Alice Levens
Midwest University Department of English
500 Square Drive
City, State Zip
January 30, 2016
Editors Name(s)
Address
City, State Zip
Dear Editors:
I am writing to inform you of a serious plagiarism issue in your forthcoming edited collection, Writing About Writing. In her chapter titled, “Writing in the Disciplines” Jordan Matthews has plagiarized my original work and failed to cite me on work we produced collaboratively. I request that you review my concerns, and do not publish this chapter until this matter is resolved through institutional adjudication.
- Intellectual Theft of My Original Work: On September 15, 2008, I designed and submitted a sequence of writing assignments for first-year composition to Dr. Richard Edwards at Big State University as a student in his ENGL 501 Teaching Approaches Seminar. This document outlined several essay assignments, including one titled, “My Department,” which provided the foundation for the “disciplinary arguments assignment” in Jordan’s article. This assignment is crucial to her article, since it forms the basis for her IRB study. I have ample hard-copy and electronic evidence establishing this as my original work, which Jordan is now attempting to publish without my permission.
- Intellectual Theft of Collaborative Work: On September 22, 2008, I delivered a presentation outlining my writing sequence to our ENGL 501 class; Jordan praised my work and I agreed to collaborate with her. From 2008 – 2010, we met weekly to discuss our writing sequence, which included developing its theoretical underpinnings and practical implementation. Thus, my contribution to Jordan’s chapter extends beyond her use of the “My Department” assignment. Much of Jordan’s analysis of this assignment, as well as her theoretical justification of “My Department” as a pedagogical tool, is plagiarized from our collaborative work, again without my permission. (Please see enclosure titled “Jordan Matthews Article With Plagiarism Notes,” which demonstrates the specific portions of Jordan’s article that are plagiarized.)
- Violation of Agreement to Co-Author: Jordan and I repeatedly agreed in writing to co-author a publication based on our collaborative work. For example, on March 17, 2013, as part of an ongoing email correspondence, Jordan announced her plan to conduct an IRB study on our writing sequence to obtain data to bolster our co-authored article.
I am definitely up for collaborating on an article. I'm collecting data now from some classes using our disciplinary arguments assignment. If the data is good, this summer might be a good time to work on an article. I'd have to check if they would allow me to include a co-authored article in my portfolio, though. If not, I'd need to work on my portfolio papers this summer instead.
It is clear from this email that Jordan knows that we are co-authors, even if she conducts an IRB study independently. But after claiming that this would be co-authored, Jordan then collected data using my “disciplinary arguments assignment” and disingenuously submitted my/our work as a single-author study. She did this without my knowledge, with the clear intent to plagiarize. The above email also reveals a potential motive for her intellectual theft; her advisers at Small State University may not have allowed her include a co-authored article in her portfolio.
At no time did I grant Jordan the legal or ethical permission to publish my independent work, or our collaborative work, as a single author study. The 1976 Copyright Act (Section 101) explicitly states that I have the right to be listed as a co-author and not merely “acknowledged” for any work we produced collaboratively. If Jordan agrees to this measure, I would need the opportunity to review the article’s content and determine that it does not contain plagiarism from other sources before I grant permission for her to publish my/our work.
I have consulted IRB personnel and research integrity specialists at Midwest University, and they believe I have a legitimate grievance and should pursue this matter. I politely ask that you not publish Jordan’s chapter until these issues are resolved through institutional adjudication.
Please contact me at 555-5555 or email@email.com if you require additional information.
Sincerely,
Alice Levens
Enclosure: Jordan Matthews Article With Plagiarism Notes.pdf