Harvard Plagiarism Archive: 2007

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

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Dean Vevel on Harvard's Ghostwriting Problem

Dean Velvel just will not stay away from the Harvard ghostwriting story! For that, we are grateful. We recommend his excellent post of last week, which you can read here.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Former Tribe Assistant Comments on Ghostwriting Charges

Former Tribe research assistant Michael Dorf (now a law professor) comments on the ghostwriting charges against Tribe and other Harvard figures, here.

Dorf states that"I did not ghost-write anything substantial for Larry's academic projects when I worked as his research assistant.

Two questions readily come to mind:

1. Dorf is not precise. What does he mean by "substantial"? If he drafted 50 pages of a 1000-page book for Tribe, presumably that might not count as "substantial," yet many would regard the absolute volume of writing as involving an unethical amount of delegation of authorial work (absent full disclosure of the delegation).

2. Are any other Tribe research assistants able to make Dorf's statement?

Thursday, August 02, 2007

Blogger on Tribe's Self Parody

The "Self-Absorbed Boomer" blog has some humorous comments about the Harvard Parody treatment of Professor Tribe (which we blogged about here, here, here, and here) and about Tribe's own self parody on his website (which we blogged about here).

Friday, June 29, 2007

Dershowitz's Attack on Finklestein

The Harvard Crimson has had some solid recent coverage of Alan Dershowitz's attacks on Norman Finklestein (who accused him of plagiarism back in 2003), which contributed to Finklestein being denied tenure at DePaul University, here, here and here.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Dean Velvel on Judge Posner on Plagiarism

We strongly recommend this wonderful, long post by Dean Velvel of last week, in which touches on the Harvard plagiarists by noting how little they really suffered on account of the scandals.

Friday, January 19, 2007

Dean Velvel on Dean Kagan

Recently Dean Velvel posted some very negative remarks about Dean Elena Kagan. Here.

Harvard Plagiarism Archive