This article describes plagiarism as it is commonly understood in the United States and is defined for young researchers by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. It also applies these ideas to three cases of plagiarism by Chinese scientists reported in the journal Science. The author uses this framework to argue that ESL/EFL professionals need to question the relevance of some traditional notions about plagiarism and examine their effect on the ability of their students to publish and take part in the mainstream of discourse in the sciences. The author includes pertinent information from literature in language politics, studies in second language acquisition and second language writing, culture studies, and contemporary literature concerning the effects of technology on traditional Western
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