Plagiarism from Wikipedia

Contributors to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, often referred to as Wikipedians, license their submitted content under a Creative Commons license, which permits re-use as long as attribution is given. However, there have been a number of occasions when persons have failed to give the necessary attribution and attempted to pass off material from Wikipedia as their own work. Such plagiarism is a violation of the Creative Commons license and, when discovered, can be a reason for embarrassment, professional sanctions, or legal issues.

In educational settings, students sometimes copy Wikipedia to fulfill class assignments. A 2011 study by Turnitin found that Wikipedia was the most copied website by both secondary and higher education students.

Notable instances
Many notable individuals and institutions have been credibly said to have committed plagiarism from Wikipedia.


 * David Agus
 * Chris Anderson
 * Jill Bialosky
 * Monica Crowley
 * Elsevier retracted a 2020 book for plagiarizing many large passages from Wikipedia
 * Five Star Movement (Italian political party)
 * Jane Goodall
 * Michel Houellebecq
 * International Baccalaureate Organisation (IBO) was accused of copying confidential examiner marking guides from Wikipedia
 * Internet Research Agency
 * Benny Johnson
 * Siniša Mali, Serbian Finance Minister, who was found by the University of Belgrade to have plagiarized his Ph.D. thesis
 * John McCain
 * Yana Milev
 * Okayama Prefectural Assembly
 * Oxford University Press
 * Neri Oxman
 * Rand Paul
 * The Pentagon
 * Rachel Reeves
 * Santa Clara County grant writer
 * Peter Schweizer, in his 2018 book Secret Empires
 * Government of the United Kingdom, in its 2022 "Levelling Up" white paper
 * Gerónimo Vargas Aignasse
 * Fabiola Yáñez
 * Alejandro Zaera-Polo