From the issue dated December 17, 2004
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University Presses Choose Caution in Responding to Accusations of Plagiarism
THE WORST FORM OF FLATTERY: Plagiarism is an academic sin that university-press officials dare not speak about too openly. Indeed, many of them -- even those who report no experience of plagiarism at their institutions -- prefer to err on the side of caution, and even anonymity, when discussing it. Says Jennifer Snodgrass, the editor for reference and special projects at Harvard University Press: "In the current climate, which tends to sensationalize such issues, an accusation of plagiarism, even when unfounded or ultimately disproved, can be enough to damage a scholarly reputation." Niko Pfund, academic publisher at Oxford University Press, concurs: "There's little to be gained from discussing individual cases in public, so it's one of those subjects where people understandably lay low." Despite plagiarism's recent prominence in the news, some academic publishers doubt that plagiarism is increasing. At worst, says Marlie Wasserman, director of Rutgers University Press, "we're talking about a tiny percentage -- one out of 200 books -- that has some kind of issue, and it can go either way." Yet undercurrents of doubt remain, even among those who hold this view. Ms. Wasserman suspects that plagiarism "happens more than we realize," because while many problems are solved at presses, untold others are settled quietly in author-to-author exchanges. Press officials agree that careless, rather than conscious, plagiarism predominates. "A lot of cases involve a new assistant professor whose dissertation didn't include sufficient citations" and comes to the press as a manuscript with inadequate "detail work," says William H. Hamilton, director of the University of Hawaii Press. "The significant amount of scholarly work circulating on the Internet creates many more opportunities for plagiarism, deliberate or unwitting," cautions Ms. Snodgrass. Some editors even wonder whether an Internet-aided "culture of plagiarism" among undergraduates is gradually being transmitted up the academic food chain. Yet academic publishers do admit that plagiarism is often impossible to detect in manuscripts until an accusation is lodged. Even expert readers cannot possibly know all the relevant literature, says Mr. Hamilton. So ultimately plagiarism is "almost impossible to protect against." Plagiarism usually is discovered when scholars, naturally curious about developments in their field, uncover intellectual theft. "People with half a brain realize this -- that there are people very well versed in the discipline," says another press director, who preferred to speak anonymously. "But still some people plagiarize, anyway, for whatever reasons -- pathology, or let's face it, the need to have a publication to get a job, which makes them desperate." *** Plagiarism is a messy business. So it is small wonder that even presses whose books are victimized by intellectual theft want to settle such allegations quietly and without much fuss -- let alone a lawsuit. A few years ago, for instance, an author whose book was published by the University of California Press discovered that a young English scholar had extensively plagiarized from that work in a book published by a small British academic press. The California book was a music title, and that made the discovery likely, says Mary C. Francis, an editor at California. "The groups of people who study these topics are fairly small," she notes. (Ms. Francis would not divulge the names of the scholars involved.) The original author identified the extent of the plagiarizing: paragraph after paragraph, page after page. "Part of what made it so astonishing was that it was so blatant," says Ms. Francis. Presented with these facts, the British publisher did not dispute the charges. "There was no court case, but lawyers were involved," she says. Under an agreement, the British publisher withdrew the offending book, and published an explanation on its Web site. It also agreed to inform bookstores, and anyone who ordered the book, why it was no longer available. Says Ms. Francis: "We dealt with the other press as a press. We never had contact with the young author, and there was never contact between the authors." She believes that "it does not work out to have the two authors confront one another. It is believed here automatically that if we published the book, then we will act." Being on the other side of the plagiarism problem is even more of a headache. "Obviously, the integrity of the imprint is the most important factor for a publisher," says Oxford's Mr. Pfund. "One tailors one's responses, depending on the severity of the offense, from including an errata slip in the book and making changes in future printings to retrieving all extant copies and pulping them, and pulling the book from the market." Forgiving transgressors among one's own authors will depend on their explanations, says Mr. Pfund. "How one approaches each case depends on a number of variables: the nature of the problem, the plagiarized party's disposition, and the author's explanation being the most significant," he says. "If an author is mortified, immediately apologizes, and can provide a reasonable explanation that, while not excusing the matter, sheds light on how it occurred and is somewhat satisfactory to both the plagiarized and the two presses involved, the conversation tends to be markedly different from a situation where an author is dismissive of another's claims or offers a weak or breezy explanation. The ultimate outcome may not be different, but how you get there could well be." Press directors say they, like academics, can take consolation from certain realities of plagiarism. Phil Pochoda, director of the University of Michigan Press, says that almost all plagiarism is pointless anyway. "There's nothing is to be gained," he says. "What will a few paragraphs do in terms of your argument? The risk is far, far greater than any possible reward." http://chronicle.com Section: Research & Publishing Volume 51, Issue 17, Page A23 | |||||||||||||||
Copyright © 2004 by The Chronicle of Higher Education