WIBTA if I refuse to give my friend a copy of my thesis?

A Reddit user shares their concern about a friend who is requesting a copy of their thesis. Despite writing on different topics, the user feels uneasy about sharing their work, worried about plagiarism risks and potential fallout if the friend changes their topic to something similar.

The friend has also been unreliable in the past, which adds to the user’s hesitations. Would refusing to share the thesis be reasonable, or would it make them a bad friend? Read the story below and decide.

‘ WIBTA if I refuse to give my friend a copy of my thesis ? ‘

My friend and I just finished a Master’s degree in Law and over the summer we had to write a thesis. Anyway he was supposed to but he deferred it to November/December (basically now).

He called me to ask a few weeks ago if he could see my thesis now I have my results back to understand my structure. I told him that we are doing completely diff topics and questions so it doesn’t apply. He doesnt seem to get that and texted me again yesterday if he can see it.

I feel like I shouldn’t give it, especialy when I asked him for a favour last month and he said he’d do it then didn’t, and also im worried what plagarism issues could arise with him having my whole dissertation.

WIBTA if I refused to give it to him? Im just worried he could change topics last minute to the same as mine and then the submission software catches us both for plagarism. My friends warned me against it since he was in the same class as us and quite an opportunistic person.

Here’s what the community had to contribute:

indifferent_avocado −  NTA do not give him your thesis, if he needs help with structure offer to proofread his work or agree to bounce off ideas. There are better ways to help that won’t cause harm to yourself.

rmric0 −  Nah. But can’t he just get it from the library if you submitted it and it was accepted?

Comfortable-Sea-2454 −  NTA. WIBTA if I refused to give it to him? Im just worried he could change topics last minute to the same as mine and then the submission software catches us both for plagarism.

My friends warned me against it since he was in the same class as us and quite an opportunistic person. His thesis needs to be totally his work. Whatever you do do NOT give him your thesis, notes or anything relating to your work.

Boleyngrrl −  YWNBTA. It is NOT worth getting busted for plagiarism, especially this close to a law degree. From what it sounds like, your fears are valid. Refer him to the professor if he needs help, I’m sure they’d be willing to guide him. It’s not what he’s going to want, but that’s not your problem.

FindAriadne −  I think you maybe would be the a**hole. First, why don’t you just call your advisor and ask them? This is pretty easy to solve. Like you said, you guys aren’t doing the same topic. So how is plagiarism a huge risk? It makes sense that he could benefit from seeing how you structured everything.

And even if he did commit plagiarism, your paper was written first. It’s not like anyone will be confused about who stole from who. I just don’t get what your resistance is. Is there a part of you that thinks that it’s unfair that you had to work hard to do it on your own and he gets the benefit of learning from you?

Because if so, that’s dumb. Everyone learns from everyone else. As a citizen in a country that relies on lawyers to maintain just rule of law, I expect you all to be helping one another be the best you can be. it is a critical duty that you owe to your citizenry to help your colleagues be the best versions of themselves.

It kind of seems like you were just being a little bit petty. This is law school, not a group presentation in middle school. You aren’t being graded against him on a curve anymore. You are not in competition with this man. Plus, I don’t know about you, but my graduate thesis is published online because the university owns it.

I don’t own my work, the university owns any of the work that I did while I went there. And they publish all the graduate thesis online so that other people can….learn! Which is the purpose of school. I’m proud that my thesis comes up when you google my name. I would be so excited if one of my friends actually wanted to read it.

It seems that everyone else disagrees with me, but I wonder if they also wrote theses within an intensive graduate program. I can’t fathom keeping other students away from my work. That’s just not even how academia works.

Before you get caught up in their advice, maybe it would make sense to find out whether or not they actually have any experience. You really think that your institution wouldn’t notice if two students had nearly identical thesis within a few months of one another?

Mine would lol. At that level level, there’s only a few advisors and they all talk. The advisory panel consist of multiple professors, and there’s not that many of them. So for example, my advisor sat in on the panel of every other student in the program. and the defenses were even open to the public.

My friend showed up to mine and brought cookies. There’s no secrets in academia. In the end, the purpose of your thesis was to learn new things. It’s all an exercise. It’s not like you worked in a lab and got published on a research paper that brought new information into the world. You’re just doing analysis right?

You have nothing to lose from this. I think you would benefit a lot more from going into a law, Reddit and asking people who have more experience. Don’t forget that the average redditor is a 19-year-old man. Literally, they published the data every year. Most of the people on this site aren’t even old enough to be in graduate school…

ApprehensiveRoad477 −  This is very silly. If your friend plagiarizes you, that’s on him. Your work should be available to other students anyway, so I don’t see how you’d be to blame.

The first time I had to write a literature review, I had trouble understanding the structure. My classmate showed me her outline, and it totally clicked for me. No one lost out, we both did well.

AngelMillionaire1142 −  INFO: 1) Isn’t your dissertation available for the public or at least other academics to read anyway? 2) You have already earned your degree, right? If so, the timeline prevents you from being accused of plagiarism since you evidently wrote and submitted your thesis first.. YWNBTA, just strung up.

SkeevedKeev −  INFO: Does your school have a thesis depository your friend can access? I ask because many years ago I needed to write a dissertation, so I read dozens of successfully defended dissertations in my area of study to get a feel for the structure.

These dissertations were readily accessible through my school. If your school has a similar depository, you can direct your friend there.

KSknitter −  Quick question:. Is your thesis published? I ask because once it is published, it is out there anyway. If not, I would look to getting it submitted.

VeilQuill −  wouldn’t share it. Your concerns about plagiarism are legit, especially if he’s opportunistic.

Would the Redditor be justified in refusing to share their thesis, given the potential risks and the friend’s past behavior? Or should they trust their friend and help out? How would you handle this situation? Share your thoughts below!