipedia offers the following definitions:




  • A software developer is a person concerned with facets of the software development process, including the research, design, programming, and testing of computer software.


  • A software maintainer...is usually one or more people who build source code into a binary package for distribution, commit patches, or organize code in a source repository



I appreciate that software developer is the more appropriate term. However, the accused's first language mightn't be English and the accused (presumably) isn't an expert in software engineering (they work in clinical sequencing).



I really do not think that using maintainer as opposed to developer is a big deal. I certainly would not make a plagiarism case on the basis of a misused term.






share|improve this answer





















  • 2





    The indirect mention of my name is as a maintainer not the sole developer of the code. Please note my emphasis on sole developer of the original code - the additional 3% is their own cut and paste job. The mention is in a different chapter and is not in the Github repo, I guess is similar concept would be if something took the results of someones published lab work, and then added then to the acknowledgments.

    – Pasted
    22 hours ago






  • 5





    I guess I don't understand your opinion that a unrelated mention in the text is the same as a reference. In particular that the person in question has presented the code as their own work - and benefited academically from this. This wasn't a small section of their thesis, and the results made up the only first author paper that the person in question produced.

    – Pasted
    22 hours ago






  • 14





    Let me note that plagiarism (using without citing) is different from breaking (or not) a GPL license whatever it is. It can be either without the other. In other words, the license may not require attribution, but it can still be plagiarism if it you imply that you claim the work as your own.

    – Buffy
    21 hours ago








  • 4





    I agree with @Pasted. One doesn't need to be the author to be a "maintainer" of a code repository. They might simply be support personnel. Or the next student tasked to work on the code the plagiarizer supposedly produced.

    – A Simple Algorithm
    19 hours ago








  • 3





    @JimClay Deceptive, perhaps, but that's not the same as plagiarizing. They are not claiming to be the author of the code, so it's not plagiarism. As it stands, it sounds like the real issue is that OP doesn't feel like they are getting the credit they deserve, which might be a valid concern but it's also a situation where you have to ask yourself what making all this fuss is actually going to accomplish in the end.

    – Abion47
    15 hours ago














17












17








17







You want to accuse a peer of plagiarism on the basis of the following (emphasis added):




I came across a recent PhD thesis that contained a reference to a github account, which contained code I had written...There is no direct reference to my own Github repo which contains the original code (with GNU public license) and no acknowledgment of my authorship (I am mentioned indirectly as a maintainer of the code elsewhere in the thesis).




You've stated that the accused has acknowledged you and, as stated in a comment, "GPL(v2,v3) does not require attribution," so the accused was not required to reference your Github repository from their own.



This doesn't seem like plagiarism.





Response to comments by the OP:




The indirect mention of my name is as a maintainer not the sole developer




This seems like a minor quibble over the accused's word choice.




Please note my emphasis on sole developer of the original code




The accused has not claimed to be the developer of the code (at least, that's not mentioned in the original question).




The mention is in a different chapter and is not in the Github repo




If the mention is in an earlier chapter, then that surely suffices (code has been attributed to you, the owner), otherwise, well, it should have been, but that's easily explained away (e.g., due to changing the order of chapters). Regarding Github, we've established that you didn't require a mention.





Response to comments regarding maintainer vs. developer:




I'm shocked that this answer is [highly rated]. Being mentioned as a "maintainer" is nowhere near the same thing as being the sole developer. We can talk about technicalities all day, but the other student is clearly being deceptive.




and




I agree with the others in the comments here complaining about it--this person is certainly being dishonest by referring to the actual author as the "maintainer".




Wikipedia offers the following definitions:




  • A software developer is a person concerned with facets of the software development process, including the research, design, programming, and testing of computer software.


  • A software maintainer...is usually one or more people who build source code into a binary package for distribution, commit patches, or organize code in a source repository



I appreciate that software developer is the more appropriate term. However, the accused's first language mightn't be English and the accused (presumably) isn't an expert in software engineering (they work in clinical sequencing).



I really do not think that using maintainer as opposed to developer is a big deal. I certainly would not make a plagiarism case on the basis of a misused term.






share|improve this answer















You want to accuse a peer of plagiarism on the basis of the following (emphasis added):




I came across a recent PhD thesis that contained a reference to a github account, which contained code I had written...There is no direct reference to my own Github repo which contains the original code (with GNU public license) and no acknowledgment of my authorship (I am mentioned indirectly as a maintainer of the code elsewhere in the thesis).




You've stated that the accused has acknowledged you and, as stated in a comment, "GPL(v2,v3) does not require attribution," so the accused was not required to reference your Github repository from their own.



This doesn't seem like plagiarism.





Response to comments by the OP:




The indirect mention of my name is as a maintainer not the sole developer




This seems like a minor quibble over the accused's word choice.




Please note my emphasis on sole developer of the original code




The accused has not claimed to be the developer of the code (at least, that's not mentioned in the original question).




The mention is in a different chapter and is not in the Github repo




If the mention is in an earlier chapter, then that surely suffices (code has been attributed to you, the owner), otherwise, well, it should have been, but that's easily explained away (e.g., due to changing the order of chapters). Regarding Github, we've established that you didn't require a mention.





Response to comments regarding maintainer vs. developer:




I'm shocked that this answer is [highly rated]. Being mentioned as a "maintainer" is nowhere near the same thing as being the sole developer. We can talk about technicalities all day, but the other student is clearly being deceptive.




and




I agree with the others in the comments here complaining about it--this person is certainly being dishonest by referring to the actual author as the "maintainer".




Wikipedia offers the following definitions:




  • A software developer is a person concerned with facets of the software development process, including the research, design, programming, and testing of computer software.


  • A software maintainer...is usually one or more people who build source code into a binary package for distribution, commit patches, or organize code in a source repository



I appreciate that software developer is the more appropriate term. However, the accused's first language mightn't be English and the accused (presumably) isn't an expert in software engineering (they work in clinical sequencing).



I really do not think that using maintainer as opposed to developer is a big deal. I certainly would not make a plagiarism case on the basis of a misused term.







share|improve this answer














share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer








edited 3 hours ago

























answered 22 hours ago









user2768user2768

14.1k23758




14.1k23758








  • 2





    The indirect mention of my name is as a maintainer not the sole developer of the code. Please note my emphasis on sole developer of the original code - the additional 3% is their own cut and paste job. The mention is in a different chapter and is not in the Github repo, I guess is similar concept would be if something took the results of someones published lab work, and then added then to the acknowledgments.

    – Pasted
    22 hours ago






  • 5





    I guess I don't understand your opinion that a unrelated mention in the text is the same as a reference. In particular that the person in question has presented the code as their own work - and benefited academically from this. This wasn't a small section of their thesis, and the results made up the only first author paper that the person in question produced.

    – Pasted
    22 hours ago






  • 14





    Let me note that plagiarism (using without citing) is different from breaking (or not) a GPL license whatever it is. It can be either without the other. In other words, the license may not require attribution, but it can still be plagiarism if it you imply that you claim the work as your own.

    – Buffy
    21 hours ago








  • 4





    I agree with @Pasted. One doesn't need to be the author to be a "maintainer" of a code repository. They might simply be support personnel. Or the next student tasked to work on the code the plagiarizer supposedly produced.

    – A Simple Algorithm
    19 hours ago








  • 3





    @JimClay Deceptive, perhaps, but that's not the same as plagiarizing. They are not claiming to be the author of the code, so it's not plagiarism. As it stands, it sounds like the real issue is that OP doesn't feel like they are getting the credit they deserve, which might be a valid concern but it's also a situation where you have to ask yourself what making all this fuss is actually going to accomplish in the end.

    – Abion47
    15 hours ago














  • 2





    The indirect mention of my name is as a maintainer not the sole developer of the code. Please note my emphasis on sole developer of the original code - the additional 3% is their own cut and paste job. The mention is in a different chapter and is not in the Github repo, I guess is similar concept would be if something took the results of someones published lab work, and then added then to the acknowledgments.

    – Pasted
    22 hours ago






  • 5





    I guess I don't understand your opinion that a unrelated mention in the text is the same as a reference. In particular that the person in question has presented the code as their own work - and benefited academically from this. This wasn't a small section of their thesis, and the results made up the only first author paper that the person in question produced.

    – Pasted
    22 hours ago






  • 14





    Let me note that plagiarism (using without citing) is different from breaking (or not) a GPL license whatever it is. It can be either without the other. In other words, the license may not require attribution, but it can still be plagiarism if it you imply that you claim the work as your own.

    – Buffy
    21 hours ago








  • 4





    I agree with @Pasted. One doesn't need to be the author to be a "maintainer" of a code repository. They might simply be support personnel. Or the next student tasked to work on the code the plagiarizer supposedly produced.

    – A Simple Algorithm
    19 hours ago








  • 3





    @JimClay Deceptive, perhaps, but that's not the same as plagiarizing. They are not claiming to be the author of the code, so it's not plagiarism. As it stands, it sounds like the real issue is that OP doesn't feel like they are getting the credit they deserve, which might be a valid concern but it's also a situation where you have to ask yourself what making all this fuss is actually going to accomplish in the end.

    – Abion47
    15 hours ago








2




2





The indirect mention of my name is as a maintainer not the sole developer of the code. Please note my emphasis on sole developer of the original code - the additional 3% is their own cut and paste job. The mention is in a different chapter and is not in the Github repo, I guess is similar concept would be if something took the results of someones published lab work, and then added then to the acknowledgments.

– Pasted
22 hours ago





The indirect mention of my name is as a maintainer not the sole developer of the code. Please note my emphasis on sole developer of the original code - the additional 3% is their own cut and paste job. The mention is in a different chapter and is not in the Github repo, I guess is similar concept would be if something took the results of someones published lab work, and then added then to the acknowledgments.

– Pasted
22 hours ago




5




5





I guess I don't understand your opinion that a unrelated mention in the text is the same as a reference. In particular that the person in question has presented the code as their own work - and benefited academically from this. This wasn't a small section of their thesis, and the results made up the only first author paper that the person in question produced.

– Pasted
22 hours ago





I guess I don't understand your opinion that a unrelated mention in the text is the same as a reference. In particular that the person in question has presented the code as their own work - and benefited academically from this. This wasn't a small section of their thesis, and the results made up the only first author paper that the person in question produced.

– Pasted
22 hours ago




14




14





Let me note that plagiarism (using without citing) is different from breaking (or not) a GPL license whatever it is. It can be either without the other. In other words, the license may not require attribution, but it can still be plagiarism if it you imply that you claim the work as your own.

– Buffy
21 hours ago







Let me note that plagiarism (using without citing) is different from breaking (or not) a GPL license whatever it is. It can be either without the other. In other words, the license may not require attribution, but it can still be plagiarism if it you imply that you claim the work as your own.

– Buffy
21 hours ago






4




4





I agree with @Pasted. One doesn't need to be the author to be a "maintainer" of a code repository. They might simply be support personnel. Or the next student tasked to work on the code the plagiarizer supposedly produced.

– A Simple Algorithm
19 hours ago







I agree with @Pasted. One doesn't need to be the author to be a "maintainer" of a code repository. They might simply be support personnel. Or the next student tasked to work on the code the plagiarizer supposedly produced.

– A Simple Algorithm
19 hours ago






3




3





@JimClay Deceptive, perhaps, but that's not the same as plagiarizing. They are not claiming to be the author of the code, so it's not plagiarism. As it stands, it sounds like the real issue is that OP doesn't feel like they are getting the credit they deserve, which might be a valid concern but it's also a situation where you have to ask yourself what making all this fuss is actually going to accomplish in the end.

– Abion47
15 hours ago





@JimClay Deceptive, perhaps, but that's not the same as plagiarizing. They are not claiming to be the author of the code, so it's not plagiarism. As it stands, it sounds like the real issue is that OP doesn't feel like they are getting the credit they deserve, which might be a valid concern but it's also a situation where you have to ask yourself what making all this fuss is actually going to accomplish in the end.

– Abion47
15 hours ago











15














Talk to your advisor.



Talk to the other student's advisor, with the support of your own. Or even have your own advisor make the complaint to the other.



Complain to GitHub.



But, most important, make sure that your own advisor will agree that this other, seemingly prior, work doesn't prejudice your own degree.



As to publishing, I'm pretty sure that the code supports your work, rather than being the essence of your work. If that is the case, as is normal, then the issue of plagiarism shouldn't affect your own ability to publish your own results.






share|improve this answer



















  • 2





    Thanks @Buffy - have taken this to my supervisor(s) but they were reluctant to become involved due to the plagiarism being of work I did prior to my PhD.. and the reputation of the offenders supervisor. Which is fair enough and I completely understand. I could make a complaint directly however I feel that the supervisor (who used to be my boss), would ignore my complaint. The other recourse may be to get an impartial review by someone outside the department (say in computer science), then go on their recommendation.

    – Pasted
    22 hours ago






  • 5





    What complaint can be made to GitHub?

    – user2768
    20 hours ago






  • 4





    GitHub's Terms of Service state "You agree that you will not under any circumstances upload, post, host, or transmit any content that ... infringes on any proprietary right of any party, including patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, right of publicity, or other rights." 1/2

    – shoover
    20 hours ago






  • 3





    Also "you will only submit Content that you have the right to post; and that you will fully comply with any third party licenses relating to Content you post." 2/2

    – shoover
    20 hours ago






  • 9





    @shoover OP's code was put on Github under the GPL license, which allows anyone to take and use the code without requiring attribution. As such, there are no proprietary rights to infringe upon.

    – Abion47
    16 hours ago
















15














Talk to your advisor.



Talk to the other student's advisor, with the support of your own. Or even have your own advisor make the complaint to the other.



Complain to GitHub.



But, most important, make sure that your own advisor will agree that this other, seemingly prior, work doesn't prejudice your own degree.



As to publishing, I'm pretty sure that the code supports your work, rather than being the essence of your work. If that is the case, as is normal, then the issue of plagiarism shouldn't affect your own ability to publish your own results.






share|improve this answer



















  • 2





    Thanks @Buffy - have taken this to my supervisor(s) but they were reluctant to become involved due to the plagiarism being of work I did prior to my PhD.. and the reputation of the offenders supervisor. Which is fair enough and I completely understand. I could make a complaint directly however I feel that the supervisor (who used to be my boss), would ignore my complaint. The other recourse may be to get an impartial review by someone outside the department (say in computer science), then go on their recommendation.

    – Pasted
    22 hours ago






  • 5





    What complaint can be made to GitHub?

    – user2768
    20 hours ago






  • 4





    GitHub's Terms of Service state "You agree that you will not under any circumstances upload, post, host, or transmit any content that ... infringes on any proprietary right of any party, including patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, right of publicity, or other rights." 1/2

    – shoover
    20 hours ago






  • 3





    Also "you will only submit Content that you have the right to post; and that you will fully comply with any third party licenses relating to Content you post." 2/2

    – shoover
    20 hours ago






  • 9





    @shoover OP's code was put on Github under the GPL license, which allows anyone to take and use the code without requiring attribution. As such, there are no proprietary rights to infringe upon.

    – Abion47
    16 hours ago














15












15








15







Talk to your advisor.



Talk to the other student's advisor, with the support of your own. Or even have your own advisor make the complaint to the other.



Complain to GitHub.



But, most important, make sure that your own advisor will agree that this other, seemingly prior, work doesn't prejudice your own degree.



As to publishing, I'm pretty sure that the code supports your work, rather than being the essence of your work. If that is the case, as is normal, then the issue of plagiarism shouldn't affect your own ability to publish your own results.






share|improve this answer













Talk to your advisor.



Talk to the other student's advisor, with the support of your own. Or even have your own advisor make the complaint to the other.



Complain to GitHub.



But, most important, make sure that your own advisor will agree that this other, seemingly prior, work doesn't prejudice your own degree.



As to publishing, I'm pretty sure that the code supports your work, rather than being the essence of your work. If that is the case, as is normal, then the issue of plagiarism shouldn't affect your own ability to publish your own results.







share|improve this answer












share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer










answered 23 hours ago









BuffyBuffy

50.4k13164250




50.4k13164250








  • 2





    Thanks @Buffy - have taken this to my supervisor(s) but they were reluctant to become involved due to the plagiarism being of work I did prior to my PhD.. and the reputation of the offenders supervisor. Which is fair enough and I completely understand. I could make a complaint directly however I feel that the supervisor (who used to be my boss), would ignore my complaint. The other recourse may be to get an impartial review by someone outside the department (say in computer science), then go on their recommendation.

    – Pasted
    22 hours ago






  • 5





    What complaint can be made to GitHub?

    – user2768
    20 hours ago






  • 4





    GitHub's Terms of Service state "You agree that you will not under any circumstances upload, post, host, or transmit any content that ... infringes on any proprietary right of any party, including patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, right of publicity, or other rights." 1/2

    – shoover
    20 hours ago






  • 3





    Also "you will only submit Content that you have the right to post; and that you will fully comply with any third party licenses relating to Content you post." 2/2

    – shoover
    20 hours ago






  • 9





    @shoover OP's code was put on Github under the GPL license, which allows anyone to take and use the code without requiring attribution. As such, there are no proprietary rights to infringe upon.

    – Abion47
    16 hours ago














  • 2





    Thanks @Buffy - have taken this to my supervisor(s) but they were reluctant to become involved due to the plagiarism being of work I did prior to my PhD.. and the reputation of the offenders supervisor. Which is fair enough and I completely understand. I could make a complaint directly however I feel that the supervisor (who used to be my boss), would ignore my complaint. The other recourse may be to get an impartial review by someone outside the department (say in computer science), then go on their recommendation.

    – Pasted
    22 hours ago






  • 5





    What complaint can be made to GitHub?

    – user2768
    20 hours ago






  • 4





    GitHub's Terms of Service state "You agree that you will not under any circumstances upload, post, host, or transmit any content that ... infringes on any proprietary right of any party, including patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, right of publicity, or other rights." 1/2

    – shoover
    20 hours ago






  • 3





    Also "you will only submit Content that you have the right to post; and that you will fully comply with any third party licenses relating to Content you post." 2/2

    – shoover
    20 hours ago






  • 9





    @shoover OP's code was put on Github under the GPL license, which allows anyone to take and use the code without requiring attribution. As such, there are no proprietary rights to infringe upon.

    – Abion47
    16 hours ago








2




2





Thanks @Buffy - have taken this to my supervisor(s) but they were reluctant to become involved due to the plagiarism being of work I did prior to my PhD.. and the reputation of the offenders supervisor. Which is fair enough and I completely understand. I could make a complaint directly however I feel that the supervisor (who used to be my boss), would ignore my complaint. The other recourse may be to get an impartial review by someone outside the department (say in computer science), then go on their recommendation.

– Pasted
22 hours ago





Thanks @Buffy - have taken this to my supervisor(s) but they were reluctant to become involved due to the plagiarism being of work I did prior to my PhD.. and the reputation of the offenders supervisor. Which is fair enough and I completely understand. I could make a complaint directly however I feel that the supervisor (who used to be my boss), would ignore my complaint. The other recourse may be to get an impartial review by someone outside the department (say in computer science), then go on their recommendation.

– Pasted
22 hours ago




5




5





What complaint can be made to GitHub?

– user2768
20 hours ago





What complaint can be made to GitHub?

– user2768
20 hours ago




4




4





GitHub's Terms of Service state "You agree that you will not under any circumstances upload, post, host, or transmit any content that ... infringes on any proprietary right of any party, including patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, right of publicity, or other rights." 1/2

– shoover
20 hours ago





GitHub's Terms of Service state "You agree that you will not under any circumstances upload, post, host, or transmit any content that ... infringes on any proprietary right of any party, including patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, right of publicity, or other rights." 1/2

– shoover
20 hours ago




3




3





Also "you will only submit Content that you have the right to post; and that you will fully comply with any third party licenses relating to Content you post." 2/2

– shoover
20 hours ago





Also "you will only submit Content that you have the right to post; and that you will fully comply with any third party licenses relating to Content you post." 2/2

– shoover
20 hours ago




9




9





@shoover OP's code was put on Github under the GPL license, which allows anyone to take and use the code without requiring attribution. As such, there are no proprietary rights to infringe upon.

– Abion47
16 hours ago





@shoover OP's code was put on Github under the GPL license, which allows anyone to take and use the code without requiring attribution. As such, there are no proprietary rights to infringe upon.

– Abion47
16 hours ago











4














Do nothing.



You provided some code that somehow ended up online.



That person has been the profit of your code, but I am sure a lot of what they did was more than just some code.



Be more generous.



If someone had used my code for successful research I would be pleased!






share|improve this answer



















  • 12





    The person in question was working in the same department as myself and has essentially written a PhD chapter based on analysis of sequencing data that I did. The code is just part of the story, since the person also claimed that in addition to writing the code they used the code to produce the results in that chapter. They didn't - since I know that I ran the batches in question (this was around 2 years of work). I would question whether you would be as pleased to have a colleague use your work without attribution - it is kind of a core principle of science to recognize others work!

    – Pasted
    22 hours ago






  • 2





    Ok, please adapt your question to account for the extra information in this comment. I agree with you, but at the same time, my code would only end up on a website after I have something published. Then you would have a much more valid arguement and It would be much easier to prove.

    – Zarina Akhtar
    22 hours ago






  • 2





    Thanks @zarina I'll add the additional details in - didn't want to put too much detail in the question, since the person in question is now an active researcher.

    – Pasted
    22 hours ago






  • 6





    @Pasted "since the person also claimed that in addition to writing the code they used the code to produce the results in that chapter" If they directly claimed they wrote the code that needs to be added in to the question. Also if they directly claimed to have done work you actually did, that also needs to be added into the question.

    – Murphy
    18 hours ago
















4














Do nothing.



You provided some code that somehow ended up online.



That person has been the profit of your code, but I am sure a lot of what they did was more than just some code.



Be more generous.



If someone had used my code for successful research I would be pleased!






share|improve this answer



















  • 12





    The person in question was working in the same department as myself and has essentially written a PhD chapter based on analysis of sequencing data that I did. The code is just part of the story, since the person also claimed that in addition to writing the code they used the code to produce the results in that chapter. They didn't - since I know that I ran the batches in question (this was around 2 years of work). I would question whether you would be as pleased to have a colleague use your work without attribution - it is kind of a core principle of science to recognize others work!

    – Pasted
    22 hours ago






  • 2





    Ok, please adapt your question to account for the extra information in this comment. I agree with you, but at the same time, my code would only end up on a website after I have something published. Then you would have a much more valid arguement and It would be much easier to prove.

    – Zarina Akhtar
    22 hours ago






  • 2





    Thanks @zarina I'll add the additional details in - didn't want to put too much detail in the question, since the person in question is now an active researcher.

    – Pasted
    22 hours ago






  • 6





    @Pasted "since the person also claimed that in addition to writing the code they used the code to produce the results in that chapter" If they directly claimed they wrote the code that needs to be added in to the question. Also if they directly claimed to have done work you actually did, that also needs to be added into the question.

    – Murphy
    18 hours ago














4












4








4







Do nothing.



You provided some code that somehow ended up online.



That person has been the profit of your code, but I am sure a lot of what they did was more than just some code.



Be more generous.



If someone had used my code for successful research I would be pleased!






share|improve this answer













Do nothing.



You provided some code that somehow ended up online.



That person has been the profit of your code, but I am sure a lot of what they did was more than just some code.



Be more generous.



If someone had used my code for successful research I would be pleased!







share|improve this answer












share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer










answered 22 hours ago









Zarina AkhtarZarina Akhtar

1937




1937








  • 12





    The person in question was working in the same department as myself and has essentially written a PhD chapter based on analysis of sequencing data that I did. The code is just part of the story, since the person also claimed that in addition to writing the code they used the code to produce the results in that chapter. They didn't - since I know that I ran the batches in question (this was around 2 years of work). I would question whether you would be as pleased to have a colleague use your work without attribution - it is kind of a core principle of science to recognize others work!

    – Pasted
    22 hours ago






  • 2





    Ok, please adapt your question to account for the extra information in this comment. I agree with you, but at the same time, my code would only end up on a website after I have something published. Then you would have a much more valid arguement and It would be much easier to prove.

    – Zarina Akhtar
    22 hours ago






  • 2





    Thanks @zarina I'll add the additional details in - didn't want to put too much detail in the question, since the person in question is now an active researcher.

    – Pasted
    22 hours ago






  • 6





    @Pasted "since the person also claimed that in addition to writing the code they used the code to produce the results in that chapter" If they directly claimed they wrote the code that needs to be added in to the question. Also if they directly claimed to have done work you actually did, that also needs to be added into the question.

    – Murphy
    18 hours ago














  • 12





    The person in question was working in the same department as myself and has essentially written a PhD chapter based on analysis of sequencing data that I did. The code is just part of the story, since the person also claimed that in addition to writing the code they used the code to produce the results in that chapter. They didn't - since I know that I ran the batches in question (this was around 2 years of work). I would question whether you would be as pleased to have a colleague use your work without attribution - it is kind of a core principle of science to recognize others work!

    – Pasted
    22 hours ago






  • 2





    Ok, please adapt your question to account for the extra information in this comment. I agree with you, but at the same time, my code would only end up on a website after I have something published. Then you would have a much more valid arguement and It would be much easier to prove.

    – Zarina Akhtar
    22 hours ago






  • 2





    Thanks @zarina I'll add the additional details in - didn't want to put too much detail in the question, since the person in question is now an active researcher.

    – Pasted
    22 hours ago






  • 6





    @Pasted "since the person also claimed that in addition to writing the code they used the code to produce the results in that chapter" If they directly claimed they wrote the code that needs to be added in to the question. Also if they directly claimed to have done work you actually did, that also needs to be added into the question.

    – Murphy
    18 hours ago








12




12





The person in question was working in the same department as myself and has essentially written a PhD chapter based on analysis of sequencing data that I did. The code is just part of the story, since the person also claimed that in addition to writing the code they used the code to produce the results in that chapter. They didn't - since I know that I ran the batches in question (this was around 2 years of work). I would question whether you would be as pleased to have a colleague use your work without attribution - it is kind of a core principle of science to recognize others work!

– Pasted
22 hours ago





The person in question was working in the same department as myself and has essentially written a PhD chapter based on analysis of sequencing data that I did. The code is just part of the story, since the person also claimed that in addition to writing the code they used the code to produce the results in that chapter. They didn't - since I know that I ran the batches in question (this was around 2 years of work). I would question whether you would be as pleased to have a colleague use your work without attribution - it is kind of a core principle of science to recognize others work!

– Pasted
22 hours ago




2




2





Ok, please adapt your question to account for the extra information in this comment. I agree with you, but at the same time, my code would only end up on a website after I have something published. Then you would have a much more valid arguement and It would be much easier to prove.

– Zarina Akhtar
22 hours ago





Ok, please adapt your question to account for the extra information in this comment. I agree with you, but at the same time, my code would only end up on a website after I have something published. Then you would have a much more valid arguement and It would be much easier to prove.

– Zarina Akhtar
22 hours ago




2




2





Thanks @zarina I'll add the additional details in - didn't want to put too much detail in the question, since the person in question is now an active researcher.

– Pasted
22 hours ago





Thanks @zarina I'll add the additional details in - didn't want to put too much detail in the question, since the person in question is now an active researcher.

– Pasted
22 hours ago




6




6





@Pasted "since the person also claimed that in addition to writing the code they used the code to produce the results in that chapter" If they directly claimed they wrote the code that needs to be added in to the question. Also if they directly claimed to have done work you actually did, that also needs to be added into the question.

– Murphy
18 hours ago





@Pasted "since the person also claimed that in addition to writing the code they used the code to produce the results in that chapter" If they directly claimed they wrote the code that needs to be added in to the question. Also if they directly claimed to have done work you actually did, that also needs to be added into the question.

– Murphy
18 hours ago


















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