| >This page describes one of The Vampire Chronicles' policies and guidelines. All users are expected to follow policy, except where it would damage the wiki. If you have any questions, suggestions, or complaints, please post them on the talk page. |
Plagiarism is not accepted on The Vampire Chronicles wiki.
What Is Plagiarism?
Plagiarism is the act of simply copying someone else's work and uploading it to Vampire Chronicles as though it were your own. The nature of Wikia sites such as The Vampire Chronicles, and the way in which anyone is able to access and edit them, unfortunately makes the act of plagiarism very easy to carry out.
Plagiarism is looked down upon for several reasons:
- First and foremost, it is very disrespectful to the original author. They may have put considerable time and effort into researching, writing and structuring the original piece of work, and to have someone else simply copy that work and post it elsewhere as though it was something they created themselves serves to discredit the original creator.
- Secondly, it makes the wiki seem unprofessional, full of editors who would rather copy someone else's work than create something new themselves.
Essentially, plagiarism is comparable to stealing, in that it involves the theft of someone else's intellectual property and re-purposing it for your own ends.
When Is Copying Not Plagiarism
Not all copying is considered plagiarism. For example, direct quotations are not considered plagiarism and are perfectly acceptable on this wiki — although care should be taken to ensure any quotations are relevant and properly referenced.
Likewise, using other people's work as a source of information, then restructuring that information in your own written contributions, is not plagiarism. Again though, any information taken from other sources should be referenced, both to help confirm its truthfulness and to acknowledge the original author.
How to Respond to Plagiarism
If you discover plagiarism on this wiki, please do not resort to attacking the individual(s) responsible. Starting an argument is never the way to solve anything on this wiki, and it is quite possible the person responsible did not know what they were doing was wrong. However, do bring the issue to their attention — if they were unaware of their error you will educate them against future transgressions, while if they were aware that they were plagiarising others, they will realise they have been caught and will hopefully change their practices in the future. Just remember to be polite and always assume good faith.
When discovering plagiarism, it would also be a good idea to rewrite the offending material so that it is no longer plagiarised. It does not take long to simply rework and reword the material so that it conveys the same point, but in a way that has been created by us rather than copied from someone else.
In cases where work originally from this wiki has been plagiarised elsewhere, it would probably be best to bring the incident to the attention of an Administrator so that they can deal with the issue.