Sad, just sad…
I have yet to look at this in depth, but apparently Jane Goodall committed plagiarism in her latest book.
What? You do not know who Jane Goodall is? Ok, you may want to go here and here.
You may recall in my previous post that I talked about a couple of examples about this sad trend…
(:-(
Picture credit:http://www.superscholar.org/features/20-most-influential-scientists-alive-today/
Pharmacology – Biology – Neuroscience – Science – Research – Planaria – Writing – Education – Autism
It’s hard to gauge the extent of her plagiarism and if it is just inattention in documenting sources or something more sinister, I certainly hope it’s the former.
I hope so too… Another think that ocurred to me is that maybe she relied on her coauthor for that…. At any rate, I agree with you; I really hope it was mostly oversight
In my opinion, it seems to be an issue of honestly neglecting to cite a source. I think a bit of sloppy scholarship without intent to deprive another scientist due credit is much different than taking credit for someone else’s work or fabricating data. What, if anything, can be done to help people of good will to prevent these embarassing events?
Difficult to say, I replied to pcawdron that one possibilitynismthat she may have relied too much on her coauthor….
Based on her response, it sounds like it was an honest oversight and she (hopefully!) plans to correct it. I hope that’s actually the case. Jane Goodall is an important and visible symbol in very many ways; it would be terrible to discover that this is more widespread in her work.
I hope so to; she certainly does not need any more fame, and I doubt that money is a motivator…
Based on Jane’s conduct over a lifetime I believe she has shown both integrity and valor. I also know even the best of us has lapses. I also do not think she would have been so myopic to think that anything copied without attribution would not be found out, so I am left with either of two options cryptomnesia, (unconscious copying) or a bit of referential sloppiness, either of which I can overlook based on the volume of work it is to put anything of coherent literary quality together.
In some cases these things are perhaps of a more diabolical nature for greed or prestige, but I see no foundation for that here. It is a lose lose proposition for her. In this particular case, I am left with accepting her words of apology as sincere. Should anyone be inclined to copy and paste this because it represents their sentiments as well, feel free!
Right; as I said below, I do not think money or fame were motivators. I am also inclined to think that it was some kind of mistake…
I just came across some follow-up on this which I thought might interest you. Unfortunately, some of the examples given in the article are much harder to dismiss as innocent mistakes. *sigh*
Thanks sedeer, interesting source! This is surely a sad situation regardless of the point of view. Let’s see how it develops…