How Plagiarism Happens - The Atlantic

 Ta-Nehisi Coates

When Fareed Zakaria was caught plagiarizing Jill Lepore, he offered the same defense that almost every person caught plagiarizing offers:

The mistake, he said, occurred when he confused the notes he had taken about Ms. Lepore's article -- he said he often writes his research in longhand -- with notes taken from ''Gunfight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America,'' by Adam Winkler (W.W. Norton, 2011), a copy of which was on his desk at his CNN office.

This is a very old explanation for plagiarism, and one I have never found credible. When reputation rehab remains a possibility, no plagiarist ever says, "I stole it and got caught." There's always an unintentional mix-up. No one ever commits the actual sin of theft.

As Stephen Brill points out, this goes beyond Zakaria's treatment by his editors to how his plagiarism was actually covered. Here's Brill on the Times' coverage:

Zakaria's chief offense was in using as his own Lepore's description and analysis of what the Winkler book says. Even if the book was "on his desk," did he read it? Does he actually have any notes from his having read the book? Or did he confuse what the source of his notes was because he misremembered reading the book? And how could the notes from Lepore's New Yorker piece have been mistaken for notes taken from the Winkler book, if the notes refer to the book just the way Lepore does?

Why would he think notes taken from a book would describe the book and its author? Did the Times reporter ask to see those notes, not just to understand what happened but also to verify that they exist? Did the Times reporter ask to interview Zakaria's editor or anyone else on the Time or CNN staffs? Did the reporter ask to interview the Time and CNN "investigators"? Someone should.

These may seem like tough questions, but imagine the mainstream press's tough questions if a politician tried this kind of simple, trust-me explanation. Indeed, it's easy to imagine critics of the mainstream media charging that the "lesson" Zakaria says he learned is not too far afield from Newt Gingrich's explanation, mocked appropriately by the press, that he cheated on his wife because of all the pressures he was under trying to do good for his country.

Yes to all of this. I think what bugs about this is the basic power discrepancy. If a student in a journalism school plagiarized Jill Lepore, it is highly likely that student would be tossed from the program. What you see is something rather common in American life, wherein power allows for seemingly iron rules to turn to rubber.

More on Zakaria's past transgressions over at Goldblog.

At Islamic varsity, you must be a plagiarist to catch one - The Express Tribune

Peer Muhammad

A professor at IIUI, who was found to have plagiarised, has been made the head of a committee that examines plagiarism cases.

Dr Muhammad Sher, a professor of computer science at the International Islamic University Islamabad, was recently promoted to be the dean of Faculty of Basic and Applied Sciences. He was also given the additional charge as the head of the university’s plagiarism committee.

The committee was previously headed by Dr Irfan Ahmed, who was removed from the post “suddenly” and replaced with Dr Sher, an official at IIUI said.

Last year, Dr Sher was caught for plagiarism while compiling a book, following which he tendered a public apology for his actions. The professor, who is also the president of the university’s Academic Staff Association, said he was recently promoted as a dean of science faculty, which makes him the committee’s head by default. He added that the notification can be revised in future and the responsibility could be assigned to someone else.

HEC Executive Director Dr Sohail Naqvi, when contacted, said he was not aware of the appointment. However, he said it was “unfair to appoint a person with a record of plagiarism as the head of a committee that aims to ensure fairness in academic practices.”

He acknowledged the fact that a number of issues were cropping up at IIUI due to absence of permanent administrative heads at the varsity.

“We have formed a committee for the appointment of a president and rector at IIUI and a few recommendations have been forwarded to the concerned authorities,” he added.

Dr Riaz Qureshi, who helped frame the HEC’s anti-plagiarism policy, also termed Dr Sher’s appointment as “unfair”.

“How is it fair to appoint a person with a plagiarism record as the head of a committee that aims to control the same practice?” he said.

He said that he had requested all universities to include a representative of HEC in their anti-plagiarism committees to ensure transparency.

The committee’s secretary, Dr Shagufta Haroon said that she did not have any idea such development.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 6^th, 2012.