Common Sense: A Case of Plagiarism in the IEEE Article

There are multiple instances of plagiarism found in the IEEE article published on July 17, 2017, titled “IPv6 and Internet of Things: Prospects for Latin America”, in which the author, Rosa Delgado, used exactly the same words in the same order in the same sentence within the same context from one of my articles published more than one year earlier without giving credit or crediting the source.

Almost four years ago I wrote the original opinion article titled “No IoT without IPv6” and it was first published by Computerworld and then republished by CIO.com on May 19, 2016. My original opinion article discusses extensively the global adoption of IPv6 and its impact on the future of the Internet of Things (IoT). In addition, three of my related articles on the exact same subject were first published online in my personal blog sites on WordPress, Blogger, and LinkedIn on June 2, 2016. See the following links for my original article published by Computerworld and CIO.com and personal websites:

https://www.computerworld.com/article/3071625/no-iot-without-ipv6.html
https://www.cio.com/article/3072499/no-iot-without-ipv6.html
https://ipv6czar.blogspot.com/2016/06/iot-is-ultimate-driver-for-global.html
https://ipv6czar.wordpress.com/2016/06/02/iot-is-the-ultimate-driver-for-global-adoption-of-ipv6/

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/iot-ultimate-driver-global-adoption-ipv6-charles-sun/

As a matter of fact, since 2014 I have written and published more than a dozen related articles on this same subject and I have been speaking and invited to speak publicly on many occasions at national and international conferences and public events on this and similar topics, including two of my opinion articles were published by Computerworld since May 2014.

Moreover, since the publication by Computerworld of my original opinion article titled "Stop Using Internet Protocol Version 4!" on May 1, 2014, and a related opinion article titled "No IoT Without IPv6" on May 19, 2016, many references to my articles have been made by publications in the academic and professional communities, international professional journals, societies in multiple languages. many of my ideas, statements, and opinions stated in my articles have been frequently credited in many of the academic research papers, international academic and professional conferences' proceedings, papers, articles, and books, among others, on the subjects related to IPv6 and IoT, which include, but not limited to the following:

International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science and Software Engineering (IJARCSSE)
International Journal for Innovative Research in Multidisciplinary Field (IJIRMF):
Asian Journal of Mathematical Sciences (AJMS)
Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence Volume 12: Issue 1; ISSN: 2558-9652
First Amendment Law Review by University of North Carolina School of Law

For instance, in my May 1, 2014 opinion article published by Computerworld, CIO.com, and subsequently republished by many other publications including NetworkWorld, InfoWorld, among others, I specifically stated that "the Internet of Things will depend on the successful implementation of IPv6" and that "To a large extent, the Internet of Things will be the ultimate driver of global adoption of IPv6 in the coming years". This stated opinion and similar statements have since been widely cited and repeated in many of those academic research papers and professional journal publications, some of which are listed in the References section of this article at the end.

Sadly, however, a few people, on the other hand, seem to have no shame or decency nowadays and would rather engage in plagiarism in their writings and/or online postings than do the right thing by using the proper citations and giving credit to the original sources of information used in their publications as they should. As far as the intellectual properties (IP) is concerned, if you don't own those ideas or used other people's words in your writing and speeches, then you must cite those resources properly and give the appropriate credit to the original source! This is a minimum, low ethical and academic standard that people have to follow in conducting their research and publications. Otherwise, if you choose to plagiarize in your writings, you will be caught and exposed, sooner or later.

For instance, I recently discovered an article published by IEEE on July 17, 2017, for its IEEE Internet of Things collection titled “IPv6 and Internet of Things: Prospects for Latin America”, in which the author, Rosa Delgado, wrote about the same subject on IPv6 and IoT that I have been writing and speaking publicly about since 2014.

Most disturbingly, however, the author not only failed to properly credit the original source of information used for the IEEE article published in 2017 but also used the exact same words and phrase, such as “No IoT Without IPv6”, among others, in the exact same order in a single sentence within the same context of the article on the very same subject, that I originally used in my opinion article first published more than 14 months earlier by Computerworld on May 19, 2016! As a matter of fact, those four words used by the author of the IEEE article are actually the exact same words used for the title of my original opinion article published more than one year earlier by Computerworld, CIO.com, NetworkWorld, and many of IDG Communications, Inc. affiliated news outlets, publications.

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, the word "plagiarize" means to use another person's ideas or work and pretend that it is your own. The Merriam-Webster dictionary, further explains that "plagiarize" means:

to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own
to use (another's production) without crediting the source
to commit literary theft
to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source

Per the definitions provided by the article published on plagiarism.org website, the following are considered plagiarism:

copying words or ideas from someone else without giving credit
changing words but copying the sentence structure of a source without giving credit

Upon a closer examination comparing the IEEE article published in 2017 and my original article published more than a year earlier in 2016, it becomes very clear that there is sufficient evidence of plagiarism contained in the IEEE article published on July 17, 2017.

Here I will only highlight two such instances of plagiarism found in the IEEE article on IPv6 and IoT published by IEEE on July 17, 2017:

First, in its last sentence of the first paragraph of the 2017 IEEE article, the author wrote:

As a result, there is no IoT without IPv6.

The title for my 2016 opinion article published by Computerworld more than one year earlier is No IoT without IPv6.

The author of the IEEE article used exactly the same words in the same order in the same sentence within the same context from my article published more than one year earlier without any proper citation or credit provided to the original source used in the IEEE article. In this case, the author of the IEEE article copied the same words from my original article's title without giving credit or crediting the source.

Second, in the first sentence of the third paragraph of the 2017 IEEE article, the author wrote:

IPv6 is about vision, leadership, innovation and competitive edge.

In my 2016 opinion article which was first published by Computerworld more than one year earlier, listed as the fifth reason for my statements made in my opinion article titled “No IoT without IPv6”, I wrote:

5. Adopting IPv6 is a matter of leadership, vision and competitive edge.

The following screenshots showing the side by side comparison of the two published articles, explicitly depict the two instances of plagiarism found in the IEEE article:

Once again, it is crystal clear that, as demonstrated in this instance, the author of the IEEE article copied the same words from my article published more than one year earlier and used those same words in almost exactly the same order in the same sentence within the same context of the discussion on the same topic in the IEEE article about the same subject on IPv6 and IoT without giving credit or crediting the source. Those are examples of blatant intellectual property theft known as plagiarism!

The author of the IEEE article should have properly credited the original source of the information used in the article and should have given the credit where credit is due when those words and/or ideas do not come directly from the author originally. But unfortunately, the author failed to do so repeatedly throughout the article.

Based on the above analysis and the examination of the material facts as identified and presented, it is very clear that despite some apparent attempts made by the author of the article to change some of the words or the order of those words in the sentence structure in the IEEE article, the author had failed to provide the proper citations and giving credit to the original source of information used in the article. In other words, the author had committed plagiarism by copying the words or changing words but copying the sentence structure of a source without giving credit, which is considered plagiarism per the aforementioned definitions.

In short, based on the meaning of plagiarism defined, the examples of plagiarism cited, the evidence of plagiarism demonstrated, the screenshots shown, and for the reasons and analysis provided herein, the author of the IEEE article had committed plagiarism in the IEEE article in the current format published by IEEE on its website, plain and simple!

Otherwise, if this piece of IEEE article on the subject of IPv6 and IoT is not considered plagiarism based on the identified instances of plagiarism, then what is plagiarism?!

Given the fact that this article is part of the IEEE the official collection of documents related to IoT, the ethical rules and academic research standards must be met and maintained. Consequently, I would like the IEEE to start an investigation on this apparent plagiarism incidence as reported herein and provide me and the general public an acceptable explanation as to what actually occurred in this very serious matter of IP violations in one of its official publications.

IEEE, the world is watching!

References

The following is a partial listing of my publications and many of the references to my articles made in the academic and research papers, professional conferences proceedings, books, articles, and many other websites, including, but not limited to, numerous professional journals and academic publishers, such as International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science and Software Engineering, International Journal for Innovative Research in Multidisciplinary Field, First Amendment Law Review by University of North Carolina School of Law, Asian Journal of Mathematical Sciences, Sciendo, Academia.edu, and many popular sites such as Google Scholar, Wikipedia, in addition to many IDG Communications, Inc. affiliated news outlets, publications: Computerworld, CIO.com, InfoWorld, NetworkWorld: