I agree with Harry. While plagiarism in journals is definitely grounds for discipline, I find that in the safety world programs are lifted and reused all the time – some with permission and I assume some are without. I have been to a number of presentations
at conferences where universities offer their audit/inspection checklists up for grabs and even tell the attendees feel free to use it as they see fit.
There are many cases that, while looking for program examples online, I have come across multiple institutions with identical written content with only names and phone numbers changed.
With all of our goals ultimately being the safety of our employees and students, I wonder how many of us would even object to someone using one of our own programs as long as it meets their needs.
Based on this article, it seems as there were a number of other underlying performance issues in addition to plagiarism that let to this employee’s dismissal.
Regards,
Brandon S. Chance, M.S., CCHO
Associate Director of Environmental Health and Safety
Office of Risk Management
Southern Methodist University
PO Box 750231 | Dallas, TX 75275-0231
T) 214.768.2430 | M) 469-978-8664
"… our job in safety is to make the task happen, SAFELY; not to interfere with the work…” Neal Langerman
Interesting article. Personally I would not consider lifting parts of well-written safety plans to be actionable plagiarism (who has the original "Do not pipette by mouth" reference?), though some may disagree. However, copying some 18 paragraphs
from various sources without citation in a manuscript submitted for publication is pretty bad. I expect he'll be looking for employment soon.
Harry
