During the course of its standard copy-editing process, The Herald discovered that portions of an article scheduled for publication on Oct. 29 used language from another source without proper quotation or attribution. The passages in question were corrected, and The Herald reviewed all of the reporter's past articles for similar problems.
That review turned up a total of eight articles, dating back to Feb. 5, with passages that were identical or nearly identical to language in other sources. Many of the passages included attribution to the original sources but failed to indicate when language was directly copied from those sources. A note has been appended to the online versions of articles that had insufficiently cited quotations. The full list of articles is as follows:
"State name question will go to ballot box," Oct. 29
"City gets creative with arts plan," Oct. 29
"For city and U., a political standoff," Oct. 21
"Local stores to consumers: remember us!," Sept. 22
"Brown eyes purchase of former highway land," Sept. 9
"Liberian refugees get extra year in U.S.," April 21
"R.I. voters hold out for stimulus," Feb.19
"After controversy, ground breaks for barracks," Feb. 5
The Herald continually trains its reporters in proper attribution and journalistic ethics. We are reviewing those training procedures to ensure that The Herald's standards are clear to all staff members.
