UMKC writer plagiarizes more than 90 stories
Writer Samir Patel resigned from The University News after the investigation.
Published April 28, 2006
A few weeks ago, Eric Snider, senior editor of eFilmCritic.com, started to search for words or phrases from reviews that ran in reviews from his Web site.
Snider had received reports from his writers that a UM-Kansas City newspaper reporter had plagiarized their reviews.
Through his investigation, Snider discovered Samir Patel, a staff writer for UMKC's The University News, plagiarized roughly 50 reviews on eFilmCritic.com and 40 reviews from other sites.
"Plagiarism is not unheard of, but I've never seen anything like this," Snider said. "I mean, he was copying word-for-word huge chunks of text from our reviews."
Snider said after he received two reports of plagiarism from his writers, he went through every story Patel wrote and searched certain words or phrases.
Once he discovered the plagiarized stories, Snider spent a week compiling all his findings into a comprehensive report showing the copied reviews before sending it to UMKC.
During the same time Snider was investigating Patel, UMKC launched a separate internal investigation of the student.
The same day Snider submitted his documented research into UMKC, Patel resigned from the newspaper.
Snider said he wrote a letter to the newspaper asking for a written apology on the front page of the newspaper and a list of all the reviewers from whom Patel stole stories.
Snider also wanted the newspaper to pay $25 for every story Patel plagiarized, which would total $1,450.
As of Thursday Snider said he had not received an apology or money for the articles.
"We haven't heard from the university or newspaper at all," Snider said. "We're serious about suing them, and it is in their best interest to pay now. We are not bluffing, we really will take them to court if we need to."
University News Editor in Chief Emily Iorg and members of The University News staff did not respond to numerous phone calls.
Patel won an award recently at the Missouri College Media Association that has since been rescinded.
He won an honorable mention for best sports column.
Doug Crews, the executive director of the Missouri Press Association, said this is the first time they have had to deal with plagiarism in the contests.
"We certainly don't think that plagiarism has any place in journalism," Crews said. "One of the foundations of journalism is to report the truth. When plagiarism creeps in, it affects the integrity of the profession."
Crews said MCMA would not change how their contests are run because it is too hard to prevent plagiarism.