The Herald has discovered that two editorials and a news article published between 2006 and 2010 contained opinions, facts and language that previously appeared in other publications. Because The Herald has a zero-tolerance policy for plagiarism, the author has been dismissed from The Herald's staff.
On April 7, The Herald was notified that an editorial in the previous day's newspaper ("Just say no," April 6, 2010) may have used the reporting of the Providence Journal without proper attribution. After reviewing the editorial, editors concluded that it did improperly use opinions, facts and language from a Journal article ("Bill would require drug testing for R.I. welfare recipients," March 26, 2010).
The Herald then conducted a thorough review of the author's work. That review turned up two other articles that used facts and language from other sources without proper attribution. A news article ("NSF grant will provide ongoing support for women in sciences," Dec. 7, 2006) about a National Science Foundation grant contained seven words from the NSF Web site describing the program awarding that grant. An editorial ("Getting old," Feb. 15, 2010) contained one sentence with material similar to an article in the Providence Journal ("Annaldo: Ban under-21 crowd from clubs," Feb. 11, 2010).
The Herald trains all its writers in proper reporting and attribution, and expects that the articles they write are their own. We apologize to our readers and the publications from which material was used improperly.
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