iThenticate Blog

The latest case of breaking misconduct news comes out of the University of Connecticut.  Dr. Dipak Das is the director of the UConn Health Center’s Cardiovascular Researcher Center, and is best known for his groundbreaking research on resveratrol, the chemical agent found in red wine that has been touted to benefit health in a number of ways.

The relationship between authors and publishers has been rapidly evolving along with the digital age.  Many authors have taken to publishing their own books through large online e-book sellers like Amazon and distributing on platforms like the Kindle and iPad.  Not only do services like these provide streamlined publishing and distribution pathways, but they also offer authors a larger cut of profits than they would get with a traditional publisher.

Techdirt recently published a very interesting article that examines the current state of copyright in academia.  Building off of an article from QuestionCopyright, Techdirt columnist Glyn Moody poses the question of whether copyright is being effectively utilized for academics.  The logic essentially says that academics are more interested in getting attribution for the ideas in their papers, rather than protecting the paper's specific wording.

Lately, plagiarism has become a hot topic in the news. Over the past several years high profile cases have come to the forefront of major news outlets and given the issue of plagiarism a renewed sense of urgency. Each of these plagiarism cases has its own unique ‘plot’; including a cast of characters involved, a timeline of events, and a final result or judgement for the perpetrators. In a way, the public has become attracted to these cases for much the same reasons that they are drawn to reality television: the drama.

Why do people plagiarize? A Huffington post article recently started off by answering this question. Ellen Siminoff writes: “It's that plate of cookies on the counter that you know you should keep away from because you're determined to stick to your diet ... but they're right there.”

Impact factor is a big deal for scientific journals. The impact factor score is based on the average number of citations a journal receives – an approximate measure of how important and relevant a journal is to the scientific community. For a journal (along with its editors and authors) impact factor can determine distribution deals, grant funding, and the overall success of a publication. Although the impact factor score is mathematically calculated for each journal, in the end its foundation is laid by one organization: Thomson Reuters Journal Citation Reports.

Science Reporting and journalism have changed quite a bit over the last several decades. In the past, there were only a few central news sources that people got their scientific information from. For example, viewers would tune into the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite to get their daily or weekly update on scientific discovery and innovation.

One of the most valuable tools that bloggers and digital content publications use as a source for edits is their user community. When a writer or organization either doesn’t have the resources for a standard editor or can’t cover the sheer volume of published works, they can  turn to their readers to point out grammatical errors, perform fact checking, and even scan content for cases of plagiarism.

Joseph Esposito from the ‘Scholarly Kitchen’ wrote an interesting piece on social media and the evolution of the ‘fixed text.’ He analyzes the newly dynamic nature of the social web; from edits within Wikipedia to comments on a blog to multifaceted posts on Google Plus. Essentially, we are moving away from a time when a piece of content was easily defined, with a convenient start and finish.

A quick Google search for ‘plagiarizing quotes’ or ‘plagiarism of quotes’ yields a plethora of results, however, most of the results are related to quotes about plagiarism.  There is nearly no information out there on plagiarizing quotations; instances where individuals have plagiarized other authors through the use of their quotations.