Ok!
Today I was lookig for some theory to back my research, and I came accross an essay writing site that had my research proposal as an essay on subject X!
It was exactly what I had written when I applied at my university.
Of course I had not sent it to them.
I wrote an email to them immediately asking them to remove it, as it was my ownership. They still have not replied.

What if the university sees it? What if it turns up using an anti-plagiarism software?

Any advice on what to do?

I think you need to figure out how they've got hold of it. Is it posted anywhere online legitimately? If so, you could contact the webmaster for that site and point out that someone is plagiarising their content. They might be willing to go into battle on your behalf on copyright grounds. If not, who had access to it who might have done this? Did you share it with friends / colleagues for feedback?

I only sent it to thn university and my supervisors...

I don't know how they got hold of it....

I'm really concern, as part of it is in my thesis.......

Sensible advice from bewildered. I would contact the Uni and web site in writing. Also- copyright your work- there are agencies on line. See my plagiarism study if interested survey monkey. Thanks (sorry for the ad! but need responses)

A question for the computer tecchys on here. Is there any way the OP can check what date the page was originally authored. If it's dated after the research proposal, then no problems!!! :-)

Ian (Mackem_Beefy)

I'm not actually a techie but I wonder if you'd find something in the page's source code (e.g. if you use Firefox, right click and go to 'View Page Source'. I don't know whether that would be robust enough evidence though.

if the proposal was in pdf form, i think there'd be a way to check its date of authorship and compare it to the one in ur personalia, emmaki. u have to be FIRM in handling this issue. if the website is ignoring u, ask an official from the upper management to put more pressure on them.

academic plagiarism is usually measured by "turn-it-in". if more than 30% of ur work resembles others', it is normally deemed plagiarized. in ur case, u should inform the person in charge and voice ur concern by attaching the link as proof. this way, even if the percentage is high, there would be a sound justification for it.

things like this makes one sad in being a researcher.

As I did not manage ti find a solution with the essay-writing site (they ignored all my emails) I contacted my university.
I hope that they will be able to help me with this issue.
If it is necessary, I have kept all the earlier drafts of my proposal (as I had sent them to my supervisor) which show the writing process and I guess can be a proof that it is my material and not plagiarised...

Let's see.....