Plagiarism

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Plagiarism (disambiguation).

Plagiarism is the practice of "(dishonestly)" claiming or implying original authorship of material which one has not actually created, such as when a person incorporates material from someone else's work into his own work without attributing it. Within academia, plagiarism is seen as academic dishonesty and is a serious and punishable academic offense. Usually plagiarism is dishonest but it can rarely happen unintentionally in the case of Unconscious plagiarism or if a plagiarist is unaware of the need for citation.

Non-attribution in ipse is not necessarily plagiarism; it is only such when the norms of the community are affronted. In normal discourse, it is not usual to make attribution. Likewise, use of non-attributed Biblical phraseology or quotations in a sermon is acceptable. To an extent, accusations of plagiarism seem to be attracted by a perceived hubris on the part of their target.

Plagiarism is not necessarily the same as copyright infringement, which occurs when one violates copyright law. The copying of a few sentences for a quotation is fair use under copyright law, but, if not attributed to the true author, it is plagiarism.

Contents 1 Punishments 2 Frequency of plagiarism 3 Practical advice 3.1 Unintentional Plagiarism on the Internet 4 Organizational publications 5 Famous accusations and examples of plagiarism 5.1 Academia and Scholarship 5.2 Computer Games 5.3 Film 5.4 Journalism 5.5 Literature 5.6 Music 5.7 Politics 5.8 Wikipedia 5.9 Other instances 6 examples of anti-plagiarism software 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Punishments

In the academic world: Plagiarism is a serious academic offense which can result in punishment ranging from a failing grade on the particular assignment, or the course, leading cumulatively to an academic suspension or expulsion. Being found guilty of plagiarism can ruin an academic career; it may result in revocation of one's degree, or the loss of one's job, and will result in the loss of academic credibility. Charges of plagiarism are resolved through internal disciplinary proceedings (which students usually agree to be bound by when they enter a course).

Generally, although plagiarism is often loosely referred to as theft or stealing, it has not been prosecuted as a criminal matter in the law courts, according to Stuart Green. Likewise, plagiarism has no standing as a criminal offense in the common law. Instead, claims of plagiarism are a civil law matter; acts that constitute plagiarism are in some instances treated as copyright infringement, unfair competition, or a violation of the doctrine of moral rights.

[edit] Frequency of plagiarism

There is little academic research into the frequency of plagiarism. Any research that has taken place has focused on universities (higher education). There are no published statistics for the school or college (further education) sectors; awarding bodies do not maintain statistics on plagiarism.

Of the forms of cheating (including plagiarism, inventing data and cheating during an exam), students admit to plagiarism more than any other. However, this figure decreases considerably when students are asked about the frequency of "serious" plagiarism (such as copying most of an assignment, or purchasing a complete paper from a website – 20% and 10%). Recent use of specialist detection software (see below) has given a more accurate picture of prevelance.

[edit] Practical advice

Plagiarism is sometimes difficult to avoid in writing, because writers are not always consciously aware of the source of the wording , or the source of the idea. To ensure that a writer will avoid plagiarism, it is necessary to keep track of the sources used, and record them accurately. In past years, when students copied extracts from books onto index cards or notebooks by hand, it was customary both to rephrase the idea, so it could be used in the authors words and properly credited, and also copy what seemed to be useful quotations, so they could be quoted with a proper source. In working with photocopy or print out, it is normally easier to mark the pages, usually with different color pens or markers. When working with computer files on the screen, it is advisable to employ the annotation or comment features of the software. In any case, it is necessary to ensure that the notes are clear, that the photocopied or downloaded material includes the name and date of the source; that when working with online material, the date and URL are always recorded. The use of reference management software can be helpful in keeping track of the material. When working with sources other than book and articles, it is necessary to keep track of the sources, and the details are explained in the style manuals.

[edit] Unintentional Plagiarism on the Internet

Very well known works are often used without citation or Attribution, but this does not mean that the practice is either permissable or desirable. Some works are very well known in one country but little known in other countries. Authors may quote or adapt works which do not need attribution in their country. Authors may then put such unoriginal work onto the Internet without realizing the need for attribution.

[edit] Organizational publications

Plagiarism is presumably not an issue when organizations issue collective unsigned works since they do not assign credit for originality to particular people^[1], there is no question about taking credit for someone else's ideas. These are not original works of research, and necessarily provide a summary of other's work. As the academic level increases, so will the quotation marks and footnotes. But even a textbook will not use a direct quote with some sort of appropriation. "As Jefferson said in the Declaration of independence,..." However, even such a book does not make use of words, phrases or paragraphs from another text, or follow too closely the other text's arrangement and organization.

Within an organization, in its own working documents, standards are looser but not non-existent. If someone helped with a report, they expect to be credited. If a paragraph comes from a law report, a citation is expected to be written down.

Technical manuals routinely copy facts from other manuals without attribution, because they assume a common spirit of scientific endeavor (as evidenced, for example, in "open source" projects in software) in which scientists freely share their work. The Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications Third Edition (2003) by Microsoft does not even mention plagiarism, nor does Science and Technical Writing: A Manual of Style, Second Edition (2000) by Philip Rubens. The line between permissible literary and impermissible source code plagiarism, though, is apparently quite fine. As with any technical field, computer programming makes use of what others have contributed to the general knowledge.

It is common for university researchers to rephrase and republish their own work, tailoring it for different academic journals, and often also for a newspaper article, in order to disseminate their work to the widest possible interested public. However, it must be borne in mind that these researchers also obey limits: if half an article is the same as a previous one, it will be rejected. one of the functions of the process of peer review in academic writing is to spot such errors.

Public figures commonly use anonymous speech writers. However, if a speech uses copied material, it is the public figure who may well be embarrassed. In 1988, Delaware Senator Joe Biden was forced out of that year's US Presidential race (but remained in the US Senate) when it was discovered that a part of one of his campaign speeches contained plagiarism.

[edit] Famous accusations and examples of plagiarism

[edit] Academia and Scholarship

• Numerous passages of Robert Mason's 1983 Vietnam War memoir Chickenhawk were copied, almost word-for-word, by Charles Sasser and Ron Alexander in their 2001 book, Taking Fire.^{[citation needed]}
• James A. Mackay, a Scottish historian, was forced to withdraw all copies of his biography of Alexander Graham Bell from circulation in 1998 because he plagiarized the last major work on the subject, a 1973 work. Also accused of plagiarizing material on biographies of Mary Queen of Scots, Andrew Carnegie, and Sir William Wallace, he was forced to withdraw his next work, on John Paul Jones, in 1999 for an identical reason. ^{[2] [3]}
• Psychology professor René Diekstra author of popular books, left Leiden University in 1997 after accusations of plagiarism. Proceedings continued as of 2003, with Diekstra contesting a report about him on this matter.^{[citation needed]}
• Historian Stephen Ambrose has been criticized for incorporating passages from the works of other authors into many of his books. He was first accused in 2002 by two writers for copying portions about World War II bomber pilots from Thomas Childers's The Wings of Morning in his book The Wild Blue. ^[4] After Ambrose admitted to the errors, the New York Times found further unattributed passages, and "Mr. Ambrose again acknowledged his errors and promised to correct them in later editions." ^[5]
• Marks Chabedi, a professor at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, plagiarized his doctoral thesis. He used a work written by Kimberly Lanegran at the University of Florida and copied it nearly verbatim before submitting it to The New School. When Lanegran discovered this, she launched an investigation into Chabedi. He was fired from his professorship, and The New School revoked his Ph.D.[1]
• Author Doris Kearns Goodwin interviewed author Lynne McTaggart in her 1987 book The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys, and she used passages from McTaggart's book about Kathleen Kennedy. In 2002, when the similarities between Goodwin's and McTaggart's books became public, Goodwin stated that she had an understanding that citations would not be required for all references, and that extensive footnotes already existed. Many doubted her claims, and she was forced to resign from the Pulitzer Prize board. [2] [3] [4]
• A University of Colorado investigating committee found Ethnic Studies professor and activist Ward Churchill guilty of multiple counts of plagiarism, fabrication, and falsification. The Chancellor has recommended Churchill's dismissal to the Board of Regents. The action is currently pending Churchill's appeal.

[edit] Computer Games

• Atari's video game Pong was accused by Magnavox of being a copy of the Odyssey's tennis game. Nolan Bushnell saw Ralph Baer's version at a 1972 electronics show in Burlingame, California. Bushnell then founded Atari and established Pong as its featured game. "Baer and Magnavox filed suit against Bushnell and Atari in 1973 and finally reached an out-of-court settlement in 1976. It marked the end for Odyssey and the beginning of the Atari age." ^[6] [5]

[edit] Film

• The 1922 film Nosferatu was an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula. Stoker's widow sued the producers of Nosferatu, and had many of the film's copies destroyed (although some remain).
• The 1990 movie Hardware plagiarised wholesale from the 2000AD one-shot story "SHOK!". Following legal action, the filmmakers agreed to amend the credits to read that the movie was "inspired by" the comic strip.
• Plagiarism is common in Bollywood. Music composers such as Pritam and Anu Malik have been often accused of lifting tunes from all over the world. The pages provide a partial list of tunes that these composers have plagiarised.

[edit] Journalism

• In 1999, writer and television commentator Monica Crowley allegedly plagiarized part of an article she wrote for the Wall Street Journal (August 9, 1999), called "The Day Nixon Said Goodbye." The Journal ran an apology the same week. Timothy Noah of Slate Magazine later wrote of the striking similarities in her article to phrases Paul Johnson used in his 1988 article for Commentary called "In Praise of Richard Nixon". [6]
• New York Times reporter Jayson Blair plagiarized articles and manufactured quotations in stories, including stories regarding Jessica Lynch and the Beltway sniper attacks. He and several editors from the Times resigned in June 2003. ^{[citation needed]}
• Moorestown Township, New Jersey, high-school student Blair Hornstine had her admission to Harvard University revoked in July 2003 after she was found to have passed off speeches and writings by famous figures, including Bill Clinton, as hers in articles she wrote as a student journalist for a local newspaper.
• Long-time Baltimore Sun columnist Michael Olesker resigned on January 4, 2006, after being accused of plagiarizing other journalists' articles in his columns.
• Conservative blogger Ben Domenech, soon after he was hired to write a blog for the Washington Post in 2006, was found to have plagiarized a number of columns and articles he'd written for his college newspaper and National Review Online, lifting passages from a variety of sources ranging from well-known pundits to amateur film critics. After initially blaming any wrongdoing on past editors, Domenech eventually resigned and apologized.

[edit] Literature

• A young Helen Keller was accused in 1892 for plagiarizing The Frost King, a short story that strongly resembled Margaret T. Canby's story "The Frost Fairies." She was brought before a tribunal of the Perkins Institute for the Blind, where she was acquitted by a single vote. She said she was worried she may have read The Frost Fairies and forgotten it and "remained paranoid about plagiarism ever after." ^{[7] [8]}; and said that this led her to write an autobiography: the one thing she knew must be original.
• Alex Haley settled a lawsuit with Harold Courlander for a passage in Haley's novel Roots that imitated his novel The African. "Accusations that portions of 'Roots' (Doubleday hard cover, Dell paperback) were plagiarized or concocted plagued Mr. Haley from soon after the book's publication up until his death in February 1992. In 1978, Mr. Haley was sued for plagiarism by Harold Courlander, author of the novel 'The Africans,' and paid him $650,000 in an out-of-court settlement." ^[9] Haley insisted that "the passages 'were in something somebody had given me, and I don't know who gave it to me . . . . Somehow or another, it ended up in the book." ^[10]
• Science fiction author Harlan Ellison sued and won in a case against James Cameron, claiming that his film The Terminator plagiarized the two episodes he wrote for the television show The Outer Limits: "Soldier" and "Demon with a Glass Hand".^{[citation needed]}
• Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code, has been twice accused of plagiarism resulting in lawsuits, but both suits were ultimately dismissed.
  • Brown was accused of "appropriating the architecture" of the book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (1982) by Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh. A British judge dismissed the copyright infringement claim in April 2006.
  • Additionally, Brown was accused by novelist Lewis Perdue for plagiarizing his novels The Da Vinci Legacy (1983) and Daughter of God (2000). A U.S. judge dismissed the case in August 2005.
• Kaavya Viswanathan's first novel How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life is reported to contain plagiarized passages from at least five other novels. All editions of the book were subsequently withdrawn, her publishing deal with Little, Brown and Co. was rescinded, and a film deal with Dreamworks SKG was cancelled.

[edit] Music

• George Harrison was successfully sued in a prolonged suit that began in 1971 for plagiarizing the Chiffons' "He's So Fine" for the melody of his own "My Sweet Lord." [7]
• Eres tú, Spanish song at the Eurovision Song Contest 1973 was a plagiarism of a Slovenian (then Yugoslav) song from ESC 1966 (Berta Ambrož: Brez Besed) but due to the Cold War it wasn't disqualified.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Politics

• Senator Joseph Biden
  • Biden was forced to withdraw from the 1988 Democratic Presidential nominations when it was alleged that he had failed a 1965 introductory law school course on legal methodology due to plagiarism. "Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., fighting to salvage his Presidential campaign . . . acknowledged 'a mistake' in his youth, when he plagiarized a law review article for a paper he wrote in his first year at law school. Mr. Biden insisted, however, that he had done nothing 'malevolent,' that he had simply misunderstood the need to cite sources carefully." ^[11] Biden withdrew from the race September 23, 1987, and reported the law school incident to the Delaware Supreme Court. The court's Board of Professional Responsibility cleared him of any allegations. ^[12]
  • Biden was also accused of plagiarizing portions of his speeches, and that he had copied several campaign speeches, notably those of British Labour leader Neil Kinnock and Senator Robert F. Kennedy. He denied those charges. "And he asserted that another controversy, concerning recent reports of his using material from others' speeches without attribution, was 'much ado about nothing.'" ^[13]
• Iraq War
  • In a New York Times editorial, President Bush's National Security Advisor Dr. Condoleezza Rice explained that Saddam Hussein could not be trusted for various reasons, including the fact that Hussein had committed plagiarism. "Iraq's declaration [to the United Nations regarding the state of its nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons programs] even resorted to unabashed plagiarism, with lengthy passages of United Nations reports copied word-for-word (or edited to remove any criticism of Iraq) and presented as original text."^[14]
  • On February 3, 2003, Alastair Campbell, Prime Minister Tony Blair's Director of Communications and Strategy, released a briefing document to journalists entitled "Iraq: Its Infrastructure of Concealment, Deception and Intimidation." It described Iraq and its weapons of mass destruction programs. Journalists discovered that many sources, particularly an article by Ibrahim al-Marashi, had been copied word-for-word, including typographical errors. Journalists dubbed the document the "Dodgy Dossier." After the revelation, Blair's office issued a statement admitting that a mistake was made in not crediting its sources, but it did not concede that the quality of the documents's content was affected.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin has been accused by fellows at the Brookings Institution of plagiarism. It has been alleged that "[l]arge chunks of Putin's economics dissertation on planning in the natural resources sector were lifted straight out of a management text published by two University of Pittsburgh academics nearly 20 years earlier."^[15]

[edit] Wikipedia

• In November 2006, the Associated Press reported activist Daniel Brandt's claim to have uncovered 142 articles with plagiarized content among the 12,000 Wikipedia articles he chose to search. Wikipedia administrators responded that this list misidentifed some articles where Wikipedia had been plagiarized, and that they took action on the cases that involved copyright violations. ^[16] He "called on Wikipedia to conduct a thorough review of all its articles."^[17]

[edit] Other instances

• Martin Luther King, Jr.
  • According to a Boston University investigation into academic misconduct, King plagiarized portions of his doctoral thesis that summarizes the concepts of God expressed by Paul Tillich and Henry Nelson Wieman. "A committee of scholars at Boston University concluded yesterday that Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. plagiarized portions of his doctoral dissertation, completed there in the 1950s." Despite the plagiarism, the BU committee recommended that King's doctoral degree should not be revoked. ^[18]
  • It has been charged that for his "I Have A Dream" speech King plagiarized the 1952 address of Archibald Carey to the Republican National Convention, the similarities being in the reference to the Samuel Francis Smith patriotic hymn "America" in the peroration followed by a listing of geographical locations from which the orator exhorts his audience to "let freedom ring." Many, however, believe that the comparisons are so slightly similar that they do not rise to the level of plagiarism. King's "I Have a Dream" Speech, Carey's Speech, My Country, 'Tis of Thee. [8]
• William H. Swanson, CEO, of Raytheon, admitted to plagiarism in claiming authorship for his booklet, "Swanson's Unwritten Rules of Management," after being exposed by The New York Times.^[19] On May 2, 2006, Raytheon withdrew distribution of the book.^[20]

[edit] examples of anti-plagiarism software

• AntiCutAndPaste supports human language and software source code plagiarism check
• The Centre for Interactive Systems Engineering contains a collection of tools for plagiarism detection
• Moss (a Measure Of Software Similarity); compare with MossPlus, the commercial version
• TurnItIn
• Wcopyfind

[edit] See also

• Periblepsis
• Academic dishonesty
• Credit (creative arts)
• Fair use
• Scientific misconduct
• Cryptomnesia
• Essay mill
• Contract cheating

[edit] References

1. ^ See for example American Historical Association, "Statement on Standards of Professional Conduct" (2005)] regarding textbooks and reference books.
2. ^ Ralph Blumenthal (September 21). Repeat Accusations of Plagiarism Taint Prolific Biographer. The New York Times.
3. ^ Ralph Blumenthal (September 26). Familiarity Stops the Presses. The New York Times.
4. ^ David D. Kirkpatrick (January 5). 2 Say Stephen Ambrose, Popular Historian, Copied Passages. The New York Times.
5. ^ David D. Kirkpatrick (January 11). As Historian's Fame Grows, So Do Questions on Methods. The New York Times.
6. ^ "A 30 Year Odyssey for Home Video Games," Chicago Sun-Times, February 16, 2003
7. ^ Walter Kendrick (August 30). Her Hands Were a Bridge to the World. The New York Times.
8. ^ Helen Keller (1903). The Story of My Life.
9. ^ Esther B. Fein (March 3). Book Notes. The New York Times.
10. ^ Anne S. Crowley (October 24). Research Help Supplies Backbone for Haley's Book. Chicago Tribune.
11. ^ E.J. Dionne, Jr. (September 18). Biden Admits Plagiarism in School But Says It Was Not "Malevolent". The New York Times.
12. ^ E.J. Dionne, Jr. (May 29). Professional Board Clears Biden in Two Allegations of Plagiarism. The New York Times.
13. ^ E.J. Dionne, Jr. (September 18). Biden Admits Plagiarism in School But Says It Was Not "Malevolent". The New York Times.
14. ^ Dr. Condoleezza Rice (January 23). Why We Know Iraq Is Lying. The New York Times.
15. ^ David R. Sands (March 25). Researchers Peg Putin as a Plagiarist over Thesis. The Washington Times.
16. ^ Jesdanun, Anick (November 3, 2006). Wikipedia Critic Finds Copied Passages. Associated Press.
17. ^ http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2006/11/04/1162340080487.html
18. ^ "Panel Confirms Plagiarism by King at BU" by Charles A. Radin, The Boston Globe, October 11, 1991
19. ^ Raytheon Chairman & CEO Comments Regarding 'Unwritten Rules'. Raytheon News Release. Retrieved on 2006-05-02.
20. ^ >"Raytheon halts distribution of controversial booklet by CEO", AP/Boston.com, 2006-05-02. Retrieved on 2006-05-02.

[edit] External links

• How to Avoid Plagiarism and How to get better essays while reducing your work and plagiarism
• American Historical Association, "Statement on Standards of Professional Conduct" (2005)
• What is the price of plagiarism? A The Christian Science Monitor article
• The Assessment in Higher Education web site's plagiarism page contains links to a variety of resources (articles, books, cheat sites, etc) on plagiarism.
• EssayFraud.org - Guilty Until Proven Innocent
• "Plagiary: Cross-disciplinary Studies in Plagiarism, Fabrication, and Falsification." journal
• Plagiarism and Academia: Personal Experience, Bruce Schneier
• A Contribution to the Critique of the Political Economy of Plagiarism, Grade Inflation and Standard English, Reg Johanson