Contributors to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, often referred to as Wikipedians, license their submitted content under a Creative Commons license, which permits re-use as long as attribution is given. However, there have been a number of occasions when persons have failed to give the necessary attribution and attempted to pass off material from Wikipedia as their own work. Such plagiarism is a violation of the Creative Commons license and, when discovered, can be a reason for embarrassment, professional sanctions, or legal issues.
In educational settings, students sometimes copy Wikipedia to fulfill class assignments.[1] A 2011 study by Turnitin found that Wikipedia was the most copied website by both secondary and higher education students.[2]
Notable instances
Many notable individuals and institutions have been credibly said to have committed plagiarism from Wikipedia.
- David Agus[3]
- Chris Anderson[4]
- Jill Bialosky[5]
- Monica Crowley[6][7]
- Elsevier retracted a 2020 book for plagiarizing many large passages from Wikipedia[8]
- Five Star Movement (Italian political party)[9]
- Jane Goodall[10]
- Michel Houellebecq[11]
- International Baccalaureate Organisation (IBO) was accused of copying confidential examiner marking guides from Wikipedia[12]
- Internet Research Agency[13]
- Benny Johnson[14]
- Siniša Mali, Serbian Finance Minister, who was found by the University of Belgrade to have plagiarized his Ph.D. thesis[15]
- John McCain[16]
- Yana Milev[17]
- Okayama Prefectural Assembly[18]
- Oxford University Press[19]
- Neri Oxman[20]
- Rand Paul[21]
- The Pentagon[22]
- Rachel Reeves[23]
- Santa Clara County grant writer[24]
- Peter Schweizer, in his 2018 book Secret Empires[25]
- Government of the United Kingdom, in its 2022 "Levelling Up" white paper[26]
- Gerónimo Vargas Aignasse[27][28][29]
- Fabiola Yáñez[30]
- Alejandro Zaera-Polo[31]
- James Somerton