Fake Wikipedia Quote of Composer Maurice Jarre Makes Way Into Newspapers Worldwide

When you are explaining how to USE and NOT USE Wikipedia to classes this is a great example. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30699302/wid/11915829?GT1=40006

Newspapers across the planet published a quote that originated on Wikipedia, and attributed it to the Oscar winning composer Marcus Jarre. The quote was placed in his Obituary and newspapers in America, Great Britain, India, Australia, and numerous blogs published it. The pithy quote read:

One could say my life has been one long soundtrack. Music was my life, music brought me to life, and music is how I will be remembered long after I leave this life. When I die there will be a final Waltz playing in my head, that only I can hear.

The quote was created by 22 year old Sociology student Shane Fitzgerald. Shortly after Jarre's death, he published the quote on Wikipedia, and reporters picked up the quote, published it, and others copied their lead.

Administrators at Wikipedia removed the quote 3 times because of lack of attrbution, sometimes within minutes, sometimes within hours. But not quickly enough to prevent journalists from copying & pasting the quote.

In one of Fitzgerald's classes, they were studying how fast information traveled around the globe and how media outlets are increasingly relying on Internet sources to produce content for news. It's refreshing to see that professional journalists need to ask the question "Source?" in addition to our students...

Ethical question

What would you do if you suspected that a student might turn in a piece of work that was plagiarized?

Let's say you were working with that student on a research paper. The student wanted the first draft to be proofread, and after reading it, you noted that most of the paper was taken word for word from the sources you had accessed earlier.

You advise the student that they need to put information in their own words, and to use proper citation when needed. You even discuss plagiarism and how the paper in its rough draft would be considered to be plagiarized if turned it as it was.

Let's say that you know that student pretty well and suspect that they will not take the time to make the appropriate changes.

What would you do? Would you hope for the best? Would you notify their instructor? Would you notify the Academic Dean? How far would you go?

Plagiarism among professors

Check out the article from The Chronicle of Higher Education---a Harvard prof. got caught by a journal!!!

Journal Retracts Harvard Professor's Paper Flagged by Copycat Search Tool

posted by our illustrious leader ...

What is Plagiarism?

It's in the My Rasmussen College blog created by Mark Krupinski. Nice Job, Emily!

Cultural Component of Plagiarism

I just read an article that emphasized the different international perceptions of plagiarism. There are international societies that believe information is shared and therefore owned by the whole society. 85% of the "scholastic dishonesty" cases at the U of M were from non-native speakers of English! I think that being knowledgeable about this cultural issue can only help us as librarians to be more aware of the needs of our international students.

Click here to read the C & RL article.

An older article on the same topic.