Thursday, December 06, 2007

Mehta/Ohio U. trial set for next month

The Athens News has text:

"Ohio University put its own reputation on the line when it went public with its response to the plagiarism allegations. But what else could it do?" asked Ohio Assistant Attorney General Randall W. Knutti in OU's pre-trial statement. "The university had to step up and address the horrible possibility that its students had plagiarized, and worse yet, that there could be graduates out there in the engineering workforce with tainted degrees."

IPBiz compares this to how SIU handled the Poshard matter. Why doesn't some southern Illinois newspaper write:

Southern Illinois University had to step up and address the horrible possibility that its current president had plagiarized, and worse yet, that there could be graduates out there in the academic workforce with tainted degrees from SIU.

Instead, SIU came up with the "challenged" concept of "unintentional plagiarism." Discussing the Merrill plagiarism matter, Daryl Moen and co-authors described this in the following way:

Warhover’s decision, and Merrill’s reaction to it, have set off a viral wave of commentary within the journalism school and throughout the news industry. Two issues are at stake: Whether the use of uncredited quotes is plagiarism, and whether the punishment -- public disclosure and cancellation of the column -- fit the transgression, a transgression Merrill called “unintentional plagiarism.”

(...)

In forums since, including Poynter Online and the Missourian, professional ethicists, practicing journalists, former students and colleagues of Merrill, and Missouri faculty members have been divided over both the allegation of plagiarism and the punishment exacted.

We stand firm on the former: the use of material gathered by another writer, without crediting that writer, is plagiarism.

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