The Perils of Plagiarism

As an editor, I am finding more and more instances of plagiarism—and it’s not among the students I teach at a local community college. Instead, the flagrant instances are among professionals in the fields of nursing and medicine—the areas in which I edit most frequently. I’m not sure if it is necessarily purposeful plagiarism or rather simple ignorance of what constitutes plagiarism.

The plagiarism I see seems to stem, in large part, from the use of information found on the Internet. Apparently, some writers believe that what’s on the Internet is up for grabs—as though the entire Internet is public domain, which it is not. I find I waste an incredible amount of time as an editor “googling” sentences to see where they pop up on the Internet and then either rewriting or chastising the author about flagrant “lifting” of copy from Web sites or others’ articles. Perhaps what is needed is a reminder to writers of what they should have learned in high school English class. Below are two articles available “free” on the Internet (but, note, their status as “free” does not mean they are in the public domain) that discuss plagiarism, particularly as it relates to medical/scientific writing.

In the article “Plagiarism and Medical Writing,” Vasumathi Sriganesh and Parvati Iyer address the particular issues plaguing medical writers and offer simple advice for avoiding this serious offense. They also explain “public domain” and differentiate it from what is simply “free” on the Web.¹

Lisa Cicutto writes in Chest about the problem of self-plagiarism, which seems to be a particular problem for medical and science writers. She explains the three major areas that gives writers trouble: “(1) the publication of one article that overlaps substantially with another article published elsewhere, typically without acknowledgment; (2) the partitioning of a large study, which could have been reported in a single article into smaller published articles/studies; this practice is also known as salami science or salami slicing; and (3) the potential for copyright infringement of previously published material that can occur with duplicate or redundant publications.”² Cicutto also offers succinct steps to help authors avoid self-plagiarism, in particular.

References

1. Cicutta L. Plagiarism.^* Avoiding the Peril in Scientific Writing. Chest. 2008;133(2):579-581. doi: 10.1378/chest.07-2326. http://www.chestjournal.org/content/133/2/579.full. Accessed March 17, 2009.

2. Sriganesh V, Iyer P. Plagiarism and medical writing. Ind J Radiol Imag. 2007;17(3):147-147. ISSN 0971-3026. http://www.ijri.org/article.asp?issn=0971-3026;year=2007;volume=17;issue=3;spage=146;epage=147;aulast=Sriganesh. Accessed March 17, 2009.

 

Enough With The Passwords!

I’m ready for a futuristic scannable computer chip to be embedded in my iris or whatever part of my eye is stationary and solid. In fact, I will accept a chip sewn into the center of my forehead, creating a speed-bump effect like that a Klingon on Star Trek.  I want that chip to be readable by every bank account, Web site, e-mail program, and ATM card I have. I can no longer remember hundreds of passwords, some of which must be changed to a never-before-used combination of letters, numbers, and symbols, capped and lowercased, every 45 days—none of which is supposed to be identical to other passwords and cannot be the names of the cat, dog, or neighbor’s children.

 

I would like to purchase a copy of an article from an online publication without having to log onto the site. I’d like to make a used book purchase from Amazon without logging in. I’d like to search for the answer to why my Blackberry won’t accept e-mails without having to create an account with the support site.  And I’d like to be able to view the pix-flix friends and families have sent to my Blackberry  (which, incidentally, doesn’t accept pictures). Yes, I know, I could view them on my service provider’s Web site—if I could remember my logon and password, the phone number I registered with the site, and the answers to my three secret questions.

 

 

 

 

 

Is Freelance Really Another 9-to-5 Job?

I am not alone, I’m sure, among freelance writers, designers, artists, and other type of business owners to wonder why I continue to work for myself rather than go back to the 9-to-5 job working for someone else.

The conversation with myself happens when there are too many looming deadlines: a 750-page clinical article due in 2 days, a 20-page clinical editing job due in 3 hours in which I have to “dummy” down the copy so that a healthcare worker who reads at a 6th grade level can understand it (ee gads, that’s a scary thought, right?), a press release due in 1 day, and a final proofreading of a 48-page journal due in 1 day. It happens when I am asked for a 1-day turnaround on a job I promised to complete but that came in 2 days late and is now on a crash course with another deadline.

An editor friend and I have a running joke about a copyeditor we once knew whose “real job” was decorating cakes. Her copyediting skills reflected this fact. But we often say, “Wouldn’t life be easier if we had to lop off a burnt cake crust rather than cut 500 words down to 250? Wouldn’t it be easier to embellish with icing than stretch a scant 100 words into a full-page journal article? Would anyone question our use of the comma or semicolon? Would we have to provide a treatise on why hyphens are used in double-word adjectives that precede the noun but not when they follow the noun?

The desire to freelance is based on the need to be one’s own boss, to call the shots, to nap in the middle of the day, to watch a child’s school play at 11 am, to be flexible. But how flexible can a freelance really be? Of course, we can turn down a job that requires a fast turnaround. But how many times can we turn down a client and expect to hear from the client again when we’re good and ready for more work?

Clients need their work completed when they need it, not when I, as a freelance, feel moved to do it. How does my freelance status really differ from that of full-time employees? Whether I do the work at 6 am or at 8 pm, I still have to do the work. And I find that my hours are far longer as a freelance than they were when I worked full-time. And I realize there’s no such thing as a 9-to-5 job these days. Everyone I know works far more than the 40-hour work week.

But as a freelance, I find my work becoming ME, or ME becoming my WORK, far more than occurred when I worked for someone else. Is the need to work freelance tied to a type-A personality? Are we compelled to say yes to every job offer we get and to perfect that job no matter how many hours of sleep we lose? I think so.