Quote:
Originally Posted by Trolly McTrollson
Also,
This is still plagiarism. I mean, unless it's something very well known like Maxwell's equations if you're using a formula or definition you found elsewhere the source should be cited.
A formula is quite different from a definition. A formula is always cited ime.
"Well known" is an interesting notion in math research, and basically the phrase is used very widely to apply to a class of things that are not actually that well known, but have been around for a while and that researchers in the very specific subfield are aware of. Definitions that are deemed "well known" or "standard" will often be recalled without citation. New definitions are usually cited, but if the definition is natural in some sense (e.g. analogous to "well-known" definitions) I've seen the citation skipped.
Maybe the above counts as plagiarism according to the dictionary or the rules of other fields, but afaict math researchers don't seem to mind. They do care about plagiarism, but not in this manner.
ETA: Your typical math paper is full of citations btw. It's not like it's the Wild West over in math world.
Last edited by AllTheCheese; 04-05-2017 at 10:08 PM.