Plagiarism

So, I was reading an article on Slate today about dissertation plagiarism in Russia. (Don't read too much into the liberal source; like most techie types, I'm a staunch Libertarian. I just find it more interesting to read the opinions of those who disagree with me.) Anyway, apparently there are A LOT of fake PhD's in Russia.

I wouldn't say I'm particularly worried about somebody ripping off my research. First off, Math/Stats/Data Science aren't the fields one generally goes into if looking for a quick win on the PhD front. Even if you do manage to dupe a committee into granting you a degree, you want last too long in the actual field if you don't have at least something to offer. I'll grant, the bar is lower than one might hope, but you can't get by on smoke and mirrors forever. At the end of the day, your clients are going to want an actual number.

Secondly, I haven't really put much out on this blog that couldn't have been done by any competent programmer with a math background. The reason it's a fertile field is that most people have been attacking the problem with hardware rather than playing the long game where the quantity of data will outstrip anything you can build (Or will it? Time will tell).

That said, I did notice that nearly half the hits on this blog are from Russia. Does make one wonder. I guess as long as I'm just posting intermediate results and not actual thesis text, the risk is pretty low. No point in plagiarizing a rough draft when there are thousands of finished copies to rip off. Still, I suppose a little caution is in order.