Ever wonder about plagiarism in the field of academic philosophy? Yeah, me neither – but it does happen, and Retraction Watch interviews a leading light in the fight against just such plagiarism here. I found this bit interesting:
RW: What’s your typical procedure when you spot a potential publishing problem? When, if ever, do you contact the authors?
MD: In my experience, plagiarism in philosophy is typically serial plagiarism. When I happen upon a plagiarized article in my research, I treat it as an index case, and then I examine other articles by the same author of record. Cases can multiply very quickly. Also, colleagues now send me tips about suspected plagiarized articles in my field, and I am happy to assist them with advice or to send retraction requests myself if the evidence is there and they wish to remain uninvolved. Although I prefer not to deal directly with authors of record for plagiarized articles, I often contact the primary victims of plagiarism to let them know that I will be sending a retraction request to a journal or publisher. Their support can be helpful, but it is not necessary: it’s the documentation of evidence that counts.
You do it once and don’t get caught, then why not repeat it? But most folks are brought up to be honest, so most don’t do it.
It’s reassuring to me, actually.
In the preceding Word Of The Day, I quoted another part of the interview which mentions an attempted harassment of him as a whistleblower. It seems that some editors don’t realize that fraud is an unfortunate but inevitable part of the game, and they should be prepared for it, rather than assuming, as a friend of mine is fond of saying, their shit don’t stink. Something anyone in an editorial or even managerial position should probably consider.
