Chris, your favorite factoid about 'Institutional plagiarism' is a problem that I have been thinking about lately and have been meaning to write about. In recent years I've come across a few examples of identical or near identical policies across institutions (e.g, IRB policies, institutional mission statements, cheating policies-- how ironic!). Some defend the practice by arguing that certain policy statements such as internal definitions of, for example, affirmative action issues, are analogous to 'boyler plate language' (i.e., identical language that is generated for multiple uses, such as in consent forms) and that may be OK for certain internal documents having to do with government regulations, etc. One question that arises is whether such material, even if it is designed for external consumption, should be held at the same high standards as other scholarly writing. That is, should written material that is used exclusively for administrative purposes be held to the standards as scholarly material? I suppose it all depends on the assumptions of those who are reading these documents. In my case, when I read, for example, an item on my institution's official stationary, I assume that it was generated by someone within my institution and not by misappropriated from another source. I imagine that most others operate under the same assumptions.
Miguel -----Original Message----- From: Christopher D. Green [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, January 08, 2007 6:03 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: [tips] Plagiarism: Everybody Into the Pool - New York Times Review of recent books on plagiarism. My favorite factoid is: "The section of the University of Oregon handbook that deals with plagiarism, for example, was copied from the Stanford handbook." http://tinyurl.com/y88wnc or http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/07/education/edlife/07books.html?_r=1&ref=edu cation&oref=slogin -- Christopher D. Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 Canada 416-736-5115 ex. 66164 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.yorku.ca/christo "All warfare is based on deception." Sun-tzu, The Art of War, I.18 ============================= --- To make changes to your subscription go to: http://acsun.frostburg.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=tips&text_mode=0&lang=engl ish --- To make changes to your subscription go to: http://acsun.frostburg.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=tips&text_mode=0&lang=english
