Harvard Plagiarism Archive


"[T]he problem of writers . . . passing off the work of others as their own . . . [is] a phenomenon of some significance."
PROFESSOR LAURENCE TRIBE, e-mail to Dean Lawrence Velvel, 9/13/2004

"'I . . . delegated too much responsibility to others . . .,' [Prof. Charles Ogletree] said. 'I was negligent
in not overseeing more carefully the final product that carries my name.' * * * Ogletree told The Crimson that
he had not read the passage of Balkin’s book that appears in his own work. An assistant inserted the material
into a manuscript . . . . But Ogletree said he was closely involved in most of the drafting of the book . . . ."

STEVEN MARKS, "Ogletree Faces Discipline for Copying Text," The Harvard Crimson, 9/13/2004

"'Ronald Klain . . . then only a first-year student at Harvard law . . . spent most of his time with
Tribe working on Tribe's [1985] book God Save This Honorable Court,'" the Legal Times added in 1993.
* * * 'Many of Klain's friends and former colleagues say that he wrote large sections of the book . . . .'"

JOSEPH BOTTUM, "The Big Mahatma," The Weekly Standard, 10/4/2004

"[A]fter several plagiarism scandals broke over distinguished faculty members at Harvard's law school, including
Laurence Tribe,a group of students there set up a blog, Harvard Plagiarism Archive, to follow the University's
handling of the problem. They believe that the University, President Summers, and Dean Elena Kagan
essentially white-washed the scandal and are demanding further action.

PROF. RALPH LUKER, History News Network's "Cliopatria" blog,4/26/2005

“The Tribe and Ogletree matters have catalyzed bitter complaints from Harvard students that the university
employs a double standard. . . . The students have every right to be incensed over this gross double standard.
They in fact ought to raise hell peacefully about it: a constant barrage of letters, emails, statements . . . .”

DEAN LAWRENCE VELVEL, "Velvel on National Affairs" blog, 4/28/2005

"If you want to keep track of this story, I recommend the new Harvard Plagiarism Archive. . . . [I]t's pretty thorough."
TIMOTHY NOAH, Slate's "Chatterbox" blog,9/28/2004

"[Y]ou have done a wonderful service to all by operating the AuthorSkeptics website . . . a fine public service."
DEAN LAWRENCE VELVEL, author of "Velvel on National Affairs," e-mail to AuthorSkeptics, 4/19/2005



Sunday, September 26, 2004

PROFESSOR DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN


(This is the summary of the Goodwin plagiarism story contained in our e-mail of September 16, 2004, lightly edited, and including a few more links which have been suggested since our e-mail.

One link in particular we have added is to an item which now takes on new significance because of the charges of scholarly misconduct recently made against Professor Laurence Tribe. The link is to Professor Tribe's defense of Professor Goodwin in a letter to the editor which appeared in the Harvard Crimson on March 18, 2002. See here: http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=180631. For criticisms of Professor Tribe's letter, see here: http://slate.msn.com/?id=2063299, and here: http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=180706 (to the best of our knowledge, Professor Tribe has never answered these criticisms). The Weekly Standard article on Professor Tribe (which we discuss above, here: http://authorskeptics.blogspot.com/2004/09/professor-laurence-tribe.html) relies heavily (especially in its next-to-last paragraph) on Professor Tribe's letter defending Professor Goodwin. See here:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/004/674eijco.asp.)

The first Harvard plagiarism story broke in January 2002. It involves Doris Kearns Goodwin, a former Harvard history professor and a member of its Board of Overseers until she was forced off the Board after the Harvard Crimson called for her resignation because of the plagiarism story. She also resigned her position on the board that awards the Pulitzer Prizes. The story was broken by the Weekly Standard.

Although initially limited in scope, after a number of months other investigations into Professor Goodwin’s work, including one conducted by the LA Times, confirmed the Weekly Standard’s findings and uncovered other instances of plagiarism in at least two of Professor Goodwin’s best-selling history books, written while she was a Harvard professor, including one for which she received a Pulitzer Prize.

Professor Goodwin’s explanation for the plagiarism involved faulty note taking habits, not just on her part, but on the part of four research assistants who help write her books. These faulty note taking habits made it difficult, she explained, for them to distinguish between notes containing their own analysis and notes summarizing analysis they find in books written by others.

For background on the Goodwin plagiarism story see:

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/000/793ihurw.asp

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/000/817fdukv.asp

http://slate.msn.com/id/2061056

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,197614,00.html

http://slate.msn.com/id/2061281

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/law/jan-june02/history_1-28.html

http://www.skidmore.edu/classics/courses/2004fall/hi361f/goodwin-plagiarism.html

http://historynewsnetwork.org/articles/article.html?id=589

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/2002/02/27/edtwof2.htm

http://www.forbes.com/2002/02/27/0227goodwin.html

http://greaterboston.tv/features/btp_goodwin_030102.html

http://toogoodreports.com/column/general/shaw/20020304.htm

http://slate.msn.com/?id=2062793

http://www.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/books/03/05/goodwin.pulitzer

http://www.onlinecolumnist.com/030602.html

http://www.robertfulford.com/Plagiarism.html

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=180483

http://journalism.berkeley.edu/ngno/stories/000552.html

http://www.thelaf.com/news/2002/03/14/News/Last-Years.Commencement.Speaker.Admits.To.Plagiarism.By.Noah.Goldstein-217639.shtml (free registration required)

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=180636

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=180631

http://slate.msn.com/?id=2063299

http://fray.slate.msn.com/?id=3936&m=3140756

http://fray.slate.msn.com/?id=3936&m=3144892

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=180706

http://mobylives.com/Nobile_Goodwin.html

http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/dont_quote_me/multi-page/documents/02201537.htm

http://freedom.orlingrabbe.com/lfetimes/plagiarizer.htm

http://mobylives.com/Nobile_Pulitzer_speech.html

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_6_54/ai_84107380

http://slate.msn.com/id/2064187

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FWE/is_5_6/ai_85880887

http://www.villagevoice.com/vls/177/perlstein.shtml

http://hnn.us/articles/718.html

http://slate.msn.com/?id=2069001&device

http://hnn.us/articles/985.html

http://hnn.us/articles/590.html

http://slate.msn.com/id/2091197

http://www.anecdotage.com/index.php?aid=16186


OgletreeSkeptics@yahoo.com
[cc] (see
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/cc/cc.html;
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0)

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