The ways PhD students cheat on their thesis. Avoid doing this...

[@francishunt562]

One of my lecturers actually did his masters thesis on how students fabricate and 'improve' results during laboratory sessions. He called this the 'fiddle factor', and said this tendency was very common and happened at all levels. Wish I had a copy of it now, it was a real 'eye opener'.

[@gallectee6032]

Was his name Robert R. Smith or Robert W. Hawkes?

[@digitydog1234]

Interesting video. I have met non-native speakers of English who cannot provide a basic overview of their PhD topic, methodology, and findings. One criterion for success (in the Australian system at least) is mastery of academic English - demonstrated by producing an intelligible, cohesive, well-written thesis document that is produced by the candidate. There are actually rules in place that define the constraints within which a proofreader can edit a candidate's thesis. In no way is it permissible for a third person to write on behalf of the candidate. This is often referred to as "Ghostwriting" and is considered a serious form of plagiarism by most reputable universities. Ghostwriting would be a great topic for another video Andy!

[@servicekid7453]

You’ve spent three years of your life working on this project. Be proud of it and write it up properly. Taking shortcuts will mean you will look back and wish you’d put more effort in

[@marilynnaeem6136]

I am a fourth year PhD student and with another year left to finish my degree, I am coming across the information through your videos, Andy, that I should have known before joining PhD! I am a first gen PhD student and new to American education-culture/academia as a whole, and your videos are an eye opener! Honestly, I was thinking to re-use the excerpts from a Master's thesis of the previous student whose work I continued, but just realized that without proper citation that would be cheating. I thought of it, not because I am a dishonest scholar, but because I simply did not know what comes in the gray area of academic cheating. So THANKYOU for this video and the others, that are simply causing the awareness much needed and especially, saving me the consequences of naive academic moves!

[@rayb2587]

Please do a video showing how to organise your articles and references PLEAAAASE

[@kieranhanrahan2883]

Use zotero (free) or similar Break your material down by theme And then subtree And viciously cull the bad stuff (I score any material from 1 to 5 based on relevance method and contribution ... only material that scores 4 and 5 are saved) maybe 10%

[@JanWnogu]

That's a good video! Of course these things happen, but should be avoided as much possible.

[@asmayasmeen6961]

Great lecture as usual. I have learnt so much useful information from your insightful videos. Even I'm trying to get command on Lateral for my Literature review, that you've shared in one of your video posts. Thanks again for your great work.

[@anthonygikuri]

Thank you Andy for highlighting keys issues here.

[@andrewhabroad]

The Masters one is kind of ridiculous if it's your own thesis. If I am continuing my own research from my masters, then I should be able to copy my own work.

[@unknownsender6915]

Sadly, they call it “self-plagiarism.” There’s a way to twist things up, but you’d have to use AI and paraphrasing tools

[@janswanton3631]

Thanks, Andy. Really sound and useful advice, as usual. In my area, guarding against cheating is crucial. My primary sources cheat by saying things to the Press they know aren't true ('Charles Manson auditioned for The Monkees' is a good example) and I have to spot what is happening and why. My secondary sources cheat by reproducing the same data, so it looks reliable, because so many scholars attest to it, but they are only copying from one another ('Reine Stewart - Peter Tork's wife - is James Stewart's daughter', is a typical example. She isn't!) Again, it is crucial that I spot this and sort out what is really going on. It's good to be reminded to be on my guard! Thanks again!

[@takahapana557]

My PhD thesis was published as a monogram for public consumption so there was no remote chance for cheating.

[@maricruzbautista5105]

Hello, tanks for your videos ☺️

[@realGBx64]

Write your paper in your own language, translate it using google translate to English and then send it out to a lecturer. I am not joking, I had colleagues writing papers like this, and I ended up writing their response letters when they got major revisions.

[@lazyscholar7932]

This is why you try to publish the work you take to conferences ahead of time. Many people give away their ideas before they are able to capitalize on it.

[@JustThesis]

I am aware of an Associate Professor who has taken someone else's decades old PhD Thesis and published a paper under her name. The PhD thesis completed in the last millenium is not available online. In the current millenium, the best way to prevent anyone plagiarising your work is to upload them online. ResearchGate is a good place to do this. I did this when I found out that my research proposal was plagiarised word for word.

[@stevengraham3278]

I really appreciate your videos Andy. I am working my way through my corrections, post viva. Do you have any thoughts for that stage of the game?

[@servicekid7453]

If they’re just textual corrections, get them written and inserted asap and get the job done. Don’t dilly-dally. If you’ve got some re-analysis, re-writing or extra experiments to do be laser-focussed. Do what you need to complete the work, no more.

[@civilhorizon]

Thanks Andy

[@iaan81]

A PhD thesis should optimally consist of an introduction + collection of peer reviewed papers first authored by the PhD student.

[@JanWnogu]

This is how a habilitation "thesis" can look like in some countries (basically, you summarize the research you did after PhD).

[@luminousblue1539]

Amazing content as always. thank you Andy!

[@Sugarsnaps24]

I have a question. Is using/citing different sites that give you free access to, otherwise, expensive papers, considered cheating/illigal in the PhD writing process?

[@genghislad6195]

you can just cite the original work, publishing industry is a very unethical one anyways

[@SystemsMedicine]

Well, obviously PhD students are already using chatbots with anonomyzers to write. I assume the chatbots are occasionally do the thinking as well. The PhD honesty/dishonesty boundary is becoming a very wide gray line. [As far as I can tell, there is a large amount of thesis misbehavior historically as well as currently.]

[@MsSADAFRANI]

Is it also a cheating if someone took sentence from a paper and wrote in own words but the vocabulary was not very nice so used online tool to repharase it?

[@servicekid7453]

Why rewrite it? Just quote the text and cite the original author

[@mau345]

Isnt that paraphrasing? But just make sure you cite the source of information

[@sajidakadar9759]

You didn't mention what happens if someone paste paragraphs taken from their own published papers.

[@Heyu7her3]

I think it's OK as long as you're only taking small excerpts and cite yourself

[@spinebuster9490]

@@Heyu7her3 Wrong. You should not recycle words. You have to come up with original words and sentences.

[@kieranhanrahan2883]

Depends, its OK as a direct quotation.

[@oukogembo9355]

Thanks for the video. If I use same material slightly modified for another application, is that plagiarism?

[@AntonioMatasTe]

Yes, it is. Even if it is by you, it would be self-plagiarism

[@rayb2587]

Thank you for sharing

[@DrAndyStapleton]

Thanks for watching!

[@hantu4321]

So now I know you can't extend a masters for PhD you need to cite yourself

[@Neo-vz8nh]

Yes, absolutly. They can even charge you with plagism if you don't cite yourself, which is utterly ridiclous by the way.

[@hantu4321]

@@Neo-vz8nh self citation is for official documents only right? Dissertation and publications

[@Neo-vz8nh]

@@hantu4321 yes

[@thomasvaessen7342]

Can using programs like grammarly also be considered plagiarism? Its not your own words... Self plagiarism is a dumb concept if you go back to the beginning of the "why (not)". I'd rather have it you re-use earlier words and improve upon it, rather then using AI to write or adapt stuff for you.

[@MrGitty93]

I really think that you speak from the English speaking part of the worlds' point of view. And I think that you don't know what it is like if you suddenly have to write in a langguage that you don't know.

[@Sadin15]

thanks for the disclaimer that this isn't an instructional video haha

[@baqirhemraj7639]

A student has to undergo a rigorous process reforming being accepted for a PhD. Not all the students who apply are accepted and not all those who are accepted are able to complete their studies or pass, some students have to withdraw. The only way to cheat is to let someone (a third party) write a PhD thesis for you but even then there is no guarantee of success as a student has to pass a viva (oral examination), which may entail minor or major rewriting.

[@JamesBrodski]

First