iThenticate Blog

Plagiarism has already had a noted effect on politics in 2010. 

A recent episode of the popular AMC TV show Mad Men explores an interesting subject: plagiarism in advertising.  

Stanley Fish of the New York Times wrote an interesting article earlier this month titled “Plagiarism is Not a Big Moral Deal.” Fish argues that the rules of plagiarism are not something people inherently learn from a very early age. 

In the world of scholarly journals, the peer review process has been a longstanding bastion of academic sanctity. 

The University of Virginia recently stripped Fred D. Smith of his doctorate in education.  Last year, iThenticate was utilized by a reporter from the Journal News to break a story on Smith, the ex-Pocantico Hills superintendent who plagiarized much of his UVA dissertation.

Smith’s plagiarism saga began in November 2009, when he suddenly resigned as the Pocantico Hills superintendent after it was discovered that he had copied newsletters from a Massachusetts elementary school principal. The Journal News then partnered with iThenticate to discover that large portions of Smith’s dissertation from the University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education were also plagiarized.  From the Journal News: “…iThenticate, found numerous passages that matched academic publications predating his. The most notable similarities were with a paper by Jerri Ann Whitehurst Hall, now a high school principal in Rutland, Georgia.”

The New York Times recently published a piece that discussed today’s younger generation and their views on plagiarism.  The article analyzes several perspectives on plagiarism, coming from college students to teachers to parents. 

Doctors have always been held in high regard in our society, for good reasons. Medical doctors are considered some of the most qualified professionals in any field or industry.  Doctors undergo years, sometimes even a decade, of study, training and practice before they are fully qualified.  Residency is often considered the most important part of a doctor’s training, providing a time to practice medicine while developing a specialization.

Plagiarism detection software took center stage as Nature recently published a revealing article that details how science publishers are equipping themselves to fight a growing trend in plagiarism within the research community.