Two topics from the latest issue of the Committee on Publication Ethics’ (COPE) newsletter, “Ethical Editing” resonated with me -- self-plagiarism and retractions. Since the iThenticate blog has covered both of these topics in depth this past year, I wanted to share some new and additional perspectives on these topics with our readers. Thanks go out to COPE for their permission to share their insights concerning ethical writing!

Self-plagiarism has been an elusive subject for many. How can one steal material from oneself? Jonah Lehrer is an excellent example of how a writer can fall into this plagiaristic behavior. Mr. Lehrer is a renowned author who has published in Wired, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times Magazine, the Guardian, the Washington Post, and the New Yorker. He had recently taken a position of staff writer at the New Yorker (Silverman, 2012).

We recently caught up with plagiarism expert, Jonathan Bailey of CopyByte and Plagiarism Today. Bailey provides consultation to writers, attorneys, researchers and anyone who needs advice on plagiarism, content theft and copyright issues. In this interview, Jason Chu of iThenticate asks Bailey about his thoughts on the repercussions of self-plagiarism, and how it can be avoided.

The Nigerian High Court this week set a date to hear plagiarism charges levied against Lamido Sanusi, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. The charges are being brought forward by a Nigerian lecturer in the United States, Professor Victor Dike of the School of Engineering and Technology at the National University of Sacramento in California. Dike, the founder of California’s Centre for Social Justice and Human Development, claims that Sanusi plagiarized his material in lectures on two different occasions.