V38 N1 / 2023 ©2023 American Medical Writers Association. All rights reserved. ISSN 2163-5315 AMWAJournal.org 34 Vee White Vee White Editorial, Philadelphia, PA Andrea Klingler Curtis Learning LLC, Philadelphia, PA By Eloise DeHaan If I were to write this piece without crediting medical editor Vee White and medical and science editor Andrea Klingler for their research and presentation, it would be plagiarism. The two shared their expertise about plagiarism at AMWA’s Medical Writing & Communication Conference, November 3, 2022, in Denver. Plagiarism is “[when] an author documents or reports ideas, words, data, or graphics, whether published or unpublished, of another as [their] own without giving appropriate credit or attribution” (AMA Manual of Style, 11th edition, Section 5.4).1 Between 2019 and 2020, White and Klingler surveyed 260 writers, editors, and publishing professionals about pla- giarism. The largest proportion of responses came from the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom but included widespread places such as Japan, Cyprus, and Uruguay. The survey found that writers fear plagiarism’s conse- quences most (Figure). Among 38 medical or science writer respondents, the largest proportion, 84%, thought the biggest consequence of plagiarism was that they would lose their job. Gaps were obvious between how confident publish- ers were in writers’ and editors’ ability to produce plagia- rism-free product and the confidence of editors and writers themselves to do so, with publishers being more skeptical. Session Report What Is Plagiarism? Putting Out Fires Around This Hot Topic CONFERENCE Figure. The Plagiarist. Cartoon reprinted with permission under a CC-BY NC license from Iva Cheung.2 http://www.amwajournal.org AMWAJournal.org 35What Is Plagiarism? Furthermore, among the subset of 79 medical/science communicators who were “extremely or very confident in their understanding of and their ability to avoid/identify [plagiarism], 26 (33%) had no or intentional-only training.”2 The presenters explained that intentional plagiarism is knowingly taking credit for someone else’s work. It is pre- senting someone else’s words, sentence, structure, or idea as your own. Unintentional plagiarism is done without intention and can be the result of poor paraphrasing, careless work like forgetting to insert a citation, or cultural differences. Publishers’ top tactic for avoiding plagiarism in new content was to put clauses about the issue into their con- tracts with writers (71% of publisher respondents chose this option). For catching plagiarism in existing content, pub- lishers depended on an editor’s keen eye (82% of respon- dents) and plagiarism-detecting software (74%). Although the survey respondents tended to be highly experienced in their occupation, most reported receiving training on this subject in an academic setting, some as far back as in grammar school. Minimal anti-plagiarism train- ing seems to be offered to writers and editors. With even less training in unintentional plagiarism, editors lack knowledge of this issue. Editors do, however, implement specific strate- gies to identify plagiarism. White and Klingler offer tips to help writers avoid plagiarism2: • Keep copied verbatim text separate. • Remember to cite public domain and unpublished material too. • Summarize, analyze, and synthesize. • Remember that plagiarism includes more than words. • Be careful when reusing your own previously pub- lished material. They also counsel editors on how to help writers when plagiarism is an issue2: • Prepare with concrete examples. • Start the conversation with a different word. • Ask questions. • Avoid assumptions. • Open discussion before deciding next steps. See the Plagiarism Survey Project’s website at www.veewhite.com/plagiarism-survey. Eloise DeHaan is Medical Copyeditor and Stakeholder Engagement Coordinator, Horizon Scanning, at ECRI, Plymouth Meeting, PA. Author declaration and disclosures: The author notes no commercial associations that may pose a conflict of interest in relation to this article. Author contact: edehaan@ecri.org References 1. Flanagin A. 5.4 Scientific misconduct. In: AMA Manual of Style: A Guide for Authors and Editors. 11th ed. AMA Manual of Style; 2020. doi:10.1093/jama/9780190246556.003.0005 2. The plagiarist. Iva Cheung. Published 2022. https://ivacheung. com/2022/03/the-plagiarist/. Accessed 19 January 2023. 3. White V, Klingler A. What is plagiarism? Putting out fires around this hot topic. Presented at: Medical Writing & Communication Conference; November 2-5, 2022; Denver, CO. General Principles of Word Usage www.amwa.org/online_learning Choose the right word for accuracy and clarity. http://www.amwajournal.org http://www.veewhite.com/plagiarism-survey https://ivacheung.com/2022/03/the-plagiarist/ https://ivacheung.com/2022/03/the-plagiarist/