Plagiarism disgusts me. There’s no excuse for it.
So, I was disappointed and annoyed when I found one of my original stories on page 148 of the Everything Ghost Hunting Book.
It’s the Colby-Sawyer ghosts story, and it’s an entire section in Ms. Ellis’ book.
It’s written as if the author — Melissa Martin Ellis — had interviewed “the student” herself.
Well, Ms. Ellis might have gotten away with it, except for two things:
- She quoted “the student” — and much of the story — word-for-word from one of my webpages that has been online since 2001. (That can be documented via the Wayback Machine; Ms. Ellis’ book came out in August 2009.)
- In addition… I’m the student. That’s my story, from when I attended Colby-Sawyer College. So, Ms. Ellis can’t claim that she acquired the story directly from the student who had the ghostly encounter.(A couple of my HollowHill.com stories were written in the third person, with a few facts altered, specifically to catch plagiarists. That’s one of those stories, and it worked.)
I’m going to think about this copyright violation before I decide what to do. I have already contacted an attorney.
For starters, I want to see if Ms. Ellis copied more than just that one story. I may find other HollowHill.com stories in her book, and I may see stories from others’ websites, too. (If you find additional copied — and uncredited — material in her book, please let me know.)
I keep saying that integrity and credibility are among our most valuable assets in this field. When someone steals another researcher’s work and copyrighted articles, I have no respect for them, and you probably shouldn’t, either.
We have enough credibility issues in this field. Plagiarism is unacceptable, and opens the door to even more criticism from people who doubt the integrity of our research.
Photo credits: Glasses with legal symbol – linusb4, Australia
Arrested icon, Michal Zacharzewski, Poland
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Even without any further action, Karma will come back and end up kicking her in the end. I honestly do not understand how anyone can steal another’s idea to make a profit from it. If she cannot put the effort into gathering her own information and take time to form it into a solid, and original book, she needs to find another career. That is If she can find one that will hire her after adding this blunder to her resumee.
Sean,
Thanks for the comments. They echo how I feel, exactly.
The sad things is, most book authors don’t make very much money from their books. Though every author probably dreams about the book becoming a best-seller, those are few and far between. We write to share the information, and cross our fingers that the time spent will eventually yield a minimum-wage income.
She had nothing to lose and everything to gain by correctly crediting her sources.
At the very least, what she did is extremely unprofessional and it will alienate those who discover what she did. At worst, it’s not just illegal; it’s portrayed her as someone without integrity.
Sincerely,
Fiona
Mrs. Broome,
I think it is safe to say her writing days are over. An author just can’t recover from plagiarism.
Art