======= Date Modified 18 Nov 2012 19:20:36 =======
======= Date Modified 18 Nov 2012 19:19:59 =======
Hi everyone,

I wondered if I could please ask for your advice about a situation that has arisen about a student reading my unpublished work.

An undergraduate student emailed my supervisor asking for help with her dissertation, as she has just begun doing some preliminary research and is trying to nail down a specific research area. The student said that there wasn't much data on a particular topic, to which my supervisor replied saying that she was surprised to hear this since I had just completed my Masters dissertation on the same subject. My supervisor copied me into this email, in which she also said that if the student contacts me, I may be willing to send her my research. The student has subsequently emailed me asking if this would be possible, copying my supervisor into her message.

I am really wary about sending my work to the student, for a number of reasons. Firstly, one of my dissertation markers advised me to publish my research, which is something that I would definitely like to pursue at some point, so I am concerned about sending around unpublished work. Secondly, the student said in her email to me that her topic seems to be in a very similar vein to mine, even though she hasn't yet decided on a topic and she hasn't read any of my work before, which makes me wonder if she is looking around for ideas. Thirdly, I don't know the undergraduate student at all so am worried about the risks of plagiarism.

I therefore wondered what your thoughts were about situations like this and whether I am right to be cautious about sending students my unpublished work? The thing is, if the student does decide to do research in the same area as I did, my supervisor might want me to send the student my work later down the line.

Any advice is much appreciated - many thanks! :-)

======= Date Modified 18 Nov 2012 20:07:57 =======
Hi,

I think it's understandable to be cautious, although unless the student is very thick she should realise that she can't turn in a dissertation similar to yours because your joint supervisor will promptly recognise plagiarism. What I think you could possibly do is either offer to meet the student if feasible or send some suggestions for where she can find data. That way you look helpful but don't send your research. I'm assuming that your Masters dissertation isn't held in the university library by the way - if that's the case, I'd just send it as a read-only pdf as she can access it anyway. You could of course try to encourage said student down an alternative route by sending some really useful sources for a neighbouring topic and say she's right that there's not much data and in retrospect, you wished you'd looked at b instead of a.

======= Date Modified 19 Nov 2012 17:17:46 =======
Thanks for the great advice :)

Thanks! I emailed the student suggesting some reading to help her decide on a topic and she replied thanking me for my help.