Scraped content and three strikes?

[fridayeyes]

Hi, there!

I'm a new CCer who has just submitted her first piece for review. It's previously published, but I hold the proper rights to put it up for usage. My pen name in both places is identical, so I'm not worried about that.

Here are my concerns:

1) If the article has been scraped without my knowledge, is this likely to cause a plagiarism rejection?

2) If yes to the above, do I use up one of my three strikes and/or get banned for plagiarism when it's my own work all along?

Many thanks,

Friday

[Celeste Stewart]

Hi and welcome. If you suspect the article has been scraped, you might want to run your own check for your own peace of mind before submitting. I'm not sure what criteria CC uses to examine multiple copies and determine authorship though. Since you have it published under your pen name, they can probably figure out that you're the original author but if it looks like the content's been scraped, the article might not be accepted. I believe that CC knows the difference between scraped content and plagiarism and would use its good judgment before banning someone for plagiarism.

[fridayeyes]

Thanks

[MicheleH]

Why not Google a few sentences before submitting? Pick some with a little more unique phrasing or that use references to your site.

If nothing else, you can find folks who have stolen your work and maybe through a DMCA notice stop them in their tracks.

[fridayeyes]

Hi, Michele, and thank you. I checked before I submitted, but it's always possible that they will find something I didn't, or that scrapers will strike during the review window. For my first two, I'm using slightly reworked copy from somewhere else. For my third one, I'll probably go original.

As for DMCA, been there, done that, got the Lifetime Achievement Award.

There are other threads here where articles were declined for being unoriginal and the writer was told not to resubmit and/or was banned. Since I'm not sure what qualifies as a strike here, I'd like to avoid getting any if at all possible.

Cheers,

Friday

[MicheleH]

Hi Friday,

I'm new here myself. The whole DMCA thing has almost become one of my weekly chores. It gets me so angry. 99% of the cheats know exactly what they are doing. I guess the good thing in my case is that the thefts have primarily been with the same article.

Perhaps you should only submit new stuff until you have a few accepted submissions in place. That way you can build your reputation with the editors and if they find something hinky, perhaps they may ask questions before throwing you out.