A Redefinition of Plagiarism?
From http://terrydeacon.berkeley.edu
Berkeley’s research misconduct policy is modeled on federal regulations which define research misconduct to include plagiarism — “the appropriation of another person’s ideas, processes, results, or words without giving appropriate credit.” According to regulation, in order to constitute research misconduct, plagiarism must be a “significant departure from accepted practices of the relevant research community” and must be “committed intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly.”2
reck·less
/ˈrekləs/
Adjective
(of a person or their actions) Without thinking or caring about the consequences of an action: “reckless driving”.
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From http://terrydeacon.berkeley.edu
Lissack and his institute, have, however, proposed a new definition of plagiarism, which they call “plagiarism by negligence.” They claim that plagiarism extends beyond the conventional definition to include a failure to cite any preceding works that make use of similar concepts, explore similar ideas, or recapitulate similar, even if unoriginal, arguments. They ask rhetorically, does “an academic have an affirmative obligation to cite or make reference to those who preceded him or her in working on similar ideas?” They assert that ignorance of similar preceding work does not excuse lack of citation, for in the age of Google access to preceding work is easy and thus ignorance of such work represents negligence—the lack of citation constitutes “plagiarism by negligence.” “There is no excuse,” declares Lissack in a recent paper, “to even tolerate the idea that in the Internet Age it is acceptable … to fail to see what others have written before publishing his own work. . . Plagiarism by negligence is still plagiarism.” [emphasis added]. 19
To adopt this novel standard for defining plagiarism would create some “interesting” situations. “
neg·li·gent
/ˈnegləjənt/
Adjective
Failing to take proper care in doing something: “directors have been negligent in the performance of their duties”.
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Synonyms
careless – neglectful – remiss – inadvertent – heedless
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