Situation
On receiving her first invitation to review a book for a journal, Jennifer Lazarus reads several recent reviews and selects one written by Donald Harrold to use as a model for her review. Shortly after her review was published, Professor Harrold notified the editor of the journal that published the book review that this review had been plagiarized by Lazarus, and identified three sentences and twelve phrases in the review that were identical to the one that Harrold had published earlier. The two reviews were on different subjects and the charge of plagiarism was based on phrasing, not on substantive ideas.
Questions
- What is the responsibility of the editor? Should he/she use a numerical (number of sentences and phrases) definition of plagiarism? Or a substantive one? If a numerical definition is used, should the editor try to negotiate an informal resolution? Refer the case to the Ethics Committee?
- If a substantive definition is used, should the editor take any further actions?
- What are the editor’s responsibilities to the Professor Harrold? What are the editor’s responsibilities to Jennifer Lazarus?
Discussion
It is understandable that Jennifer sought out recent reviews to examine prior to writing her first book review. She believed Professor Harrold’s to be above average, and therefore chose to use this as her model. Two avenues would have avoided the charge by Harrold that his work was plagiarized.
First, after reading several reviews for guidance, Jennifer should have absorbed ideas she thought were helpful, and then put the reviews away. She likely could have avoided the charge of plagiarism had she created a model of her own, based loosely on a variety of examples. Instead, she adopted Professor Harrold’s approach and therefore relied too heavily on one example.
Second, had she decided to follow Professor Harrold’s model for a book review, Jennifer certainly should have provided acknowledgement for this assistance in some part of her review.
It is tantamount to keep in mind that phrasing, just like more substantive forms of plagiarism, is also subject to the rules and ethical guidelines of academics. The editor may suggest that Jennifer write an apology in the journal acknowledging her reliance on Harrold’s model, and allow this to be a lesson for future writing endeavors.
