Plagiarism Risks on Academic Websites

[James Jay Morgan]

Patricia Knobloch asks
" what is the difference between me pointing to my web-document as the
original source and me pointing to my published document as the original
source." 
There was just recently a web4lib discussion of how to change the date on 
your web document.  How do you prove that it was originally posted on a 
certain date?  There's obviously a certain amount of trust involved, but 
right now I don't know of any external agencies that will validate that a 
given document was posted to your site at a certain date and that it 
contained all the data that your are alleging it contains.
Internet journals are a more reliable source of validation, since in that 
case you have a third party, the journal editor, supporting your claim.

However I'm not sure that the graduate students have a practical worry.  
There's a lot more to publishing an article or dissertation or thesis 
than simply having a bright idea.  99% of the work is proving the bright 
idea has some validity.

Jim Morgan