iThenticate Examines “The Ethics of Self-Plagiarism” in New White Paper
*** begin quote ***
“Self-plagiarism is one of the most potentially dangerous forms of misconduct in scholarly research due to the lack of understanding of the ethics involved in repurposing one’s own work,” said Robert Creutz, general manager of iThenticate, iParadigms’ plagiarism checking software for scholarly publishers and researchers. “This white paper offers a clear definition of self-plagiarism and how authors and publishers can avoid this issue and the costly retractions associated it.”
The pressure to publish, combined with an ever-growing body of scholarly research, makes it difficult for publishers and institutions to investigate and prevent cases of self-plagiarism. The issue continues to be a major source of misconduct and cause for retractions in scholarly research. Most recently, a noted Brazilian entomologist was forced to retract a paper for self-plagiarism.
According to the report, “self-plagiarism is defined as a type of plagiarism in which the writer republishes a work in its entirety or reuses portions of a previously written text while authoring a new work. Writers often maintain that because they are the authors, they can use the work again as they wish; they can’t really plagiarize themselves because they are not taking any words or ideas from someone else. But while the discussion continues on whether self-plagiarism is possible, the ethical issue of self-plagiarism is significant, especially because self-plagiarism can infringe upon a publisher’s copyright. Traditional definitions of plagiarism do not account for self-plagiarism, so writers may be unaware of the ethics and laws involved in reusing or repurposing texts.”
*** end quote ***
This definitely sounds strange to me.
I guess it’s possible if I sold the rights to something and then reused it.
I guess Paterson writing the Alex Cross series is guilty?
Makes no sense, unless in selling, I promised exclusivity?
Yet another concept I really don’t understand.
Good thing no one wants to buy my writing.
# # # # #
Reinke Faces Life 