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[santommaso]

By consulting the oracle Google, I found that scientific and medical journals retract articles discovered to be plagiarized by issuing a statement of retraction. Here is a typical one:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T16-4W73H38-3&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1101165317&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=f16a0bb00102de0e3eae4609f7df3220


I was wondering if anyone has seen an analogous statement for a journal in a humanities discipline. Can anyone give examples?

[qrypt]

Social sciences:http://etn.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/7/4/590.pdf

It's really an astonishingly cowardly statement, making no mention of the fact that RAMJI IS A PLAGIARIST.  As consolation: she is no longer employed by City University (London), and as best I can tell she isn't employed elsewhere as a sociologist either.

There will soon be another retraction along these lines.  I'll post back here in a week when it's public.

[jerseyjay]

Following the link to sciencedirect, there was the following link:
http://spore.swmed.edu/dejavu/

This is evidently some database of questionable articles. What I found interesting is that it seems that a majority are not plagiarized but are so-called "duplicate publications", i.e., the same article with the same authors in two different journals. I actually find this fascinating, as I had never thought that this would be a widespread problem.

[dundee]

I am unable to provide the details for numerous reasons, but I discovered a case of plagiarism during the course of my normal research, and the end result was that two journals (in the humanities) published statements declaring that they had unknowingly published plagiarised articles, and had contacted various databases to have the said articles removed from the indexes. The plagiarist was dealt with by his/her employer.

[santommaso]

Here is a retraction, without a claim of plagiarism:

http://pdfserve.informaworld.com/500886__713631565.pdf

[mountainguy]

There was a retraction in a journal in my humanities field last year. I don't recall them using the word "plagiarism," but they did explain what had happened.

[ucprof]

There are really two levels of plagiarism.  The weaker one would be when the same authors try to publish the same stuff in a new journal claiming it is new.  I have seen that and had to reject a paper because it was too close to a previously published article - thank goodness for a very on the ball referee.  The stronger one is when someone blatantly plagiarizes material from other authors.  There is really no excuse for the second and I have seen it happen several times.  The first type, especially when the earlier work is cited, could simply be a result of authors not understanding how new the work has to be compared to their prior work.  In general if one cites all the prior literature correctly I would not consider it plagiarism.  That said, lack of originality is grounds for not publishing something - but it does not constitute plagiarism if the prior work is appropriately cited.

[compdoc]

Recently a journal realized that an article they published had been done before by someone else. An acknowledgement (not exactly a retraction) was printed in the next issue stating that very similar work had been done earlier by someone else.

[sciencephd]

Actually the example in the OP is quite unusual.  Usually retractions in the sciences are due to data falsification or a major error that invalidates most of the findings.  I don't recall ever seeing plagiarism as a reason for a retraction....and I've seen many many retractions.

[qrypt]

As promised, here is a link describing an impending retraction on grounds of plagiarism: link here.

I don't know yet what sort of statement the journal will make.  Apparently this guy has a history of spending big on lawyers; perhaps the journal will tread lightly.  Not that it matters in this case, given the Times Higher story.

[santommaso]

Herre's a article I found on the increase in retractions in scientific journals:

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=407838

[sciencephd]

Herre's a article I found on the increase in retractions in scientific journals:

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=407838

Our old friend is the first to comment on the linked article.  Warms my heart.

[qrypt]

Herre's a article I found on the increase in retractions in scientific journals:

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=407838

Our old friend is the first to comment on the linked article.  Warms my heart.

Be sure to check out his comments on this one:

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=408884

[sciencephd]

Herre's a article I found on the increase in retractions in scientific journals:

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=407838

Our old friend is the first to comment on the linked article.  Warms my heart.

Be sure to check out his comments on this one:

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=408884

Very surprised he doesn't choose the spelling with a 'ju' in it.  For him that would be a automatic two 'fer.

[socsci]

As promised, here is a link describing an impending retraction on grounds of plagiarism: link here.

I don't know yet what sort of statement the journal will make.  Apparently this guy has a history of spending big on lawyers; perhaps the journal will tread lightly.  Not that it matters in this case, given the Times Higher story.

Does the Chronicle ever do stories like this? We know it hasn't on the Oxford Round Table. (obvious interthreaduality)