A close friend of mne has been (and still is) a speechwriter for cabinet members in both of the last two U.S. presidential administrations (I shall not say more...), and he tells me that this kind of ghostwriting of books is par for the course, at least in Washington politics. Politician/cabinet member/etc., gets full credit for the authorship, when in fact the book or essays have been written in large part or entirely by his/her aides. I too find this practice - and the fact that it is deemed acceptable - to be exceedingly odd.
....Scott ________________________________________ From: Helweg-Larsen, Marie [helw...@dickinson.edu] Sent: Tuesday, November 02, 2010 4:07 AM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: RE: [tips] Why isn't this plagiarism? With respect to students and ghost writing it is pretty simple: we require the work to be the student's work. So if it is not the student's own work (whether the additional help was paid for, coerced, received in exchange for sexual services or something else) it would violate the academic expectations (unless of course such collaboration was permitted). I don't know anything about the Sherwin case (well clearly no one does since it is secret) but lots of people are authors on papers they did not actually write. Perhaps they edited the paper, collected the data, analyzed the data, did the literature, etc. In fact, in the biological sciences it is common for the lab director to be an author on every paper produced by his/her lab even if he/she did nothing specifically to create the paper or research. I don't know much about ghost writing popular books. Doesn't it usually say "famous person's name" WITH "ghost writer" on the cover? But even without a ghost writer lots and lots of people edit the words in a book before it is published. They are usually thanked in the acknowledgements but presumable have not "earned" co-authorship status. So clearly it is a judgment call when someone has contributed so much to the writing that they should be acknowledged on the cover as opposed to thanked in the acknowledgments. Marie **************************************************** Marie Helweg-Larsen, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Psychology Danish Institute for Study Abroad (DIS), +45 2065 1360 Dickinson College (on leave 2010/2011) http://users.dickinson.edu/~helwegm/index.html **************************************************** -----Original Message----- From: sbl...@ubishops.ca [mailto:sbl...@ubishops.ca] Sent: Tuesday, November 02, 2010 0:51 To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: [tips] Why isn't this plagiarism? John F. Kennedy received acclaim, respect, and a Pulitzer Prize (1957) for writing _Profiles in Courage_ (1956). His achievement may well have contributed to his successful election to the US Presidency. It now turns out, according to the obituary of Ted Sorensen just published in the New York Times, that the book was largely written by Sorensen, who was paid for his efforts. Why is this not plagiarism? Well, possibly because the subterfuge was carried out with the permission of the true author. Ghost writing is an accepted practice and commonplace. If so, then Barbara Sherwin, the McGill psychology professor who was caught claiming credit for a published review of estrogen treatments which was really ghost-written for her and paid for by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, is not guilty of scientific misconduct. We don't know whether McGill thinks so, because McGill's internal investigation of the matter remains confidential (see http://mcgilldaily.com/articles/36530 ; scroll down). If so, then a student who buys a term paper can similarly claim it's ok because the true author agreed (after payment was received, of course). Should we be warning our students that they'd better not plagiarize, because if they do, they could one day become President of the United States? Stephen -------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada e-mail: sblack at ubishops.ca --------------------------------------------- --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: helw...@dickinson.edu. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13234.b0e864a6eccfc779c8119f5a4468797f&n=T&l=tips&o=6172 or send a blank email to leave-6172-13234.b0e864a6eccfc779c8119f5a44687...@fsulist.frostburg.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: slil...@emory.edu. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13509.d0999cebc8f4ed4eb54d5317367e9b2f&n=T&l=tips&o=6180 or send a blank email to leave-6180-13509.d0999cebc8f4ed4eb54d5317367e9...@fsulist.frostburg.edu This e-mail message (including any attachments) is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this message (including any attachments) is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please contact the sender by reply e-mail message and destroy all copies of the original message (including attachments). --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=6181 or send a blank email to leave-6181-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
