Guide for Writers
Zero Tolerance for Plagiarism on ILLUMINATION
Copyright matters on Medium and all other writing platforms.
The purpose of this story is to confirm and clarify that ILLUMINATION has zero tolerance for plagiarism.
ILLUMINATION takes copyright rules seriously. We removed 300+ plagiarizers since our inception March 2020. Medium also suspended their accounts. It is a serious crime on any platform.
Our editors invest their time and effort in fighting against plagiarism.
We created a stringent process and rigorous procedures.
Editors use several tools to check duplicated content.
Several of our editors are experienced in copyright rules. Some editors have a legal background in the industry with postgraduate degrees.
Upon following the process, they first have a dialogue with the writer. If the writer cannot provide evidence on duplicated copies, the editors remove the plagiarized content and offending writer from publication.
They also report the content and the writer to Medium per policy.
The majority of writers submit legitimate content. However, we must diligently work with a minority of writers whose content looks risky. We park the risky content in secure storage and request editors to review the content.
There are times some articles look legitimate, e.g., Medium curated articles. Our initial assumption was curators would identify plagiarized content. Our assumption was challenged because, in one instance, we received multiple complaints on a curated story from readers.
We take complaints about plagiarism seriously. We record them in our incident system and engage the editorial team to immediately investigate.
In this specific instance, our editors took immediate action and removed the curated article from the publication.
ILLUMINATION removed several writers when the editors detected plagiarism. We also created a policy that those writers are never allowed to our publication. We keep a record of removed writers from the publication.
Our editors use embedded and extended tools to stringently follow the process for copyrights.
We also ensure that all photos are captioned, and the source links are provided in the required format in curation guidelines. If in doubt, editors challenge the writers to provide proof for the copyright owner of the images coming from non-public sources.
In summary, stories that do not comply with medium rules are rejected.
Dr Mehmet Yildiz made this crystal clear in his recent article.
So far, only a single article with offending content was accidentally published. ILLUMINATION editors took immediate action to remove the content and the offending author. We used this incident to improve our process and procedures further.
Publications have many challenges and constraints on Medium as pointed out by Dr Mehmet Yildiz. For example, after publishing stories, Medium allows the writers to change their content. Considering ILLUMINATION hosts around 300,000 articles, this creates a tremendous challenge for us to monitor updated challenges. Unfortunately, this is beyond the capabilities of publications. At least Dr. Yildiz showed his leadership and provided awareness on this.
ILLUMINATION is determined to provide copyright-free material to our readers.
The following section provides an extract reflecting the type of approach editors take.
Sample Editor Conversation
This conversation is extracted from a story by one of our editors Agnes Laurens in the attached story discusses the challenges of editors.
Comment editor: Hi, it looks like this article is not yours. Please provide the name of the real author. It is not fair to the author you took his work. He worked hard for this. Plagiarism is not tolerated. Check for Medium’s guidelines.
Comment writer: You accuse me that I have stolen this work? This is not stolen. I wrote it myself. You are really nuts. I don’t tolerate it that you accuse me of stealing someone else’s work.
Comment editor: Well, I have seen this work earlier, and I have put your story through a plagiarism checker, and it says that your work has been stolen.
Comment writer: Then your plagiarism checker is not good. This is my work. I won’t delete it.
OTHER RESOURCES
In addition to editors, some writers also support ILLUMINATION to fight against plagiarism.
For example, one of the top writers Linda Caroll provided an excellent guide in a well-received story for our readers and writers.
CAPTIONING PHOTOS
Photo captioning is one of the most common pain points for editors.
ILLUMINATION editors invested substantial time in educating and helping our writers to caption their photos to comply with the copyright rules properly.
The new policy — Please read and comply.
[2022 Addendum for fair use]
CONCLUSIONS
Copyright is a critical matter in content development, sharing, and distribution.
ILLUMINATION takes copyright rules seriously by implementing stringent processes and procedures. Our editors also use plagiarism software to detect duplicated content.
Offending content and authors are immediately removed from the publication and reported to Medium.
We contribute to the platform to have plagiarism-free content by following the Medium rules and our in-house policies.
We also ensure that all photos are captioned and the image sources are clearly provided in submitted stories. If writers do not comply with this requirement, their stories are not published.
ILLUMINATION strives for the success of writers and to give a pleasant reading experience to our readers.
Critical Documents for the Writers of Illumination Integrated Publications
Every writer contributing to our publications must review these guiding policies before submitting their stories. We are tolerant, but these are non-negotiable rules.
Writing Challenges and Prompts
Helpful Resources for Writers and Readers
Starter Kit for Writers of ILLUMINATION Integrated Publications
Improving the Quality of Writing Using an Editorial Checklist
Five Tips to Become a Prolific Writer Despite Full-Time Work
Please check our updated submission guidelines authored by our senior editor Suzanne E..
Curated Writer Bios
Learn about contributing writers of ILLUMINATION written by their pen
medium.com
Invitation to New Writers
To join our vibrant publications, please send a request via this link.
We will help you gain visibility and succeed as a writer on Medium. Please mention the publication name with your Medium account ID in the request.
ILLUMINATION Integrated Publications include:
ILLUMINATION ILLUMINATION-Curated ILLUMINATION’ S MIRROR ILLUMINATION Book Chapters The Lampshade of ILLUMINATION Technology Hits SYNERGY Readers Hope Illumination on YouTube Illumination Gaming ILLUMINATION’s Blog EUPHORIA by Dr Mehmet Yildiz
