| Author | Term | Definitions |
| | Whistle-blowing | “The disclosure by organization members (former or current) of illegal, immoral or illegitimate practices under the control of their employers, to persons or organizations that may be able to effect action.” |
| | External reporting (whistleblowing) | “A dissident never experiences the disillusioning discovery that the organization sanctions what she or he perceives as wrongdoing, for instance, then the decision point where internal criticism escalates into external reporting” known as whistle-blowing. |
| | Peer reporting as a type of whistle-blowing | “Peer reporting occurs when group members go outside their group to report a member’s misconduct.” |
| | Whistleblowing | The “deliberate non-obligatory act of disclosure, about non-trivial illegality or other wrongdoing whether actual, suspected or anticipated which implicates and is under the control of that organization, to an external entity having potential to rectify the wrongdoing” |
| | Whistle-blowing | “Whistle-blowing is the act, for an employee (or former employee), of disclosing what he believes to be unethical or illegal behavior to higher management (internal whistle-blowing) or to an external authority or the public (external whistle-blowing).” |
| | Whistleblowing | “whistleblowing as the act of disclosing information from a public or private organization with the purpose of revealing cases of professional misconduct, or the violation of democratic procedures, that are of immediate or even potential danger to the public interest.” |