andrew_gelman_stats andrew_gelman_stats-2014 andrew_gelman_stats-2014-2234 knowledge-graph by maker-knowledge-mining
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Introduction: Last month a history professor sent me a note regarding plagiarism at Arizona State University: Matthew Whitaker, who had received an expedited promotion to full professor and was made Director of a new Center for the Study of Race and Democracy by Provost Elizabeth Capaldi and President Michael Crow, was charged by most of the full professors in the History Faculty with having plagiarized throughout his corpus of work, copying from regular works of scholarship and from web sources. Indeed, in his response, which claimed that the petitioners were racist, Whitaker admitted to plagiarism in his work, defending himself in part by stating that he had not reviewed carefully the research and writing he had hired others to do. . . . What bothered my correspondent was that Whitaker remains an ASU Foundation Professor of History despite all the plaig. According to Whitaker’s webpage , he “is also a highly sought after speaker, having offered commentaries on NPR, PBS, . . . and other medi
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1 Indeed, in his response, which claimed that the petitioners were racist, Whitaker admitted to plagiarism in his work, defending himself in part by stating that he had not reviewed carefully the research and writing he had hired others to do. [sent-2, score-0.443]
2 I’ve learned that the editors at a scholarly press will market a book to undergraduates, despite knowing that if those students were to use the book’s citation standards, they would be drummed out of their classes for violations of academic integrity. [sent-15, score-0.475]
3 That’s a rarity these days, but this book offers it; please see Exhibit A: http://tinyurl. [sent-22, score-0.251]
4 com, and they point to the fact that Whitaker had already been accused of plagiarism in his previous work. [sent-31, score-0.33]
5 Nor were they troubled by the fact that, plagiarism aside, large stretches of this “scholarship for a new generation” is drawn from online encyclopedias, the very sources undergraduates likely to be assigned this book, are told not to rely on. [sent-34, score-0.484]
6 ) The triumph of this plagiarist suggests that the critics of the humanities may be right. [sent-36, score-0.257]
7 How do we continue to argue for humanities at the university level, if a university professor and a university press scrape their material from Wikipedia and from old textbooks? [sent-37, score-0.883]
8 Disturbingly, the plagiarist and his press are in no way arguing for a new model. [sent-39, score-0.256]
9 Those few who defend the book note that the author is “Foundation Professor of History,” as if the honorific means the book must be worthy. [sent-41, score-0.338]
10 In their world, a book on “modern black America” that takes its description of affirmative action debates virtually word for word from “infoplease. [sent-42, score-0.355]
11 com,” is a real contribution to thought, rather than a way for an academic historian and a press to make money. [sent-43, score-0.278]
12 The plagiarist writes about African-American history and is African American, and he has not hesitated to claim that those historians who have shown where he copied word for word from other authors were motivated by race, or, slightly veiled, motivated by envy over his success. [sent-48, score-0.562]
13 It is acceptable for a university to reward an employee who sat down with someone else’s book, typing in passage after passage, changing just enough words to evade anti-plagiarism software and relying on Wikipedia for novel thoughts. [sent-53, score-0.313]
14 It is acceptable for a prominent academic press not to edit carefully a manuscript from an author previously charged with plagiarism, to sell it to undergraduates, and to allow its author to use it as evidence of scholarship. [sent-54, score-0.535]
15 It is acceptable for the major professional organization of historians to proclaim its commitment to the highest standards of academic integrity, while doing nothing to uphold them. [sent-55, score-0.404]
16 There are presses who refuse to publish his work, and principled persons outside the profession who see plagiarism—and the wilful ignoring of plagiarism—as real threats to any claim that the humanities can make a contribution to original knowledge. [sent-57, score-0.348]
17 But as long as there is a press that will publish fraudulent work, university administrators who will countenance fraud, and a professional organization without a backbone, all those who maintain these standards must be re-educated. [sent-58, score-0.508]
18 One natural response might be to say, hey, plagiarism is no big deal. [sent-62, score-0.33]
19 Perhaps history professors are a more crotchety sort, compared to law professors or statistics professors (as I didn’t hear of anyone from the George Mason University statistics department complaining about you-know-who). [sent-69, score-0.467]
20 Second , from a google search on *matthew whitaker syllabus*: To be fair, though, this syllabus is from 2003. [sent-81, score-0.534]
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