Avoiding Plagiarism

Plagiarism happens in student work and in formal publications by leading scholars. For example:

• Andrew Wakefield

  • Dr. Andrew Wakefield published a highly controversial article in a 1995 issue of the Lancet linking the MMR vaccine to autism. 

  • He was found guilty of research dishonesty, had publications related to the scandal retracted by the journals, and barred from practicing medicine by the UK General Medicine Council.

  • Fallout from this article has continued to affect the lives of individuals in the United States & world-wide.​

  • More information about the controversy can be found NCBI, Speaking of Research, & The Washington Post.​

• Dr. Eric Poehlman

  • Dr. Poehlman falsified years' worth of scientific study data, had it published, and was then discovered.

  • He was criminally prosecuted and may no longer receive public grant money to do research. 

  • More information about the controversy can be found The Office of Research Integrity & The NIH.

• Dr. Haruko Obokata

  • Haruko Obokata published two papers in Nature magazine about her work on STAP cells, but subsequently her results were unreproducible. ​

  • The New Yorker reported that, “in a section of her thesis about the characteristics of stem cells, Obokata had cut and pasted long passages from the National Institutes of Health Web site” (Goodyear, 2016).​

  • She was stripped of her doctorate degree.​

  • More information about the controversy can be found The New Yorker , The Wall Street Journal , & The BBC .​

• Brian Wansink

  • Brian Wansink committed academic misconduct in his research and scholarship.​

  • He misreported research data, had problematic statistical techniques, and failed to properly document and preserve research results.​

  • Cornell University removed him from all research and teaching duties, he subsequently resigned his position. ​

  • More information about the controversy can be found in the Washington Times, Outside Online & Vox .​