Plagiarism in the work of a scientist
With the advent of the World Wide Web, information is literally at our fingertips all of the time.
In the work of a researcher this has become a blessing and a burden.
One one hand, you have access to the millions of research documents and findings over the web, helping to enhance your research by being able to easily review others work. But at the same time it has become hard to say what is plagiarism.
i have been using the internet and believe that it has increased my knowledge of the world greatly. But at the same time I feel dirty when researching and writing. I have a wide depth and breadth of knowledge, so i know it is hard to source facts that I know, but learned from the internet. They may not be original thoughts, but most of learning is absorbing, but at the same time these are my thoughts and reasoning based on my knowledge of a subject. If i write something down, a fact about a computer system, do I site myself, some googled page online?
In India and china many students are not required to cite the books on the class list. Which brings up my next point, at what point does information gained become my knowledge?
I am still trying to decide for myself, but for now i believe I will try to source as much information that I can.