Long Time Academic, Regular Op-Ed Writer, Claims He Had No Idea He Was Supposed To Attribute Text He Plagiarized
from the um,-wow dept
This one is just bizarre. Romenesko points us to the news that the director of the University of Utah’s Middle East Center, Dr. Bahman Baktiari, who regularly writes op-ed pieces for various newspapers, has been accused of plagiarism. His defense? He claims he had no idea he was supposed to attribute the content he copied. Plagiarism cases turn up here and there, but I think this may be the first time I’ve seen someone — especially from an academic setting — claim that they didn’t even realize they were supposed to make it clear they did not write the content. And, it’s not even like he picked obscure publications to copy. What brought this all to light was an op-ed he wrote for the Salt Lake City Tribune, which used at least four unattributed sources, including both the NY Times and the Economist. I guess that means if you’re a student in one of his classes, you’re now off the hook to copy at will without attribution…
Filed Under: attribution, bahman baktiari, credit, plagiarism
Comments on “Long Time Academic, Regular Op-Ed Writer, Claims He Had No Idea He Was Supposed To Attribute Text He Plagiarized”
Argumentum ad Stupidus?
Re: Re:
In academia, people have thousands of pages of articles, book chapters and books. I am sure one can find two or three pages of passages from these pages that have a footnote missing, or a paragraph that is not quoted.
I am not saying that plagerism is not an important topic, but political commentaries are not similar to scholarly articles, research data, grant proposals, and sponsored research. A simple reprimand should do the job here. I would be more concerned if he plagiarized a major grant proposal, or research of someone else.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-02/11/content_11980483.htm
My thoughts on this issue
This one is just bizarre. Romenesko points us to the news that the director of the University of Utah’s Middle East Center, Dr. Bahman Baktiari, who regularly writes op-ed pieces for various newspapers, has been accused of plagiarism. His defense? He claims he had no idea he was supposed to attribute the content he copied. Plagiarism cases turn up here and there, but I think this may be the first time I’ve seen someone — especially from an academic setting — claim that they didn’t even realize they were supposed to make it clear they did not write the content. And, it’s not even like he picked obscure publications to copy. What brought this all to light was an op-ed he wrote for the Salt Lake City Tribune, which used at least four unattributed sources, including both the NY Times and the Economist. I guess that means if you’re a student in one of his classes, you’re now off the hook to copy at will without attribution…
Re: My thoughts on this issue
OMG
PLay jar///&&&^&^
pledgearina&&**&%^%
u copied without eatribu…. atrition^^&*(*(*^ saying who from.
Bethca thought we wudnt knotice.
Re: My thoughts on this issue
My thoughts on this issue
Anonymous Coward, Feb 16th, 2011 @ 4:20pm
This one is just bizarre. Romenesko points us to the news that the director of the University of Utah’s Middle East Center, Dr. Bahman Baktiari, who regularly writes op-ed pieces for various newspapers, has been accused of plagiarism. His defense? He claims he had no idea he was supposed to attribute the content he copied. Plagiarism cases turn up here and there, but I think this may be the first time I’ve seen someone — especially from an academic setting — claim that they didn’t even realize they were supposed to make it clear they did not write the content. And, it’s not even like he picked obscure publications to copy. What brought this all to light was an op-ed he wrote for the Salt Lake City Tribune, which used at least four unattributed sources, including both the NY Times and the Economist. I guess that means if you’re a student in one of his classes, you’re now off the hook to copy at will without attribution…
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I would love to see a student come forward with a syllabus or class notes showing that plagiarism and citing sources was covered in class.
Although it probably can’t be posted due to copyright restrictions.
Feedback please
I am writing a book about the current state of the world, and where it is heading. Here is what I have written so far:
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”
I would appreciate any feedback from the enlightened readers/commenters of TD.
Re: Feedback please
I would change it to fit a better audience (those who only fake reading while on the net).
Troll edition
“It was the best time and worst, it was the day of knowing stuff and being stupid. it was bright out and it was dark, it was the spring of (click here for porn), it was the winter of sad we had everything, before us nothing after we. US all going direct to the club.
Was so far like the now, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on IP addresses being received, for or for the good of the children to prevent the evil that is only in comparison to the Masnic.”
now make looooooooooootttssssss of t-shirts.
Sorry, you will need to work on it a bit as I’m not good at this trolling thing so you will need to figure out how to add in some irrelevant arguments and insults the the quote.
Look at the total history and contributions of Dr. Baktiari to the U of U Middle East Center as I have. I believe he’s done more for the U Middle East Center than anyone I’ve seen the past 10 years.
Re: Re:
Not sure which way you’re going with that. Is that a defense of him? “It’s okay because he’s done lots of stuff”?
Or are you recommending that someone needs to have a look at all his work over the last 10 years, as since he claims he didn’t know he was supposed to attribute there is a very high chance the rest of his work [or at least some of it] is plagiarised too?
If it’s the first one, shame on you. If it’s the second then I concur.
Re: Re: Re:
I have not looked into him but I’m guessing that he is not from the US and where he is from they are not as concerned about attributing. Alternatively he could be like several professors that think much of what they know is common knowledge so it does not need to be explained or attributed.
University of Utah
How embarrassed is the school going to be that this guy is one of their directors? It cannot be long before he is asked to resign.
Let the hypocrite-fest begin
And now let’s see the local anti-copyright crowd come up with a reason to punish him for copying without a permission
Re: Let the hypocrite-fest begin
Doesn’t have anything to do with “copying without permission”. I don’t need permission to cite someone else’s research.
It has to do with dishonestly claiming those words as his own. I’m of the opinion that any “punishment” should be social in nature, and not legal. He’ll lose credibility, and perhaps his suffer repercussions in his career.
Re: Re: Let the hypocrite-fest begin
If you don’t condemn sampling the music, why are you condemning sampling the writing? Do I smell a double standard the size of a giant rotting whale?
Paul's book
This is just a compare & contrast piece. I fail to see how you plan to expand this out beyond a few pages. Eventually you are going to run out of things to say.
I think the beginning is fine, but you’d be better diverging the thread to a new topic, perhaps using an analogy of roads in a yellow wood. You could talk about the thread you didn’t take, then bring up something about how the first road is a wrathful, grape-flavored white whale.
Good luck with your story!
As Wilson Mizner says ...
As Wilson Mizner says, ?When you take stuff from one writer it?s plagiarism, but when you take from many writers it?s called research.?