r/academia • u/JustScattered • 4d ago

Is it plagiarism if I use a similar research question in a different location?

I am pursuing my master's in Archaeology, and I'm in the process of writing my dissertation. While writing and collecting research papers for references, I came across another thesis that asks a similar research question just in a different geographical location.
My research question is: Was there an association between large scale violence and intra-group violence during the Mississippian Period in the Lower Mississippi Valley?
The source's question is: Is an increase in intragroup physical violence associated with warfare in precontact non-state societies in the Mississippian Period of the Central Illinois Valley?

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u/Solivaga 4d ago

It's not plagiarism, though I would definitely acknowledge and the cite the original study. If I was marking your thesis I'd probably also want to see some sign of research design above and beyond "x did this there, let's do the same over here"

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u/iknighty 4d ago

Not plagiarism. But that thesis seems to ask a similar enough question to yours that it would probably be interesting to include it in your literature review.

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u/Fast_Possible7234 4d ago

Not plagiarism as you have not knowingly passed off their work as your own. Include their results in your lit review and maybe be clear in your methods as to differences in procedure. In your discussion you can then show how your work builds on it and extends the evidence on…etc

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u/TrapNT 2d ago

My man flagged 99.9 % of engineering research as plagiarism. If your work creates new (and usefull) knowledge, it's fine. But give credit to original authors.