Report Plagiarism to a Search Engine or to a Teacher

Disclaimer: I've made every effort to present accurate information to you on this Web site, but there may still be some errors. I disclaim responsibility for any errors and cannot be held liable for any actions that you take.

Authors: Report Plagiarism to Google

If you've found someone copying your content without your permission and publishing it to the Web, use Google's spam report form to try to get the copied pages removed from Google's search engine index.

1. Use either PlagiarismChecker.com or Google to do a Google search for the plagiarized material. Keep the search results page open.
2. Find the Google search box at the top of the search results page. Click inside the box and hit control-A to select all of the text. Hit control-C to copy the text to the clipboard.
3. Go to Google's spam report form and paste the copied text into the box labeled, "Exact query that shows a problem."
4. Go back to the search results page and copy the text from the address bar. This is the line that starts with "http://"
5. Go to the spam report form and paste the copied text into the box labeled, "Resulting Google page that shows problem".
6. Go back to the search results page and click on the search result that shows plagiarism of your work.
7. Copy the text from the address bar. This is the line that starts with "http://".
8. Go to the spam report form and paste the copied text into the box labeled, "The specific web page or site that is misbehaving."
9. In the "Additional Details" box, write a short description of your problem to Google. Make it clear that you are describing an instance of plagiarism.
10. Click the Submit button.

If you're really serious, you can report copyright infringement by sending Google a written letter. It might be a good idea to talk to a lawyer before doing this, though. Plagiarism and copyright infringement are not the same thing. Google's instructions state that "you will be liable for damages (including costs and attorneys' fees) if you materially misrepresent that a product or activity is infringing your copyrights."

Authors: Report Plagiarism to Yahoo!

Yahoo has a written description about spam and other inappropriate content that should be removed from its search engine index. Their Quality Guidelines state that "pages that have substantially the same content as other pages" should not be included in Yahoo's index. You can report plagiarism using their spam report form.

If you're really serious and believe that someone has infringed your copyright, you can report this in accordance with Yahoo's Copyright and Intellectual Property Policy. It might be a good idea to talk to a lawyer before doing this, though. Plagiarism and copyright infringement are not the same thing; someone who copies work isn't always committing copyright infringement.

Authors: Report Plagiarism to Other Search Engines

Search-Marketing.info has useful instructions for reporting spam. Since plagiarism is usually considered a type of spam, the article may give you a useful starting point for your work.

Students: Report Cheating to a Teacher

If you would like to report a student who is plagiarizing or otherwise cheating, send an e-mail to this address:

Please provide this information in your e-mail:

• The student's name
• The e-mail address for the student's teacher
• Any evidence you have that the student was cheating

I will forward your e-mail to the student's teacher. The teacher may decide to contact you with questions about the student who cheated.

Thank you for helping to preserve academic honesty at your school.

The PlagiarismChecker.com Team

P.S. You may also use the e-mail address given above to contact me with suggestions to improve PlagiarismChecker.com.