Even though publishers infrequently acknowledge plagiarism in their books, some readers want to know which authors borrow from others and which authors do their own work. Hence, I continue to bring plagiarism news to light.
This is an easy post for me to write because I am citing other people. Notice how easy that is. I find material that is informative and I bring to my readers with a citation so everybody knows who did the work. I don’t need to claim it as my own. I point you to the source. That’s how you avoid plagiarism. See, easy.
Only One Life
First, let’s take this Twitter thread from Jill Hicks-Keeton. She demonstrates that the work of Museum of the Bible co-founder Jackie Green and Lauren Green McAfee in their book Only One Life about Rosa Parks is remarkably similar to Joyce Hanson’s biography of Rosa Parks. Hanson’s book came first.
Here are the tweets:
More Tim Clinton
Now comes Dr. Aaron New with yet more material from Tim Clinton. Aaron has a lengthy thread with all of the apparent plagiarism involving Clinton and various co-authors. I will let Aaron explain the recent finds.
Postscript R2
Recently while looking for information on perfectionism in The Quick-Reference Guide to Biblical Counseling (2009) by Tim Clinton & Ron Hawkins, something felt familiar. So I looked and found it in an article written by Chris Thurman in the Soul Care Bible (2001).
— Nothing New (@DrAaronNew) May 29, 2020
And I found a plethora of examples that appear to be material taken word for word (or nearly so) from the Soul Care Bible and used uncited in the Quick Reference Guide. Here are just a few of them.
— Nothing New (@DrAaronNew) May 29, 2020
Pic 1 – excerpt from “Perfectionism” by Chris Thurman in The Soul Care Bible (SCB), 2001.
Pic 2 – excerpt from chapter on “Perfectionism” by Tim Clinton and Ron Hawkins in The Quick Reference Guide to Biblical Counseling (QRGBC), 2009. pic.twitter.com/s2TvGhMrXz— Nothing New (@DrAaronNew) May 29, 2020
If you click through the images, you will see a pull quote from Chris Thurman in The Quick Reference Guide to Biblical Counseling. However, there is nothing in the book that identifies Thurman as the source of the rest of the material highlighted by Aaron. Clinton and Hawkins cite Thurman’s Soul Care Bible article in the recommended resources list but don’t use any quotes to designate the verbatim use of his material.
In the remainder of the thread (go here to read it all, it is very long), you will find numerous instances where material has been taken from Soul Care Bible authors and use without citation in The Quick Reference Guide. Let me show just two more that Aaron provides in his thread:
Pic 1 – “Loneliness and Personal Growth” by Miriam Stark Parent in SCB, 2001.
Pic 2 – excerpt from chapter on “Loneliness” by Tim Clinton and Ron Hawkins in QRGBC, 2009. pic.twitter.com/lHScLTAGco— Nothing New (@DrAaronNew) May 29, 2020
No quotes are used for Norman Wright’s and Miriam Stark Parent’s words which come verbatim from the Soul Care Bible. In the Loss and Grief chapter of The Quick Reference Guide (the second book), Clinton and Hawkins included a Norman Wright book in their resources but there is no way for the reader to know that much of the chapter was quoted directly from Wright in the Soul Care Bible.
In the case of the material lifted from Miriam Stark Parent’s Soul Care Bible entry on Loneliness and Personal Growth, Clinton and Hawkins give her an unsourced pull quote but that is all. In the recommended resources, Stark Parent doesn’t get a mention. Clinton recommends three of his books, but readers have no way to know that much of the chapter they just read was originally written by Mirian Stark Parent.
To see more posts on citation problems in Tim Clinton’s work, click here. To see more posts about plagiarism and citation errors in general, click this link.
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