Ref Anu:

1) First, I haven't a clue what you meant by querying my identity and address...

2) Your question has no details as to what exactly you need to hear from people on the forum, what your problem is etc etc. Hence nobody is going to come up and write that they indeed have 'spear' time.

Best.

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Ref OP:

There is no question of being overly paranoid. This is an "extremely" serious issue. It is taken very seriously, as far as I have seen and not plagiarising is the basic rule of academic practice. You raise two issues in your post which are real, clear problems and you need to think very carefully, for this is not a simple matter.

1. First, if you 'lifted' a para from a collaborative piece of work with another person, and did not cite this, it is absolutely plagiarism. It is not done! I could not imagine someone lifting a para from something written with me and not citing it (i.e. implying that this para was their own effort). So unless I am getting you wrong, this is a problem..

2. Second, when you say you should have rephrased, did you pass off sentences/thoughts as your own? If you copied pasted as "quotes" then that's fine, but have you passed off others' writing as your own?

Again, excuse me if i am wrong, but if it's these two above, it's considered unethical in the academy and absolutely constitutes plagiarism. It is better for you to consider if you have done these things and then work out ways in which to potentially address it.

Hi Supergenius, out of curiosity (and an eventual ambition to be in your shoes one day i.e. to apply for a post-doc, not the ref trouble) when you say you have a great CV could you elaborate a bit on what kind of things you've managed to put on it? And congrats for doing this! :-)

First of all, you cannot begin by aiming to cover every article on the topic. That's not the way to do this. Start from a suggested list of readings from those who know the area and your interests. From there, see the readings these pieces list. Then branch off, you will begin to see overlaps, soon an 'idea' of the area will shape itself out, you will get to identify who the key voices are in the area.. then you shall try to attempt to read many things from a few authors, and some things from others... and it grows like that...

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I'd love to bet on the lifespan of Jason34's post here! But I think betting of no sort is allowed on this forum :p

Books may not be the answer. The route would be: academic journal articles, a tediously broad based and even frustrating literature search and your supervisor!

It's horrid sometimes but then we find our way :-)

Guitarman, I dont see how this story is dissimilar to other fields of work. Corporate life has battered, beaten and even bruised souls and those who thrive in it. Any organisation, field, area has stories of such sort. PhD life is necessarily tedious, the pressures are different from other stressful occupations, but 'slaves' of the system exist in any system! I don't see how this is specific of academia. As far as pay goes, well yes, there are tomorrow's intellectuals who need to earn their money by cleaning the biblipgrahies of today's intellectuals, but that's how it is! People balance the good and the bad and get something out of it, and change their course of life if that's not what they want.

The slavery dimension is differentially conspicuous in different fields, but doubtless, what you call slaves (disgruntled, overworked tied-to-the-system people exist everywhere) and sometimes 'slaves' and 'we-love-it's exist in the same person..

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The design sounds strange..what's the sample..what's the profile..what research is this for? umm..?