Is it plagarism if you are plagiarizing yourself?

In a recent article in Science authors found that approximately 1 in 200 papers published in PubMed (scientific database to the gods) had some indication of plagiarism and that of those papers, approximately 86.2% of the content was similar to previously published work. While plagiarism is a terribly bad thing and should be avoided at all costs, as a person in the academic world I have found myself wondering, are you plagiarising if you plagiarize your own work?

Example: I have now written multiple papers on different aspects of delayed and late testing for HIV among men who have sex with men (granted there is only one in for actual publication at this point), and given that almost all scientific papers start the same way, with an explanation of the broad background of the issue, why the issue is important, and how you plan to look at said issue, I find myself re-writing the same intro over and over and over again. Sure I will update things if new numbers come up and more information, but generally I am just putting the same material down on the page for each paper. If while writing this introduction or in reviewing the existing literature I use the same sentence that I wrote in the first paper I wrote on the topic, is this considered plagiarism?

What do you think fair blog readers, can you plagiarize yourself? and if you can, how are scientists who all study very specific topics supposed to avoid plagiarizing themselves?

Science Article

thanks sooo much for KEXP

if you don't already know, kexp is an independent radio station broadcast from seattle. you can also listen to it streaming live at kexp.org

i've loved kexp for many years. i saw john richards, the morning host, at the drug store yesterday and had a brief moment of celebrity sighting joy. but it was brief, b/c i think of john as a normal part of my life. he's a great host (and has been a voice crush of mine for years), but i always imagine him broadcasting next door. he's just an incredibly awesome neighbor.

kexp exposes many to music that they wouldn't otherwise hear by band and genre. i encourage you to check out and maybe just maybe become a member.
kexp.org


so long as we are praising independent radio, i'd like to give a shout out to my favorite professa, j-man. listen to his show, science of soul, friday mornings and i promise the morning will be even brighter.
science of soul

WTF, I can't think anymore!?!

OK, I dropped the ball, I didn't post yesterday. Mainly cause my brain is hurting from attempting to shove too much information into it at once. I mean seriously, I get the concept of finals, I get that one is supposed to synthesize the information that they have learned over the quarter or semester. In many ways the process of studying can bring it together, but is pure regurgitation really the way to show off what you have learned? For the past two quarters I have felt that at the end, my test was just about my attempting to throw up all of the things in my head into one of those dreaded blue books (yes, I live in a world of essay tests). Additionally, my classes are invariably always rear loaded, where everything comes at the end. I mean for gods sake, I had a presentation yesterday, a final this morning, and a presentation on Monday. And that is just for two classes. Is this push at the end really conducive to the learning process? Or does it cause a situation where you learn what you can, shove it into short term memory, and then promptly forget it when you are done?

evolve US!

my new favorite bumper sticker of the genre that doesn't make me giggle is:
if you think education is expensive, try ignorance.

here's a big example of the ignorance kind:
from nat'l geographic reporting in 2006:

"This chart depicts the public acceptance of evolution theory in 34 countries in 2005. Adults were asked to respond to the statement: "Human beings, as we know them, developed from earlier species of animals." The percentage of respondents who believed this to be true is marked in blue; those who believed it to be false, in red; and those who were not sure, in yellow."



originally published by jon miller et al in science

i was tipped this article by this guest column by stephen quake who ends his blog with a great paragraph... i can't say it better so here it is:

"Our genomes represent both a record of our evolutionary history and a guide to our identity as individuals. You can’t accept one without the other, and it is impossible to reap the medical and health benefits of genome knowledge without also accepting the central role of evolution in human history. Before the benefits of the genome revolution can be fully realized, Americans will need to resolve the cognitive dissidence which prevents them from accepting the role of evolution in biology … and their lives."

so US evolve, educate and evolve some more...

Should students be given rewards for learning?

In a recent article in the NYT (does anyone see a pattern here) they were talking about the new influx of programs around the USA that are monetarily rewarding students for their grades, taking tests, and doing well on tests (like the AP tests). They go through some pros and cons to this behavior, and you will have to read the article to get a feel for the pros, because I have to say that I can see nothing but cons to this method of getting students to learn.

First, why are we paying kids to learn when we can barely pay teachers to teach? Wouldn't that money be better spent rewarding teachers for their hard jobs? Second, what happens to kids with learning disabilities? Will their be some sort of special pay scale for them, further stigmatizing them? Third, what about students from financially challenged homes? Will they feel more pressure to perform to bring money home to their families? Will that pressure be too much to place on that child's shoulders? In turn, will students from well off families stop studying all together since they don't need the money?

If we create a system where students expect rewards for everything they do in school, aren't we setting up a system that is really just rewarding students in the short term, but not actually setting them up for a love of lifelong learning? What are those kids going to do when they get to college? or God forbid grad school where we barely get paid anything and in many cases we have to pay them to teach us? Is this really the answer to motivating kids to learn????? WTF?

NYT Article

wtf common cold, why do you have to be so common?

yup that's right. hotpants has a cold. so in the haze of "non-drowsy" cold medicine here is some info about colds that you may already know, but a lot of people don't:

1. it's a virus. please don't take antibiotics for it! over-prescription of antibiotics helps pesky bacteria evolve to resist. (i am now picturing a cartoon bacteria shouting in a french accent "resistance!")

2. there is no evidence that being cold gives you the common cold. there are more colds in the winter than other seasons, but that's probably b/c we are all indoors sharing the same air. (yummy!)

3. lack of sleep (<7 hours) has been associated with catching the common cold (whoops!)

4. there is no cure for the common cold (no anti-virals). everything you've taken for it is supposed to either help with severity and/or duration of symptoms. and that zinc you're taking, there is no proof it helps. so if it hurts your stomach, stop taking it.

5. if you are like me up until a year ago, and have stubbornly not taken cold medicine thinking you are tough... i understand... but let me tell you it's pretty helpful. (and may be making me a little wacky... that's a good thing though right?)

most of this list was derived from public health schooling and
wiki backed me up and filled in the blanks

Thank God for good customer service!

In the past week or so I have had two occasions of pretty exceptional customer service. So let me tell you these two quick stories:

1) I took my lovely Mini Cooper S, Lola, into the shop the other week. She was having a minor leak and I was hoping to get some routine maintenance done before my warranty ran out. I sat working while they fixed her up, cleaned, and vacuumed her and then told me she was all set to go. When I got outside and went to put my stuff in the boot (trunk for those of you who don't know the silly British slang that Mini tries to espouse), low and behold there was a new dent in the hatchback door. Oh my! My first question in my head was, "was that there before" followed quickly by, "Oh boy, even if that wasn't there before, are they going to admit to doing it?" As most of you who have had car repairs before know, it is an amazing day in heaven when the repair person actually admits to doing something wrong if you can't prove that it happened at their shop. This was the case, dent was new as far as I knew, but there was no way for me to prove that it happened there. Thus, I was seriously worried that they were not going to help me out with the dent at all. After much discussion about the recency of the dent and how I was pretty sure that I didn't come in with it, the manager offered to fix the dent and repaint the area on their tab. WOW! They very easily could have held the point that the dent didn't happen in their custody, but instead they opted to go for the good customer service, lent me a new Mini to drive home, and fixed the dent on their tab. When I went back to pick up my lovely Lola, my hatchback looks as good as the day I got her (which is better then even before the dent). So thank you so much awesome customer service at the NW Mini Dealership, you didn't have to take responsibility, but you took the high road and did it anyway!

2) On Monday morning I received an email asking me to rate my recent hotel stay at the Yountville Inn in beautiful Napa Valley. Oh boy! My heart skipped a beat as I realized that I had booked my hotel stay for February instead of March, which is when I was actually going. Since there are only 28 days in Feb, the days of the week and dates for Feb and March line up, thus while clearly a dumb mistake, it is fairly understandable. I immediately booked for the actual dates in March and then called the Yountville Inn to see if maybe I could get a discount or something since clearly it was my mistake, but I was still trying to stay with them. What I got instead of a discount was so much more. The woman at the Yountville Inn called Hotels.com for me and spoke to her supervisor, and then much to my surprise and joy got me a full refund for the visit that I missed in February. Again, she didn't have to do it, it was clearly my mistake, but in the name of good customer service she went above and beyond and I got my money back! WOO HOOO!

While customer service can often be a hard thing to deal with and we all have horror stories of customer service gone wrong, this week has proven to me that sometimes with a little kindness, good customer service still exists in this world!

NW Mini Dealership Site

Yountville Inn