Responding to plagiarism accusations

Imagine the following scenario. You are a college student, and it is finals week. You have 2 research papers to write, a speech to prepare, a group project to complete, and a final exam to study for. You are working on everything simultaneously, getting only a few hours of sleep each night, and feeling a bit bleary eyed from staring at a computer monitor for hours each day. In the process of this work, you paraphrase a published article that you used in your research for one of the papers, but you forget to include a citation. You do not catch the omission in your revisions, and you turn in the paper expecting a good grade. A week later, you receive an email from your professor telling you that you have plagiarized your paper. What do you do now?

It is finals time in schools across the U.S., and the above scenario is completely plausible. Although we hope that you have been carefully citing all of your sources and taking ample notes to avoid accidental plagiarism in your papers, this article will give you some advice on how to respond if you are accused of plagiarizing your work. This advice is not intended for cases of intentional plagiarism such as using another student’s paper or purchasing a paper online. Intentional plagiarism is highly unethical and if you are reading this, we hope that it is not something that you will ever consider doing. This advice is intended for cases of true accidental plagiarism.

Unintentional or accidental plagiarism occurs when you do not give proper credit to another author for words or ideas used in your work. This may occur because of sloppy note taking where you do not remember if the notes are quotes, summaries, or your own ideas. It also may occur because you did not fully understand the rules of the citation style you were using. Your best defense against unintentional plagiarism is to have a solid understanding of the citation rules for the style you are using (MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.), to take careful notes of direct quotes and summaries, and to consider using an online plagiarism checker such as academicplagiarism.com.

If you are surprised to hear of the plagiarism accusations, you have possibly committed accidental plagiarism. The first thing to remember is to keep calm so that you can respond in a clear-headed manner without getting overly emotional. Request a meeting with the professor in order to look at the paper together or ask to see a copy the paper with the plagiarism highlighted. You can then check the paper against your notes to find the original source. You should also re-read the course syllabus and school handbooks to learn what the institutional plagiarism policies are. These may be found within the policies on academic integrity or there may be a separate plagiarism policy. Educating yourself on the policies will help you to know what your rights are. For a first offense of apparent accidental plagiarism, you may be given an opportunity to correct the mistakes and resubmit the paper, although in this case, the grade may be lowered. However, depending on the policies of the professor or of the school, you may have stricter penalties such as failure of the assignment or class. Typically, in a case such as this, the incident will be resolved between you and your professor. If it is not, you may seek a more formal review process with the chair of the department or other school administrators, such as the academic dean.

A first offense of accidental plagiarism does not typically signal the end of your academic career. However, you must be vigilant moving forward as any subsequent plagiarism accusations will likely come with much steeper penalties. You must educate yourself on proper citation rules, take careful notes so that you do not unintentionally plagiarize again due to sloppy note keeping, and consider using an online plagiarism detector such as academicplagiarism.com. You may wish to read this previous post about selecting a trustworthy plagiarism detector.

Intentional plagiarism is a different situation and will very likely come with more severe penalties. Before making the unwise decision to submit a paper that has been intentionally plagiarized, think of the consequences and consider your alternatives. You can talk to your professor about an extension. Even if turning the paper in late comes with a reduced grade, it is better than failing a class or even getting dismissed from school over intentional plagiarism. If an extension is not an option, failing the assignment is still probably a better choice than the consequences that may come your way if you are caught plagiarizing. Keep in mind that nearly all colleges and universities, even some high schools, use plagiarism checkers, and it is highly unlikely that you will not be caught. Knowingly plagiarizing is risking your academic career as well as your future professional career.

Plagiarism in the News

First in this review of plagiarism news, there is an update on a recent story from the Goafest advertising festival in India. Bestmediainfo.com has reported that the super-jury, the chairpersons from each of the juries at the Goafest/Abby 2013, has decided that all of the previously withdrawn awards will be reinstated. The Awards Governing Council (AGC) says that there was sufficient time before the final judging to raise any questions about the finalists, and that rules for the rules for future awards ceremonies will be reviewed. Earlier this month, there were many plagiarism accusations against some of the award winners at the South Asian advertising festival.

According to Erin Zlomek for Bloomberg Businessweek, Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business has begun using plagiarism detection software on all applications for their MBA program. The article states that most schools do not disclose whether or not they use plagiarism detection software on admission essays, but schools that have disclosed this information include UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, Penn State’s Smeal College of Business, Wake Forest University, and Northeastern University. Given that it is becoming more common for colleges and universities to check for plagiarism in admissions applications, it is important to bear in mind that plagiarism does not only mean copying from published sources without giving proper credit, but it can mean using another student’s work and claiming it as your own. This was the offense recently made by two law students who were found guilty of plagiarizing essays on ethics. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) reports from Saskatchewan that the two students were found guilty of plagiarizing work done by another student during the previous year. As punishment, the two students must write new papers as well as an essay about their mistakes, and they must withhold any applications to become lawyers for at least 3-4 months. Considering that dismissal from the school or failure of the class is common punishment for plagiarism, these two law students seem to have gotten off rather lightly.

Finally, at Stanford University, the Stanford Daily has been reporting on accusations made against a former Stanford Review journalist, Vasant Ramachandran, who was accused of plagiarizing multiple articles that appeared in the Stanford Review. Dan Cassavaugh made the first accusation saying that Ramachandran plagiarized one of his 2006 articles. Later, evidence of plagiarism in other of Ramachandran’s articles was discovered. As of April 21, all but one story by Ramachandran had been removed from the Stanford Review’s website, and the current Review Editor in Chief has stated that once the articles have been checked for plagiarism, all original works will be immediately re-posted.

Plagiarism in the News

With so much negative news on plagiarism recently including many high profile figures losing their jobs and ruining their reputations, it is nice to share some positive news on the efforts that some are making to combat this problem.  Craig Silverman of poynter.org reported on the National Summit on Plagiarism and Fabrication that was held in St. Louis on April 5th. The first conference of its kind, it was organized by the American Copy Editors Society. The group also released a free ebook, “Telling the Truth and Nothing But” which was a collaborative effort of 14 news organizations, 10 journalism institutions, and 10 journalism associations and was created under the leadership of the American Copy Editors Society Present Teresa Schmedding. The book contains information for journalists and newsrooms on detecting, preventing, and handling instances of plagiarism. A copy of this free ebook can be obtained here.

EnetEnglish.gr reported that Photini Tomai, head of the Greek foreign ministry’s archive service, was found guilty of copyright theft in January 2013 but that the incident was only recently made public. Tomai published a children’s book about Olympians of ancient Greece, but it had been written by two other authors. Tomai was ordered to pay 20,000 Euros in compensation.

Rounding out the week in review this week, the advertising world in India has seen a surprising number of plagiarism cases this week. April 4-6, 2013 was the Goafest, a South Asian advertising festival that gives awards to advertising agencies. The Times of India – The Economic Times has reported that there are official complaints of plagiarism against over a dozen award winners. According to bestmedinfo.com, the first group to lose its awards was BBDO Proximity which lost three awards after it was discovered that their work had been plagiarized. DDB Mudra lost an award when it was determined that their print ad for the Electorlux company had been copied from a Brazilian ad campaign for LG washing machines. The most recent accusation is against the Grand Prix winner McCann Worldgroup India is accused of copying print ads for a security systems company from the ad agency Bates Asia Shanghai for a GPS device. Both of the ads show tangled knots – the GPS ad is a knot of roads and the security system ads are knots of buildings being protected.

Image source: timesofisrael.com

Yet another major European figure has left his job after admitting to plagiarism in his books as well as claiming an academic title that he did not actually hold. According to Reuters, French Grand Rabbi, Gilles Bernheim, left his post on Thursday, April 11, 2013. The New York Times stated that it was not clear if this was an extended leave of absence, as was implied by the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France, or if this was a complete resignation as was implied by the Central Consistory. Earlier this week, Bernheim had stated that he would not be vacating his position. The Jerusalem Post reported on April 9 that in an interview with Radio Shalom in Paris, Bernheim said “resigning now would be an act of pride, while I must remain as a show of humility.” However, in a turn of events, he has stepped down after a great deal of pressure and scandal.

The scandal grew bigger in early April when it was discovered that Bernheim may have been taking credit for an academic title that he did not actually hold. According to the AFP (Agence France Presse), Bernheim claimed to hold an “agregation de philosophie” which is a highly competitive and prestigious academic post in France. However, the AFP reports that university records from 1972 to 2000 show no records of Bernheim receiving this distinction. Reuters reports that Bernheim did not claim to hold the title but did not disclaim it when others gave him credit for the title.

AFP reports that Bernheim conceded to stepping down from his post after receiving pressure to do so from the Central Israeli Consistory, the Jewish religious authority in France. The organization needed to be able to separate themselves from the scandal, which it would not be able to do as long as Bernheim remained in his position. Many of the news articles about Bernheim this week refer to him as a well-liked and respected figure in France and worldwide. This is a very unfortunate end to his leadership role.

Plagiarism in the film industry

The stories that I have been writing about for this blog are related to academic plagiarism – plagiarism in doctoral dissertations or master’s theses, scholarly journal articles, or books. However, plagiarism accusations are not limited to the academic world. Film, music, and fashion have their own forms of plagiarism that I will explore in this and in upcoming articles. First, I will look at a recent story involving Angelina Jolie and her film “In The Land of Blood & Honey”.

The Los Angeles Times wrote in December 2011 that author and journalist James Braddock sued Angelina Jolie because he believed that she had used his book as basis for her 2011 movie “In The Land of Blood & Honey”. Braddock wrote a book entitled “A Soul Shattering” which is a love story set during the Bosnian civil war in the 1990s. He claims to have met with Eden Sarkic about adapting the book to film. Sarkic was Jolie’s producer on her film, a love story set during the Bosnian civil war. Jolie has said that she drew inspiration for her film from many sources but that she did not read Braddock’s book. The Huffington Post reported that On March 29, 2013, a federal judge in Los Angeles ruled in favor of Jolie saying that while there were similarities, they were not “substantial” enough to believe that there was any copyright infringement.

So what is the difference between copyright infringement and plagiarism? The University of Connecticut Library’s website explains the difference as plagiarism being unethical and copyright infringement as being illegal. According to the site, plagiarism is claiming another person’s ideas as your own and not properly crediting others for their work and ideas. It has no legal consequences, but it is unethical and can harm your reputation. Copyright infringement is using another’s work without permission even if though you may give credit to the original author or artist. For example, if someone performs a play with getting permission from the copyright holder but they do give credit to the author, they are not plagiarizing, but they are in violation of the copyright.

Let’s go back to the Angelina Jolie film. The media have referred to the story using both the terms plagiarism and copyright infringement. Technically, this was a question of copyright infringement as per the wording of the legal documents. It is possible to violate copyright and simultaneously plagiarize. In the end, however, the judge has deemed that while there were similarities, this was not a case of copyright infringement nor of plagiarism.

Haaretz.com reported this week that France’s Chief Rabii Gilles Bernheim admits that there are plagiarized passages in his 2011 book entitled “Forty Jewish Meditations”. Bernheim also admitted to using a ghostwriter without informing his publisher. He has apologized for the plagiarism in the book, and has asked that it be removed from bookstores as well as from his bibliography. I am reminded of Fox News’s Juan Williams who blamed his researcher for the plagiarized material in his news story. I find Bernheim’s reaction much more respectable. If a public figure is going to accept the accolades for another’s work, then they must also be willing to accept the blame if there are problems due to the work.

In the United States, a professor from Towson University in Maryland has been accused of plagiarism in some of his published academic articles. According to the Baltimore Sun, Benjamin A. Neil is a legal affairs professor at Towson University and also served as the head of the city school ethics board. He has resigned from the ethics board, not because he is admitting guilt of plagiarism, but because he does not want the issue to be a distraction for the board. A librarian at another university made the accusations against Neil. Neil has denied any plagiarism saying that it is a matter of improperly crediting the work to its original source. The Baltimore Sun contacted some of the authors that Neil is accused of plagiarizing. They are accusing Neil of “lazy plagiarism” saying that had he spent just a little more time reviewing his work, he would have caught the citation errors. In the academic world, there is a great deal of pressure on faculty to publish works in academic journals – a phenomenon often referred to as “publish or perish”. The Baltimore Sun article also discusses how pressure to publish may cause many writers to rush through their work and thus not verify that everything is properly cited.

American educated Igor Fedyukin, deputy minister of education and science in Russia, will be leading Russia’s campaign to investigate plagiarism among Russian politicians and other leaders. According to the Daily Tar Heel, the student newspaper for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Fedyukin earned his PhD in history from UNC in 2009. He will bring his knowledge of academic standards in the United States to his reform efforts in Russia. Earlier this month, I wrote about the widespread practice in Russia for politicians to either pay for someone to write their dissertations or to plagiarize others work in order to earn their degree. In February of this year, the Russian prime minister called for a nationwide investigation of politician’s academic work. The accused politicians include Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In Nigeria, the country will be launching its first nationwide effort at combating plagiarism in its universities.� Allafrica.com reports that 123 Nigerian universities will be using anti-plagiarism software, and they are now training and preparing for full use of the software later this spring. As in most parts of the world, plagiarism is becoming a major issue in Nigeria. Just last week, four university staff from the University of Calabar in Nigeria were fired over plagiarism accusations.

In South Korea, popular television talk show host and best selling author, Kim Mi-Kyung, has been accused of plagiarizing portions of her dissertation. Her university is looking into the allegations that there are passages from at least four different sources copied into Mi-Kyung’s 2007 dissertation without proper citations. Mi-Kyung has denied the allegations. According to the� Globalpost, a message on her Twitter account states “I was somewhat careless in writing the thesis, but it was not intentional.” Unintentional or not, copying material from another source without giving proper credit is plagiarism.

Image source: TED.com

The Washington Post reported on March 20, 2013 that world-renowned primatologist Jane Goodall has plagiarized several passages in her new book which is to be released next month. The Washington Post gave the book, Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder From the World of Plants, to an expert botanist so that a book review could be written. Instead, the expert discovered numerous passages that were taken nearly verbatim from various websites and were used without citation. The websites include Wikipedia, a website on tobacco history, and a website called “Find Your Fate”.

According to the Washington Post article, one of the passages in question is about the dangerous working conditions for workers harvesting tea. The passage can be found nearly word for word in the website for the company Choice Organic Teas. The passage has appeared in other sources as well and appears to originate in a 2002 draft report with no named author.  The article details other instances of plagiarism throughout the book.

The article also says it appears that this is a case of unintentional plagiarism. Goodall admits in the book that she does not have formal training in botany, the subject of the book, but that she is very passionate about the topic. She says in an email to the paper, “I hope it is obvious that my only objective was to learn as much as I could so that I could provide straightforward factual information distilled from a wide range of reliable sources.” As many other bloggers have stated on this latest plagiarism case, it is incredibly easy to copy material from the Internet and to forget to cite the original source. However, the ease with which material can be obtained online is not an excuse for not citing the original source.

Goodall co-wrote the book with Gail Hudson who has worked with her on two previous books. Hudson has made no comment on the matter. The publisher, Grand Central, says that future releases will be corrected but that no further plan of action has yet been made. There is no comment on why the publishers themselves did not catch these unattributed passages or why there is no bibliography. The fairly simple step of running a plagiarism check and then correctly citing the unattributed material would have saved all of those involved from the embarrassment of this situation.

Update: “Jane Goodall’s book, Seeds of Hope, will not be released as originally scheduled.  Goodall and her publishers have decided to delay the release of the book in order to properly credit the plagiarized material in the book.”

Plagiarism in the News

Plagiarism in the news this week will begin abroad. The website Bella Naija says that four academic staff from the University of Calabar (Nigeria) have been dismissed because of plagiarism.  Vietnamnet.vn has� an article discussing how plagiarism is rampant in non-fiction textbook publications in Vietnam. Many university-level textbooks contain plagiarized text. It is not uncommon for the same book to be published repeatedly with different covers and different authors. Not only does this mean fewer actual resources for students, but less money in royalties for the true authors of the textbooks.

In news from the U.S., the Montana school district Florence-Carlton has been dealing with a plagiarism scandal surrounding its superintendent John McGee who was caught plagiarizing an article for the school’s monthly newsletter. McGee used an article written by a school administrator in Georgia, changed the school name as needed, and published the article under his own name. The school board had considered the incident over after McGee complied with their request to write a correction in the newsletter and to write an apology to the original author. However, members of the community are calling for further action and the school board has responded by setting a date for a special meeting to hear the public’s complaints against McGee. According to the Ravalli Republic, an anonymous blogger in the community has found further incidents of plagiarism. These are all similar incidents in which McGee published newsletter articles under his own name when in fact they were taken from other sources on the Internet.

On March 8th, Science Insider published an article about the growing number of plagiarism incidents among National Science Foundation (NSF) grant winners. The federal agency’s independent, internal watchdog group used plagiarism detection software on the entire portfolio of approximately 8000 awards grated in the 2011 fiscal year. They discovered nearly 100 cases of suspected plagiarism. Science Careers says that James Kroll, head of administrative investigations in the Inspector General’s office stated in an e-mail message to Science Careers that the cases of plagiarism that have been discovered are not self-plagiarism. NSF director Subra Suresh told Science Insider “… it’s very important to train everybody [on the responsible conduct of research], especially young people, to the fullest extent possible with the resources that we have, do we can bring that rate down.”

Plagiarism Amongst German Politicians

Last week, I wrote about the increasing frequency of plagiarism accusations amongst Russian politicians, but the issue is by no means isolated to Russia. The New York Times ran an article this week about plagiarism issues amongst German politicians. According to the article, activists operating the German wiki VroniPlag Wiki seek out plagiarized documents and publicize them. There is a growing list of German politicians who have lost the title of doctor after their universities discovered that their doctoral dissertations were in part plagiarized. In 2011, then Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg left politics after a plagiarism scandal, and more recently in February 2013, Education Minister Annette Schavan resigned from her position after her doctorate was rescinded due to plagiarism. Not all politicians have lost their cabinet posts, though. European Parliament member Silvana Koch-Mehrin has lost the title Doctor, but she remains in her post after her doctorate was rescinded. She attempted to sue her university over the incident but a district judge ruled against her.

The plagiarism scandals in Germany have led some to question the weight that is given to the title Doctor in Germany. Unlike in many countries where the title is used primarily in academic circles, in Germany, the title is used in social situations and even appears on passports and other ID cards. Not only does the title Doctor carry prestige, it can also bring bigger salaries in Germany. Others have raised questions about greater oversight needs in the independently operated German universities. The universities themselves are concerned that the scandals will hurt their reputation and are scrambling to find a solution to this growing problem. The New York Times article quotes plagiarism expert Dr. Weber-Wulff as saying that doctoral students need preparation in proper citation to better prevent plagiarism from occurring in the first place.

The consequences of plagiarism are long reaching, and we cannot stress enough the importance of using caution to avoid unintentional plagiarism when writing academic documents. The immediate consequences of being caught include failing the assignment, the class, or even of being dismissed from the school. The long-term consequences, as we see from many of the scandals in the news, include losing your degree, your job, and your professional reputation. When in doubt, seek out all available resources to help you know that you have not plagiarized.  One of those resources is to use an online plagiarism checker to identify sources that may not be properly cited.