ETHOS
NOVEMBER 2014
A Monthly Publication of the International Center for Academic Integrity Featuring Summaries of Integrity News + News from the Center
Quote of the Month “No legacy is so rich as honesty.”
From the Director
-William Shakespeare A Reminder re: Reminders . . .
How the Library of Congress Got Caught Up in a Mark Twain Plagiarism Scandal By: Daniel Hernandez
Quartz – qz.com
11/23/2014
Mark Twain once joked that “whenever a copyright law is to be made or altered, then the idiots assemble.” A lesser-known fact of Twain’s life is that he lobbied vigorously for stronger copyright protections, vexed by piracy of his work both at home and abroad. “They talk handsomely about the literature of the land,” Twain told a House committee in 1906. “And in the midst of their enthusiasm, they turn around and do what they can to discourage it.” The “they” Twain referred to were the laws and lawmakers themselves. And in the United States, copyright law is administered by the Copyright Office, which is a part of the Library of Congress. So it’s no small irony then that a new book about Mark Twain, “coauthored by” the Library of Congress, appears to contain text copied from at least five different sources, all with no attribution. An independent scholar, Kevin Mac Donnell, whose sleuthing has been written about before, announced earlier this month on a Mark Twain web forum that he uncovered a hefty amount of plagiarism in Mark Twain’s America, an illustrated biography by Harry Katz and the Library of Congress, and published by Little, Brown. In his review of the book, Mac Donnell noted that its chronology of Twain’s life seemed to be lifted without attribution from Mark Twain A to Z, a reference book by R. Kent Rasmussen. Mac Donnell counted over 400 lines of prose that match Rasmussen’s text almost word for word. More scholars have since joined Mac Donnell on the forum in scrutinizing Mark Twain’s America, and they now say the text includes over 100 factual errors as well… Visit http://qz.com/300305/how-the-library-of-congress-got-caughtup-in-a-mark-twain-plagiarism-scandal/ for the complete article!
In the retail world, “Black Friday” marks the point at which merchants hope to go from red (deficits) to black (surpluses) but for students and teachers, it signals the start of crunch time—when papers and projects are due and final exams begin. As the stress begins to mount, so too can the temptation to take shortcuts (or worse). Though teachers, too, can be pressed for time as the semester comes to a close, spending a few minutes reminding students about our expectations—that we expect their work to be their own; that we expect complete and accurate documentation of sources, that we expect them to work individually unless instructed otherwise, and that we expect them to consult with us if they’d like to use a previously submitted work as the basis for a new paper or project, for instance—might save hours addressing plagiarism or cheating issues later. Along with reminders about what we expect, it may also be worth saying a bit about why what’s at stake both for our students personally and the reputation of our institutions as a whole. The very act of discussing issues of integrity and ethics— even when they’ve been discussed previously—can make a difference, especially when so many other things are competing for students’ attention.
~Teddi Fishman
Director of Journalism School Suspended for Plagiarism cannot take this sort of thing lightly. This is why, having
11/17/2014 spoken to Agnès, I am going to seek an independent evaluation of the accusations against our executive director … In the The executive director of a prestigious journalism school in Paris meantime, Agnès will be relieved of her responsibilities.” has been suspended while the university investigates accusations The website Arret Sur Images said it fed around 20 of her she was plagiarising articles for her columns in the Huffington Post. A news website said Agnès Chauveau, who worked for the columns into an online plagiarism checker and found that in half of them at least one sentence, but more often two or three, Sciences-Po University, was cutting and pasting chunks of had been lifted from other articles and presented unchanged articles from Le Monde newspaper and other French media and and without attribution… passing them off as her own. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/112 "Plagiarism is a very serious affair in journalism," said Bruno 36081/Director-of-Paris-journalism-school-suspended-forPatin, the director of the school, which much of the French elite has attended, wrote in an email to staff and students. "The school plagiarism.html By: Rory Mulholland
The Telegraph
Announcements
Upcoming Events! Plagiarism Across Europe and Beyond 2015 University of Brno Brno, Czech Republic June 10-12, 2015 http:/plagiarism.cz/
7th Annual Conference on Higher Education Pedagogy Virginia Tech February 3 – 6, 2015 http://www.cider.vt.edu/conference/
HETL 2015: Reaching the Summit Orem, Utah January 20-22, 2015 https://www.hetl.org/events/2015hetl-sote-utah-conference/
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Reform Group Proposes Academic Integrity Rules for Athletics Andy Thomason 10/29/14
Chronicle.com
Western Faculty Unveil New AI Website Mariko Osterberg 10/1/2014
The Western Front
The Drake Group, which promotes
Western Washington University’s faculty launched a new academic academic integrity in college sports, integrity website geared towards has released a list of guidelines it framing integrity as a positive urges all colleges and universities to attribute and helping students to adopt in the wake of “recent avoid difficulties with plagiarism. academic scandals” related to To promote this academic integrity athletics. Among other items, the website, Western’s faculty has been group suggests that: collaborating with Western’s library Freshmen be required to wait one and its Library Information Tutorial year before playing sports if their (LIT) page, a website providing standardized-test scores are a research concepts and tools. certain amount below the mean of A revised pilot version of LIT was the student body. updated and will launch this fall as Athletics programs undergo a an overall introduction to the national “peer review” process Library Commons and the research once every 10 years. process. Western geology associate Academic support programs for professor, Jackie Caplan-Auerbach athletes be under the control of is one of Western’s faculty staff that the university’s academic arm. helped to lead the initiative. No facilities be permitted that cater to athletes but are not “Integrity is a much bigger issue,” directly related to athletic she said. “Students are very focused competition. on this large issue of plagiarism and An independent report revealed last week that the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was the site of widespread academic fraud— affecting 3,100 students over 18 years—begun, in part, to keep struggling athletes eligible to compete… Full Story: http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/refor m-group-proposes-academic-integrityrules-for-athletics/88627
The International Center for Academic Integrity grants permission to duplicate and distribute this newsletter physically or electronically, so long as it is duplicated and/or distributed in its entirety and without alteration. Please note that this publication features summaries of and links to original works that are subject to copyright protection. ICAI does not claim ownership or credit for any original works found within.
that is because we…have led them that way. We assume people know why integrity matters and assume people know something as simple as what plagiarism is, and in fact there isn’t any broader discussion of it, which is not sufficient…” http://www.westernfrontonline.net/news /article_44ad7242-4993-11e4-a8f20017a43b2370.html
Welcome New ICAI Members in November 2014! Randolph College – Virginia Texila American University – Guyana Kevin Kraft – MIT, Massachusetts
This publication is sponsored by:
Ethos Staff:
CAI-L@clemson.edu
Aaron Monson:
Editor/Writer
Teddi Fishman:
Executive Editor