Plagiarism and Historical Journals

Of the 35 journals responding to our survey (19 from among the 78 CHJ members, and 18 from a number of non-CHJ journals), 9 reported dealing with plagiarism accusations at least once. Common sources of accusations are peer reviewers and aggrieved authors. Other sources include editors and book reviewers. When accusations emerge before publication, for example during peer review of a manuscript, journals are in a position to handle the matter informally, either by rejecting the manuscript outright or by asking for changes.

More serious are accusations that emerge during preparation of a book review, which anecedotal evidence suggests to be a frequent way that plagiarism charges come to the attention of journal editors. A journal that publishes a review containing such a charge risks involving itself in ensuing legal wrangles, including countercharges of defamation, which from the courts’ perspective is a serious matter indeed. Still, a journal may be reluctant simply to tell a reviewer to take the issue elsewhere. One online publication devoted to book reviews developed a policy that it has used twice so far of submitting such charges to a review committee. In one instance, this process led to publication of the review containing the allegations along with a response from the author that conceded the problem but denied intent. In another instance, an outside expert in effect exonerated the accused author.

Source: American Historical Association

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