There’s an interesting article by Denny Carter in eCampus News, July 14, 2014.

Headed The top 10 ways college students plagiarize, it reports on a Turnitin study which reveals, that’s right, the top 10 ways college students plagiarize.

According to the article, Turnitin’s study was released “this month,” and there is a link to the Turnitin White Paper The Plagiarism Spectrum: Instructor Insights into the 10 Types of Plagiarism.

Carter also mentions (on page 2 of the article) “research conducted at California State University (CSU) in January” by Robert J. Youmans.

Trouble is, the Turnitin study was published in 2012, and Youmans’ study was published in 2011.

There is a Times Higher Education article on it, published January 2012.  Perhaps that is where Carter found his January date for Youmans’ research?

But even more troubling, Carter’s article was originally published in 2012, possibly in May, as evidenced by Fe Angela M. Verzosa’s curated Scoop. Carter himself sent the bulk of the article to MPH in March 2013 – it is posted in the Bkn-mph-alumni mailing list archives.

The July 14, 2014 date seems completely erroneous.

eCampus News is a free education journal held in good regard, so perhaps one shouldn’t be too critical. Nevertheless, even if it is the practice of this journal to re-hash old articles, it would be kind, it would be honest, to state that a particular article first appeared on such a given date. It would be kinder still to update the article and not make misleading statements.

Otherwise, we might just have to think of the P-word?