The third time's the charm at the Michigan Daily, a student newspaper. A letter from its editor:
Several articles that have recently appeared in these pages have been found to contain plagiarism...They are:
- "Didn't get your 'Kicks?' indie group struggles with coherent live act" (11/15/06): This piece contained language taken from The Harvard Crimson and chartattack.com.
- "Exploring darker territory" (01/30/07): This entire article was taken from harmoniumusic.com.
- "Ex-Hood member creates, fills 'Need' " (02/07/07): This article contained several passages taken from opuszine.com.
- "From the Daily: More pills, fewer abortions" (09/14/06): This unsigned editorial to which [the writer] contributed contained a phrase taken from The Guttmacher Report on Public Policy.
The Daily does not tolerate plagiarism, and the writer was fired when it came to light earlier this week.
However, this marks the third time since 2004 that plagiarism has been discovered in the Daily. While the act is not entirely preventable, Daily editors share some of the blame.
The previous two times, we promised a comprehensive effort to prevent its reoccurrence. The editors carried out the steps they promised at the time, but some of the initiatives have not been continued with their original rigor.
We have formed a committee to study how to guard against plagiarism more effectively in the long term. I will keep readers updated on its progress on my blog at michigandaily.com/editorspage. Readers can also expect a full report in the print edition before the end of the semester.
The Daily is committed to providing information to the University community with the highest journalistic integrity, and we apologize for this regrettable lapse.
Karl Stampfl
Editor in Chief
