From the issue dated December 17, 2004
http://chronicle.com/free/v51/i17/17a01201.htm
The Fallout
What happened to six scholars accused of plagiarism
By SCOTT SMALLWOOD
Charles J. Ogletree Jr.
About six paragraphs in All Deliberate Speed, Mr. Ogletree's new book
on the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision, were
copied verbatim from a book by Jack M. Balkin, a Yale law professor.
Mr. Ogletree, a Harvard University law professor, said the section was
inserted by one research assistant and was supposed to be reviewed and
rewritten by another assistant. Instead, quotation marks were dropped,
and, under pressure to meet a publishing deadline, the material was
edited as though it had been written by Mr. Ogletree.
After the copying was discovered this fall, Elena Kagan, the Harvard
Law School dean, asked Derek Bok, a former Harvard president, and
Robert Clark, a former dean of the law school, to investigate the
allegation. They found that the borrowing was "a serious scholarly
transgression." University officials have not disclosed what action
they have taken, but Mr. Ogletree has said he has been disciplined. In
a written statement, he apologized, calling it a "serious mistake" and
saying that he had "delegated too much responsibility to others during
the final editing process."
***
Roger Shepherd
Earlier this fall, Mr. Shepherd, a longtime professor at New School
University's Parsons School of Design, admitted to copying portions of
another scholar's work in his 2002 book, Structures of Our Time: 31
Buildings That Changed Modern Life. Most of the section on the
Equitable Savings and Loan building in Portland, Ore., is taken nearly
verbatim from a book written by Meredith L. Clausen, an
architectural-history professor at the University of Washington. She is
not acknowledged in any way in Mr. Shepherd's book. Editors at another
scholarly press and his own dean also found additional examples of
unattributed copying in the book.
When confronted, Mr. Shepherd admitted the plagiarism to The Chronicle
and called it "probably the worst thing I've ever done." He said he
took responsibility, but also suggested the problems were caused by a
research assistant who had inserted the material and that he had
intended to rewrite it. Mr. Shepherd then resigned, according to New
School University. But a month later, he sued the university claiming
that he had not resigned but instead had been unfairly fired. He is
demanding his job back. Mr. Shepherd's lawyer acknowledges the
plagiarism but says the penalty is "rather harsh."
***
Laurence H. Tribe
Following a tip from a law professor earlier this year, The Weekly
Standard examined Laurence H. Tribe's 1985 book God Save This Honorable
Court and found several passages that mirror ones in a 1974 book by
another legal scholar. The magazine also found one 19-word sentence
that appeared in both books.
Mr. Tribe, a law professor at Harvard University, did not use footnotes
in the book because it was designed for a popular audience, but he did
mention the 1974 book, by Henry J. Abraham, in the appendix.
After the magazine story was published, Mr. Tribe apologized, saying
that he had not properly attributed some of the material in the book
and that he took "full responsibility for that failure." University
officials say they are still reviewing the matter.
***
Brian VanDeMark
As an associate professor of history at the U.S. Naval Academy, Mr.
VanDeMark wrote Pandora's Keepers: Nine Men and the Atomic Bomb, which
was published in 2003. But when newspapers sent the book to scholars
for reviews, several authors discovered their own words. Eventually,
historians identified dozens of passages from at least five other
authors that appear without proper credit in Mr. VanDeMark's book.
In response, the Naval Academy demoted Mr. VanDeMark to assistant
professor, stripped him of his tenure, and cut his salary by $10,000.
But the academy did not fire him, as some of the plagiarized authors
had suggested. Officials said the professor was guilty of "gross
carelessness" but that his actions "did not constitute a deliberate
effort to pass off the works of other authors as his own." For his
part, Mr. VanDeMark said in a written statement at the time that he
accepted responsibility for "my unintentional mistakes."
***
Jayme A. Sokolow
When Mr. Sokolow came up for tenure at Texas Tech University in 1981,
his colleagues discovered that he had borrowed words from other
scholars for numerous pieces, including articles, his dissertation at
New York University, and a book manuscript. He lost his tenure bid, but
was not forced out. Instead, the department allowed him to finish out
the year and quietly resign. And he did go on to publish the book, even
though several people had discovered the plagiarism in it. The matter
was kept quiet until it was described in detail in Thomas Mallon's 1989
book, Stolen Words.
Mr. Sokolow went on to work as a grant officer at the National
Endowment for the Humanities. In 1991 he created the Development
Source, a consulting company that helps businesses and nonprofit
organizations write grant proposals. He has given presentations at
numerous colleges and won several awards from the Association of
Proposal Management Professionals. He still keeps his fingers in
history, though. In 2002 his latest book, The Great Encounter: Native
Peoples and European Settlers in the Americas, 1492-1800, was
published.
***
M. Jamil Hanifi
Mr. Hanifi had been a professor of anthropology at Northern Illinois
University for more than a decade before administrators there learned
that he had plagiarized substantial portions of his dissertation at
Southern Illinois University. The news came out in 1981, at the same
time he was being considered as the department's new chairman. Instead
of getting the top spot, he resigned. Later he sued the university,
contending that he had been improperly forced out. He lost.
More than 20 years later, he describes himself as a retired professor
of anthropology and independent scholar of Afghanistan. According to
his curriculum vitae, he has taught as an adjunct professor at the
University of Michigan at Dearborn and Michigan State University for
the past 14 years.
http://chronicle.com
Section: Special Report
Volume 51, Issue 17, Page A12
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