Contributors to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia 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. A 2011 study by Turnitin found that Wikipedia was the most copied website by both secondary and higher education students.
Notable instances
Many notable individuals and institutions have been credibly said to have committed plagiarism from Wikipedia.
Chris Anderson
Jill Bialosky
Monica Crowley
Five Star Movement (Italian political party) Jane Goodall Michel Houellebecq International Baccalaureate Organisation (IBO) was accused of copying IB test questions from Wikipedia Internet Research Agency Benny Johnson Siniša Mali, Serbian Finance Minister, who was found by the University of Belgrade to have plagiarized his Ph.D. thesis John McCain Yana Milev Okayama Prefectural Assembly Oxford University Press Rand Paul The Pentagon Peter Schweizer, in his 2018 book Secret Empires Government of the United Kingdom, in its 2022 "Levelling Up" white paper. Gerónimo Vargas Aignasse Fabiola Yáñez Alejandro Zaera-Polo Santa Clara County grantwriter Elsevier retracted a 2020 book for plagiarizing many large passages from Wikipedia. David Agus Rachel Reeves