Robert et al; The comments below pertain only to scholarly publication and NOT classroom/student plagiarism:
How does one distinguish between plagiarism and contemporaneous development of similar ideas? Leibniz and Newton both developed calculus during the same period and recent evidence suggests that Archimedes developed the idea a few hundred years previously. Who gets credit and who is "plagiarizing"? Similarly, Alfred Wallace sent a manuscript to Darwin containing virtually the identical concept of Chuck's natural selection. What if he had sent the manuscript for publication, would Darwin have a case for plagiarism even though the two had never met? How do we know that so called plagiarists are not simply independently arriving at the same concept? David Bryant Ipswich, MA On Oct 4, 2006, at 6:33 AM, Robert K. Peet wrote: > The Ecological Society of America's Code of Ethics > (http://www.esa.org/aboutesa/governance/codeofethics.php) > clearly addresses plagerism > > "Ecologists will not plagiarize in verbal or written communication, > but > will give full and proper credit to the works and ideas of others, and > make every effort to avoid misrepresentation. > > ... > > "When using ideas or results of others in manuscripts submitted for > publication, researchers will give full attribution of sources. If the > ideas or results have not been published, they may not be used without > permission of the original researcher. Illustrations or tables from > other > publications or manuscripts may be used only with permission of the > copyright owner." > > > During the period I served as Editor in Chief for _Ecology_ and > _Ecological Monographs_ the issue of plagiarism would come up from > time to > time. I worked with the ESA Professional Ethics Committee (at that > time > chaired by Kerry Woods) to develop a policy and adjudication > procedure. > That policy, reproduced below, is available on the ESA publications > website (http://esapubs.org/esapubs/conditions.htm#Eth). > > > "Adherence to the ESA Code of Ethics" > > "Authors should adhere to the ESA Code of Ethics; it deals with > authorship, plagiarism, fraud, unauthorized use of data, copyrights, > errors, confidentiality, intellectual property, attribution, > willful delay > of publication, and conflicts of interest, as well as other matters > that > are not specific to the publication process. The following general > principles will be adhered to in dealing with situations where an > author's > ethics are in question. > > "--- Manuscripts submitted to ESA journals are confidential. We will > not normally reveal whether an author has submitted a manuscript to > us or > what a particular manuscript might contain, unless the authors ask > that we > do so. To do otherwise would be to compromise the ability of an > author to > obtain proper credit for his or her discoveries. > > "--- In the event that a private individual reports to us concerns > about the ethics of a particular author, we will take note of such > concerns and watch for any manuscript by that author that might > represent > questionable ethical practices. > > "--- If ESA has reason to doubt the ethical practices of an author > of a > manuscript, either because of concern raised by an editor, or > because of > information obtained from some other source, the Editor-in-Chief will > process the manuscript in accordance with normal practice, but will > simultaneously refer the matter to the ESA Professional Ethics > Committee > for review. The Committee will conduct whatever investigation it feels > appropriate, taking care not to inadvertently damage the reputation > of any > of the parties concerned. The Editor-in-Chief will received the > advice of > the Committee and decide a course of action in consultation with the > Executive Director of the Society." > > > ====================================================================== > Robert K. Peet, Professor & Chair Phone: 919-962-6942 > Curriculum in Ecology, CB#3275 Fax: 919-962-6930 > University of North Carolina Cell: 919-368-4971 > Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3275 USA Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://www.unc.edu/depts/ecology/ > http://www.bio.unc.edu/faculty/peet/ > > ======================================================================
