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.[1] A 2011 study by Turnitin found that Wikipedia was the most copied website by both secondary and higher education students.[2]