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Headlines--Plagiarism
in the News 
Coulter a Copy-and-Paster? July 2006--As reported in the blogosphere and then in the tabloid-factoid New York Post, right wing columnist and book author Ann Coulter has been accused of cribbing in her syndicated columns as well as her most recent book, Godless. Universal Press Syndicate investigated the plagiarism allegations and concluded that "minimal matching text is not plagiarism" stating also that "Universal Press Syndicate is confident in the ability of Ms. Coulter, an attorney and frequent media target, to know when to make attribution and when not to" ("Sorry harpies--syndicator sees no Coulter plagiarism", Chicago Tribune); John Barrie of Turnitin.com sees things differently--he claims to have found examples of "textbook plagiarism" in Coulter's work.
Jobs On the Line at Ohio University, Department of Mechanical Engineering June 2006--As reported in the Columbus Dispatch, two professors in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Ohio University are in the midst of a plagiarism controversy concerning the theses written by graduate students over the past 20 years. The committee investigating the alleged instances of plagiarism in over 20 master's level theses has recommended that the two professors be dismissed over the controversy ("Plagiarism panel recommends firing two OU professors").
Churchill Investigation Completed: Sanctions Yet to be Determined May 2006--Dated May 9, the long-awaited "Report of the Investigative Committee of the Standing Committee on Research Misconduct at the University of Colorado at Boulder concerning Allegations of Academic Misconduct against Professor Ward Churchill" has finally been completed. The entire 125 page report (whew!) is available for download from the University of Colorado website along with other information about the investigation into the research misconduct allegations against the infamous professor of ethnic studies with dubious claims to American Indian ancestry. The report details findings of serious and deliberate research misconduct including fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism as well as "Failure to comply with established standards regarding author names on publications" and "Serious deviation from accepted practices in reporting results from research". Sanctions against Churchill have yet to be determined with possibilities on the table inclusing outright dismissal and revocation of tenure, or the less harsh suspension without pay.
Harvard Student's Sophomoric Composing Strategies
Dan Brown Wins Plagiarism Case
Sting Operation Disrupts University of Alberta Plagiarism Ring
President Putin a Plagiarist? Or Purchaser of a Shoddy Dissertation?
Argosy University-Chicago Fires Thesis Plagiarist
Shooting the Messenger: Argosy University-Chicago Disciplines Student Over Professorial Plagiarism
Plagiarologists and Ongoing Research in Plagiarology
Debut of Plagiary Covered in NYT and Inside Higher Ed
Artist's Playground - (or Plagiarism?): Aspects of Copying In Contemporary Culture
Plagiarism Likely to Remain a "Big Media Issue"
New Journal On Educational Integrity Founded
Professor J.P. Lesko discussing "The Case of the Kidnapped Robot that Never Was" on CNBC TV. November 1, 2005
British Psychiatrist Pilfers American Scholar's Work
Brown
Legally Cleared of Plagiarism Charges (for the time being) August 2005--The BBC News reports that Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown was cleared in a New York court of plagiarism allegations made by Lewis Perdue. Perdue will evidently appeal this decision by Judge George Daniels, so this case may not be over just yet. According to Judge Daniels, Brown's Da Vinci Code contained "unprotectable ideas", and Brown's use of such ideas did not constitute an infringement on the authorship rights of Perdue with regard to his books Daughter of God and The Da Vinci Legacy. This ruling by Judge Daniels contrasts sharply with a previous analysis conducted by The Forensic Linguistics Institute which found that "evidence of infringement is overwhelming" (http://www.davincilegacy.com). There is clear historical precedent for would-be authors being legally cleared of plagiarism in a court of law while being adjudged guilty by modern scholarship. So while Dan Brown may be off the hook for now, the appeal by Perdue as well as further analyses of Brown's modes of textual composition will be important in determining the final verdict in this case ("Author Brown 'did not plagiarise'", BBC News).
July
2005--Did a Flordia judge crib a paper back in his days as
an Air Force reservist, or is he a victim of an attempted
frame-up as retaliation for his role in rooting out courthouse
corruption? The
Empire Journal reported on the ongoing plagiarism saga
of Florida Judge Gregory Holder. After being cleared by a
judicial panel (Judicial Qualification Commission, Fla.)of
plagiarizing a research paper written in his college days
at MacDill Air Force Base, Judge Holder submitted a legal
bill with a grand total of $1.92 million dollars! Although
he has apparently been cleared of the plagiarism charges,
the legal bills accrued are simply astounding. All because
of an allegation of plagiarism going back to Holder's college
days at MacDill Air Force Base. Nearly $2 million! That's
a lot of $$$, which means the State of Florida will likely
have to fork over the cash since the yearly budget of the
Judicial Qualification Commission falls short at only $800,000. June 2005--A Google search by Sally Greene has uncovered plagiary in a commencement address delivered by Bryan LeBeau in 2003 at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. He should have known better. Now the widely known Professor of History and Dean of the University of Missouri's College of Arts and Sciences probably wishes he had never published that address online in his "Dean's Newsletter". Greene's Googling revealed that LeBeau had lifted portions of his speech from an earlier address delivered by distinguished Princeton University professor, Cornel West. This seems to be a clear case of oral plagiarism, quite an irony considering LeBeau's moonlighting as host for "Talking History" [emphasis added], a nationally syndicated radio program of the Organization of American Historians carried on National Public Radio every week.
June 2005--In a quickly convened "trial by blog" (solomonia.com; FrontPageMagazine.com; hnn.us), Columbia University's Edward Said Chair of Arab Studies has been accused of plagiarizing in an Internet article on the history of Jerusalem posted on the website of the American Committe of Jerusalem (re-named as the American Taskforce on Palestine). As reported by bloggers and historians, Professor Khalid Rashidi seems to have lifted material for re-use from a previous article by Kamil Jamil el Asali, formerly of the University of Jordan. Dean Austin Quigley of Columbia seemed to suggest that the plagiarism allegations were of "malicious" intent. Khalidi's outspoken, anti-Israeli rhetoric has certainly engendered a degree of opposition from students and pro-Israel activists, and this rhetoric seems to have inspired an analysis of his scholarship something akin to the analyses of Ward Churchill's record,a close evaluation of the notorious claims and dubious ancestry of the "9-11 Prof". Curiously, the American Committee on Jerusalem has removed the Rashid Khalidi byline, replacing it with "Compiled by ACJ from a variety of sources." This textual retreat by both ACJ and Khalidi from the article "Jerusalem, A Concise History", would seem to be a tacit admission that the plagiarism allegations are valid, oppositional origins of the allegations notwithstanding.
June 2005--In "Brazil's Coach in Plagiarism Row" (Steve Kingstone), Zee News and BBC News report that Brazilian national football [soccer] coach Carlos Alberto Parreira has allegedly lifted sections of an English Football Association manual on Tactics and Teamwork (by Charles Hughes in 1973) for use in his book Tactical Evolution and Strategies of the Game. Parreira's work contains now dated material which has evidently been translated directly into Portuguese from the English version by Hughes. Although his name appears on the book, Parreira denies that it was his decision to publish the book, but he does admit having translated coaching materials and passing these on the the Brazilian School of Football (http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/4608743.stm).
May
2005--The realization that students aren't the only ones plagiarizing
means that scholars are going to have their work submitted
for originality checks as part of the manuscript submission
and review process in scholarly publishing. Scott Carlson
reports in the Chronicle that specialized software
is being tested for use by journal editors and publishers
to help guarantee the integrity and originality of the published
scholarly discourse ("Journal Publishers Turn to Software
to Root Out Scholarly Plagiarism"). Christian Collberg
and colleagues reported on the progress made in detecting
the level of "self-plagiarism" in the scholarly
literature based on how much text authors might re-use again
and again in identical or very similar articles as a means
of inflating or padding their publishing record. Such a "bloated"
state of the scholarly discourse, "cluttered with papers
on the same topics, but with different names", is a serious
issue which such new detection initiatives should help to
reduce in the years ahead (Collberg et al. "A Study of
Self-Plagiarism in Computer Science." See http://splat.cs.arizona.edu/).
May
2005--Plagiary:
Cross-Disciplinary Studies in Plagiarism, Fabrication, and
Falsification is a new scholarly journal devoted
to investigating plagiary and fraud-related phenomena across
disciplines of inquiry. It is scheduled for launching in January
of 2006. The web domain for this new journal has been reserved
at www.plagiary.org
(now online). Papers are solicited for this new journal in
the following areas related to plagiarism, fabrication, and
falsification:
Potential contributors
with a scholarly interest in plagiarism are encouraged to
submit manuscripts of high quality in any of the areas above
to the Editor of Plagiary, Dr.
John P. Lesko for publications consideration (more
info about publishing in Plagiary).
May 2005--The Press Secretary for New Mexico Republican Congressman Steve Pearce resigned after plagiarizing an opinion column submitted to El Defensor Chieftain in Pearce's name. Jim Burns lifted text "word-for-word" from the website of the Heritage Foundation, and he admitted "It was a colossal error in judgment. Rather than stay on and embarrass the congressman, I am leaving"(M. Coleman, Albuquerque Journal).
May 2005--A Harper's Magazine review by Wyatt Mason doesn't look good for the reputation of MIT Writer-in-Residence Christopher Sawyer-Lauçanno. His recently released e.e. cummings, A Biography was praised by other reviewers. Not by Mason. "This is plagiarism", he says after closely analyzing the new book's scholarly merits and concluding that Sawyer-Lauçanno has not sufficiently acknowledged his debt to a previous biographer, Richard S. Kennedy, author of Dreams in the Mirror: A Biography of e.e. cummings.
April 2005--The Scientist (www.the-scientist.com)reports that Eric Poehlman is the "first researcher barred for life from seeking federal funding." Prior to this ban, Poehlman was an acknowledged obesity expert, also studying aging and menopause. But after being found out for falsifying and fabricating data on as many as 17 grant applications, thanks to the suspicions of Poehlman's research assistant, Walter F. DeNino, an investigation by the University of Vermont exposed the serious fraud being engaged in by Poehlman in his government funded research projects. According to the federal Office of Research Integrity, this was one of the most serious cases of such fraud in 20 years (S. Smallwood, "Former Scientist at U. of Vermont to Plead Guilty to Vast Research Fraud).
April 2005--Melody Townsel, Anti-Bush activist and former head of "Mothers Opposing Bush", has had her credibility questioned after plagiarism from her college-days re-surfaced. Townsel gained a brief bit of notoriety for her accusations against John Bolton, President Bush's nominee for Ambassador to the UN.
Townsel had accused Bolton of "acting like a madman" and harassing her in a Russian hotel as part of the Democratic strategy to derail Bolton's nomination to the UN.
In a published letter, Townsel apologized for plagiarizing several columns in a college newspaper nearly twenty years ago:
Questions of political affiliation aside, this incident demonstrates that an accusation of plagiarism is quite a potent weapon in ongoing controversies and political debate, influencing opinion in areas ranging from US presidential elections (i.e. the Joe Biden incident) to presidential appointments.
MIT Students Develop Paper-Writing Computer Program
April 2005--CNN reported that three graduate students at MIT developed a computer program which "writes" papers by randomly generating sentences extracted from real papers, and substituting appropriate "buzzwords".
The resulting paper which Jeremy Stribling, Max Krohn and Dan Aguayo successfully submitted to an academic conference was a "gobbledygook" compilation of nonsensical phrases and jargon resembling the prose found in many academic publications.
The four page paper was entitled "Rooter: A Methodology for the Typical Unification of Access Points and Redundancy", and it was accepted by the Ninth World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics. The beginning of this randomly generated paper reads as follows:
Plagiarists employ such derivative, synonym-substitution techniques on a regular basis, and as these bright MIT students have demonstrated, the professional discourse genres remain susceptible to worthless contributions such as plagiarized research, or in this case, grad student pranks.
Harvard Professors: Words Aren't the Only Thing to Steal!
April 2005--What's with Harvard Profs and their thefts these days?!?! After some fairly high profile cases of plagiarism involving the theft of words by some notable Harvard professors (i.e. Lawrence Tribe and Charles J. Ogletree, Jr.), another sort of thievery has emerged.
Piper Fogg of The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that Harvard Professor of Economics, Dr. Martin L. Weitzman, was arrested in early April for
Professors at Ivy League institutions stealing chunks of text, and now chunks of something else--horse manure!
Something is not quite right in American institutions of higher learning today.
"9-11 Prof" Update: Further Plagiarism by Ward Churchill Uncovered
March 2005--As the investigation of "9-11 Prof" Ward Churchill continues, further allegations of plagiarism have surfaced. This new allegation concerns Churchill's plagiarism of an article by Dalhousie University Professer Fay G. Cohen.
After Cohen complained in 1997 about the misuse of her article by Colorado University's Ward Churchill, she received a chilling phone message late one night, apparently from Churchill himself: "I'll get you for this!"
Cohen subsequently dropped all complaints for fear of her personal safety, and the matter has only resurfaced in 2005 due to the controversy surrounding the 9-11 Prof's scholarly record and outrageous remarks pertaining to the victims of 9-11.
Concern Grows Among Educators Over Negative Effects of Turnitin.com Plagiarism Detection Services
March 2005--Posting from an online forum on plagiarism at the Chronicle of Higher Education (plagiarism forum link).
9-11 Prof an Alleged Plagiarist
Feb. 2005--WorldNetDaily.com reports that the controversial "9-11 Prof" Ward Churchill is a plagiarist. Known for his outspoken comments which compared 9-11 victims to Nazi war criminals, Ward Churchill has also come under fire for alleged plagiarism and sloppy scholarship. These allegations actually date to 1999, but they have resurfaced due to the controversy surrounding Churchill's 9-ll remarks.
Walmart Heiress Plagiarized Her Way Through College
Dec. 2004--The Associated Press reported in December 2004 that Wal-Mart heiress Elizabeth Paige Laurie had allegedly paid as much as $20,000 dollars to rommate Elena Martinez to write her papers for her. Martinez gave an interview on ABC's 20/20 in which she described the alleged "Research Services" which she provided to Ms. Paige Laurie. As a result of this alleged plagiarism--claiming to have written papers which her roommate actually wrote--the University of Southern California has launched an investigation, says the Vice-President of Student Affairs, Michael Jackson.
Da Vinci Code Possibly Plagiarized
Oct. 2004--Dan Brown may have plagiarized the work of another author in writing the spectacularly popular Da Vinci Code reports The Telegraph. If the plagiarism charges are substantiated, author Lewis Purdue and others may be set to claim a tidy sum from the millions of dollars in sales revenue generated by this wildly successful work of pop-fiction.
Nagasaki Schoolgirl Murder Related to Plagiarism
Aug. 2004--The Mainichi Daily News posted a story on a schoolgirl murder case related to a dispute concerning plagiarism in a circular diary maintained by students. In this diary, students wrote entries back and forth to each other. The 12 year old schoolgirl killer had complained in one of her entries, "Don't plagiarize my expression". She had also "warned other members in another diary not to imitate her illustrations, suggesting she has a particular attachment to her originality". The plagiarism issue seemed to have gone away, reported the Daily News, yet after some further insults exchanged among the schoolgirls, one of them was slashed and murdered in a retaliatory incident that shocked all of Japan. What is particularly shocking about this case is how a 12 year old girl could murder a classmate over such petty, online insults. These online insults--including apparent instances of plagiarism--escalated into a case of schoolyard murder!
Madonna and "Hollywood Plagiarism"
May 2004--Thomas Crosbie Media reported that Madonna was required to pay $638,000 to French photographer Guy Bourdin after plagiarizing his work for a music video. Court action is also pending against the video director and Warner Brothers according to this report. Although Guy Bourdin is now deceased, this has not prevented the return of another author to reclaim the rights to his work!
Student Plagiarist Sues for Damages
May 2004--A BBC News article reported that university student Michael Gunn has sued the University of Kent as Canturbury for not providing sufficient warning about plagiarism! Gunn admitted plagiarizing in his university level work, but felt that he should have been warned earlier in his course of study than just before the final exams.
"Turn it in? Throw it out!": College Students Protest Against Turnitin Plagiarism Detection
Mar. 2004--In a protest against the use of Turnitin.com and plagiarism detection in general, college students at McGill University outlined their arguments against professors' use of cheat detection technology. According to the McGill Tribune, students thought that plagiarism detection was unfair because it basically accuses them of plagiarism before running a plagiarism check--in effect, guilty until proven innocent.
Students also objected to fattening the profits of the California based corporation iParidigms, of which Turnitin is a subsidiary. Other students observed that the use of cheat detection technology erodes the trust between professors and their students: "It creates a considerable climate of distrust" said student Nick Peters. Protesters held up signs reading "My degree is not guilty" and "Turn it in? Throw it out!"
A blogger commenting on this protest against Turnitin observed that "An instructor who uses this check as part of his process, instead of only for suspicious papers, is admitting to not knowing anything about the student's abilities and attitude. Not good."
Colleges Noting "XF" Grade on Plagiarists' Transcripts
Dec.2003--Community College Week reported that Barton County Community College in Kansas gave a student a grade of "XF" for plagiarizing a paper. The plagiarism was discovered after an Internet search, and this report mentioned that other colleges and universities have also been entering this grade of "XF" in transcripts for cases of cheating and plagiarism.
Harry Potter Author Sues Tanya Grotter Author
Mar. 2003--J.K. Rowling and her publisher have sued the author of The Magic Double Bass with a heroine by the name of Tanya Grotter. Rowling claims that Dmitry Yemets' work infringes the copyright of her work Harry Potter, but Yemets claimes that his work is a parody or satire of Harry Potter: "Like with all parodies, there are common elements, but this is a literary satire".
Harry Potter Author Wins Plagiarism Case
Sept. 2002--The BBC news reported that J.K.Rowling had won a plagiarism case filed by a US writer claiming that her work had been plagiarized by the author of the Harry Potter series. The judge in the case determined that the accuser, Nancy Stouffer, had manipulated the textual evidence to support her claims, and he fined her $30,000 for a "pattern of intentional bad faith conduct".
Disclaimer: All of the famous plagiarists featured in this webspace remain “alleged plagiarists”, the documented allegations having been made by others in the professional literature and/or the popular media. Further details relating to these allegations will be forthcoming in the book edition of Famous Plagiarists. Although Dr. Lesko is a professor at Saginaw Valley State University, the Famous Plagiarists Research Project represents the individual research of John P. Lesko, plagiarologist, and SVSU accepts no responsibility for the content of these pages. Comments or questions should be directed to
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