Found another article about a major book recall by the publishers amidst allegations of plagiarism and copyright infringements due to some dodgy cutting and pasting from primarily the internet.

This is yet another NZ published book coming under fire and being recalled due to questions about origin of information. Hit the read more to read the entire article from the NZPA on the topic.

Publishing anything these days is made more complicated as there is so much access to so much information. This relates to all of us when it comes to publishing content on our websites, or our blogs. More and more websites are being pulled up for blatant copy and pasting and trying to suggest that the content was self generated.

This is the key, you can copy and paste to your hearts content as long as you give credit where credit is due, and publish your sources if you have indeed done some shortcut copy and pasting. Sometimes this is the quickest way to achieve an article, or even necessary to ascertain validity....

One must remember that once it is out there, it is quite hard to pull it back. You can always edit an article but there is always the possibility that someone has already taken a screenshot, or googlebots have just that instant cached your site. Copying and pasting content from other peoples sites is super dodgy, and very unethical, but you would be amazed how much of it goes on.

If you caught a previous blog on Boobquake Day, I contacted the creator of the event, blogger Jen McCreight to ask her permission to use some of her content and her photo from her website. She got back to me within 15 mins impressed that I had bothered to ask - out of all of the international media she got (her site got 870,000 visits that week up from 6000) no one had asked her permission to use her things. And this is counting all of the major big players that reported on the event (BBC, CNN etc).
It is our firm believe that if you are going to use something that someone else has worked hard to produce you ought to at the very least give them credit. It is all too easy to be caught out, and the media jumps on those that do. I am sure that we would have no idea about the release of "The New Zealand Fruit Garden" by Sally Cameron had this not occurred. Now her name is mud, and I am sure she will be hard pressed to get another publishing contract ever again, unless it is about the scandel and her career suicide.

So without further ado, here is the entire article I copied and pasted from a NZPA sourced article....

A gardening book is being pulled from the shelves by its publisher following allegations of plagiarism.

The New Zealand Fruit Garden by Sally Cameron, published last week, is being recalled after a reviewer for the Taranaki Daily News alleged material had been lifted from other sources.

Daily News weekly contributor Abbie Jury posted the review on her website today, saying the book contained many errors and in places the information was inadequate.

"Even worse, there are sufficient instances of unacknowledged quotes to make me breathe the dreaded word: plagiarism."

Jury said food writer and author Sally Cameron's book was well-presented and looked really helpful.

"Sadly, looks can deceive."

Jury went on to highlight alleged factual mistakes within the book, from apricots being called subtropical to guava succumbing to frost in any area.

"There is slight problem here. She is writing about the large growing tropical guava, Psidium guajava, which you may have tried eating in Asia. But what we can and do grow here -- and which has similar hardiness to a lemon -- is the strawberry guava Psidium littorale."

Jury said it appeared the author cut and paste from an easily traced Californian website about guajava.

"Had Cameron known her material, she would have explained that littorale is commonly raised from seed in this country."

Jury also compares direct quotes from the book to Wikipedia, showing they are identical.

"It should be an embarrassment to a credible publishing house like Penguin, but presumably nobody bothered to check for relevance, accuracy, or plagiarism," Jury said.

Penguin Group New Zealand said it was taking the allegations very seriously and was ordering a detailed review to determine whether the suggestions are accurate.

Bookshops were being asked to return all stock to Penguin.

NZPA.