Plagiarism is one of the most egregious crimes in the academe. Many academics have been found guilty of it, while there are also quite a lot who have fell victim to it.
One of those found guilty of plagiarism was my childhood hero, the historian Stephen Ambrose, author of Band of Brothers which later became an HBO miniseries (2001) produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg.
Ambrose played an important role in popularizing military history through his books like Citizen Soldiers. He was one of the impetus in the opening of the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana. Despite all the accolades, he received a lot of flak from academic historians for purportedly plagiarizing some parts of his books.
The accusations were somehow valid. Given the inaccuracies of his work – like how he inveterately relied on oral history without question of his sources’ veracity – and the questionable nature of his interviews with US President Eisenhower, many academic historians questioned the integrity of his works.
Even with the many valid accusations, Ambrose’ image, however, superseded the criticisms of plagiarism against him. Many of his defenders said that anyway, his books are not meant to be read as authoritative military history accounts of World War II but more on “pure oral histories” meant somehow give a human touch to the war.
His works also helped uplift the morale of the American military, given how he was in awe (by his own admission), and was unquestionably “partial” to the American soldiers.
At the end of the day, those who questioned Ambrose were mostly academic historians; those who spoke in his defense had accepted the fact that his style of writing (more on popular history), and reliance on oral history are to be blamed.
For me, plagiarism has always been a serious offense. I do not understand why people resort to doing it; perhaps out of indolence, or maybe they did it innocuously?
I am aware I have had students who simply plagiarized their research papers, believing they were doing “research”. And so I have reiterated to them on the need to always properly cite references or sources, and give credit to where it is due.
Sometimes we can forgive especially undergraduates for plagiarizing their work if they admit to their mistake, and redo their research. It’s just more challenging if it’s a professional (not a student) plagiarizing his work. It’s even worse if the professional is someone you know.
I faced this dilemma a few years back when I read in a local newspaper online about an all-too familiar historical figure that I was studying for years, and whom I wrote about for my dissertation. I took a few minutes of my time to read what the purported writer (who I personally knew) had to report about the historical figure.
There was nothing wrong or uncanny with the lead paragraph, but when I continued reading the second paragraph until the end, everything, the words, the prose just seemed unbelievably too familiar. I had to recheck what I had written before about the same topic, and lo and behold, most of the paragraphs were actually mine — published under someone else’s name.
I counted 14 paragraphs, 12 of which were completely mine; while the lead paragraph and the conclusion belonged to the plagiarist.
My initial reaction was disbelief. How can a professional do something like this? How can someone who I knew personally do something like this to me? Did he ever think no one will notice? Like some of my students, was this professional unaware with the severity of his offense?
The first thing I did was to contact the editorial board of the newspaper, and show them the similarities between the plagiarist’s piece, and my research. Fortunately, the editor-in-chief replied right away, and informed me they will deal with the case soonest.
After a short while, the EIC informed me they were able to reach out to the plagiarist, and advised him to write a letter of apology to me. They also assured me they will reprint the article with an Editor’s Note that their columnist failed to attribute his informations to me as the original writer.
After a few weeks, I received a letter of apology from the plagiarist wherein he said he had never read my research paper — something that I doubt to this day, given how 12 out of the 14 paragraphs published were simply lifted from my work.
Nonetheless, I accepted the plagiarist’s apology, and moved on, not dwelling on it too much. The more important thing for me was reprinting the article, and indicating that it was plagiarized from my original research.
That experience on plagiarism was an eye-opener, something difficult for me to accept at the outset. I was in total disbelief that someone you know could unabashedly copy your research word-for-word, and claim it as his own effort. This simply goes to show how egregious plagiarism is – and how it can affect other people, especially those who are at the receiving end of it.
Have I forgiven the plagiarist? Yes, I have. But obviously, I have not forgotten the incident.
As Jose Rizal wrote to Marcelo del Pilar: “I have this defect, I forgive but I forget with difficulty…”
Well, I, too, have the same defect: I can easily forgive but it seems difficult to forget the affront done to me.
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