Plagiarism Part 3 - Authorship

In times past it was not uncommon for some professors to take credit for their students' work, writings, bright ideas, creativity, or novel solutions. Earning a doctorate was a right of passage in more than the obvious sense; the star pupil earned the right to get proper credit for their efforts. The extent of this practice may be easily exaggerated or perhaps under-counted. I do not hesitate to say that the tide has turned in the last few decades to this practice becoming more generally unacceptable in the academic community.

Yet vestiges of these practices may still thrive. Why? As a hypothetical matter, among a group of highly respected and accomplished scholars is an individual (Z) who frequently is offered publishing opportunities, and who does the following:

1. Asks A to write an original article for Z, requiring extensive research, that is published in a respected scholarly venue under Z's name exclusively.
2. Asks B to write an original article, requiring extensive research, that is published in a respected scholarly venue, giving authorship to Z and B in that order.
3. Asks C to lead the research and writing of an original article among a team of researcher-writers D, E, and F, that is published in a respected scholarly venue, giving first authorship to Z, and then C, D, E, and F based upon their contributions and effort.
4. Several years after co-authoring a scholarly book with G, H, and J that is published by a respected academic press, whereby authorship is attributed in the order Z, G, H, and J -- Z asks G, H, J, and K to prepare a second edition of the book, requiring substantial research and writing, and maintaining the original order of authorship without adding K.
5. Asks L to lead the research and writing of an original article among a team of researcher-writers M, N, and P, that is published in a respected scholarly venue, giving authorship to L, M, N, and P based upon their contributions and effort, and Z as last author.
6. Q, R, and S conduct original research and prepare a manuscript for publication in a special issue of a scholarly journal. Z is guest editor of the special issue. Authorship is given to Q, R, and S based upon their contributions and effort, and Z is last author.
7. Z conducts original research and writing with T and V and their work (ZTV) is published in a scholarly venue, giving authorship to Z, T, and V in that order. A few years later, Z repackages ZTV and publishes it as sole author in a separate scholarly venue. The credits acknowledge that portions of the new article were drawn from ZTV, though neither T, V or the publisher of ZTV were consulted about the repackaging.
8. Z conducts original research and writing, which is published in a scholarly venue with Z as sole author. A few years later Z repackages the original article and publishes it in a separate scholarly venue. The credits acknowledge that portions of the new article were drawn from the original, though the publisher of the original article was not consulted about the repackaging.

In addition to the above, Z generally provides some comments and edits to the final drafts. None of the researcher-writers A through V is a studcnt; they are all professional researchers and academics.

Do any of these scenarios constitute plagiarism? Why would any of the researcher-writers A through V permit these outcomes?

Comments are very welcome, as always. Each reader's thoughts regarding whether the 8 scenarios above (any or all) are acts of plagiarism, are encouraged.

Plagiarism Part 2 - "The Greater Good Factor"

On 6 March, 2009 I began this series to explore what society and academia understand plagiarism to be. In Part 1 I questioned whether my own paraphrasing of my college's plagiarism policy was itself an act of intentional plagiarism. And apparently I am not the first to question such a thing.

Recently, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch followed the issues of missing, high-profile library collections, a plague of plagiarism, and a revolving door to the chancellor's office at Southern Illinois University (SIU-Carbondale). Among these challenges was the accusation that SIU "plagiarized" an Indiana University policy in developing the new SIU plagiarism policy (Kumar, 2009).

Would it not be a smart college administrator aiming to implement an effective policy (e.g., plagiarism, grading, tenure, admissions) who turns to respected colleges with successful policies, to draft, model, or modify a new policy to meet its needs? Are the greater interests of all in higher education and all those served by higher education protected and enhanced by the sharing and dissemination of effective policies?

Today, models and templates for legal codes, constitutions, articles of confederation, mission statements, business plans, and financial, human resource, medical, school and other policies are available for adoption and modification in this same spirit of serving the greater good. The Office of Research Integrity (ORI) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services makes freely available the Model Policy for Responding to Allegations of Scientific Misconduct (ORI, n.d.1). This model serves the purpose of providing researchers and administrators in higher education with a means to comply with federal law regarding research integrity. Specifically, the model policy "applies to allegations of research misconduct (fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism in proposing, performing, or reviewing research, or in reporting research results)." (ORI, n.d.2, p.1).

The common denominator among these examples would seem to be a purpose of serving a greater good. Let's call this the "greater good factor" and hypothesize that it is one factor in determining whether a practice is plagiarism.

References

Kumar, K. & Hahn, V.S. (2009, March 9). SIUC helmsman looks beyond media storms. St. Louis Post-Dispatch, at A1.

Office of Research Integrity. (n.d.1). Policies: ORI model policy for responding to allegations of scientific misconduct. Retrieved March 15, 2009, from http://ori.dhhs.gov/policies/model_policy.shtml

Office of Research Integrity. (n.d.2). ORI model policy for responding to allegations of scientific misconduct. Retrieved March 15, 2009, from http://ori.dhhs.gov/policies/documents/Model_Policy_rev10-20-06.pdf

Plagiarism - What Is It? Part 1

In the academic community, it is not debated that plagiarism is Bad. Cases of student plagiarism seem to abound, sometimes with impunity, and institutional policies are declaring war on it.

Late last spring, a student working for me and for whom I had positive regard, threw together a draft report before leaving for summer. The student had borrowed a significant amount of verbatim language from other sources, minimally citing them and using no quotation marks. As is often the case, these problems stuck out to me because the direct language was phrased in a manner so unlike the student's writing. My institution's policy addresses these matters as follows, and I paraphrase:

• Plagiarism - intentional passing off of another person's words, ideas or work as if it is one’s own
• Unattributed Copying - passing off of another person's words, ideas or work as if it is one’s own because of reckless or grossly negligent practices
• Verbatim copying of another person's words, ideas or work without proper attribution is presumed plagiarism and conclusively presumed unattributed copying.
  

I am curious that my college's policy seems to draw a distinction of intent between plagiarism and unattributed copying; but when verbatim copying occurs, the policy considers them to be essentially the same. Moreover, whether deemed plagiarism or unattributed copying, the accused is equally subject to a highly formal process involving a complaint, a determination whether to prosecute, and a lengthy hearing, and which can equally conclude with suspension or expulsion.

In this blog entry I have carefully paraphrased my college's policies because I do not wish to single out my college or have to cite the student code of conduct. And yet, am I not plagiarizing the code of conduct - according to the code itself - because it further provides that paraphrasing without clearly indicating and crediting the source also constitutes plagiarism or unattributed copying?

I suspect that a key difficulty with defining plagiarism is that in the process of doing so we may rather quickly reach some bizarre if not absurd results. Yet, it is not something we can ignore. And so in this blog series, "Plagiarism - What Is It?"I will explore just what it is we think or know plagiarism to be.

In closing, I shall leave the reader with an idea I have formulated (or think I have), and will reflect back upon it, as I suspect it will be a kind of beacon, or homing mechanism, when I drift too far out. I have Googled this idea, these words as put together, to see if really I am just stealing someone else's idea or words. And they seem to be my own.

"Artists are perhaps the most plagiarized and the least paid, though they complain about it a lot less than journalists and scholars."