Seeds of Hope, the primatologist's new book, has publication delayed after newspaper finds uncredited sources
Jane Goodall: 'My only objective was to learn'. Photograph: Bertrand Guay/AFP/Getty Images
Leading primatologist Jane Goodall's forthcoming book has been postponed after she was found to have lifted some passages from websites including Wikipedia.
An expert asked by the Washington Post to review Goodall's Seeds of Hope, which was due out next month, spotted that some passages in the book echoed various other sources. The paper published a report last week which claimed that at least 12 sections in the book were lifted from other websites, and which included an admission from Goodall of her failure correctly to cite her sources.
Now publisher Grand Central and Goodall have released a statement to American media announcing the book's postponement "so that we may have the necessary time to correct any unintentional errors".
"It is important to me that the proper sources are credited, and I will be working diligently with my team to address all areas of concern," Goodall said. "My goal is to ensure that when this book is released it is not only up to the highest of standards, but also that the focus be on the crucial messages it conveys."
Seeds of Hope, an examination, according to its publisher, of "the critical role that trees and plants play in our world", combines Goodall's own stories with more detailed information about plants. It is in the latter sections, found the Washington Post last week, that "the instances of borrowing creep in". Goodall, famous for her studies of chimpanzees in the wild, admits in the book that she has "spent a lifetime loving plants, even though I have never studied them as a scientist".
Examples cited by the paper include a section on organic farming. "According to Oxfam, a British non-profit agency working to put an end to poverty worldwide, the spraying of pesticides on tea estates is often done by untrained casual daily-wage workers, sometimes even by children and adolescents," writes Goodall – a sentence that also appears on the website Choice Organic Teas, word for word.
Wikipedia also appears to have been used for a source: talking about the American botanist John Bartram, who lived during the 1700s and shipped seeds to Europe, Goodall informs her readers that "'Bartram's Boxes,' as they came to be known, were regularly sent to Peter Collinson for distribution to a wide list of European clients." The Wikipedia entry on Bartram contains a virtually identical sentence.
Although it also points to passages borrowed from a website about the history of tobacco, and from an astrology site, perhaps the most damning instance of "borrowing" is Goodall's use of a quote from the botanist Matt Daws. "'If seeds can survive that long in such poor conditions, then that's good news for the ones that are stored under ideal conditions in the Millennium Seed Bank,' Matt Daws said to me," she writes. Daws appears to have said something very similar in a 2009 article: "If seeds can survive that long in poor conditions, then that's good news for those in the Millennium Seed Bank stored under ideal conditions." And he told the Washington Post that "to be perfectly honest I have no recollection of speaking to her".
Goodall initially responded to the accusations in an email to the paper last week. "This was a long and well researched book, and I am distressed to discover that some of the excellent and valuable sources were not properly cited, and I want to express my sincere apologies," she wrote. "I hope it is obvious that my only objective was to learn as much as I could so that I could provide straightforward factual information distilled from a wide range of reliable sources."
An expert asked by the Washington Post to review Goodall's Seeds of Hope, which was due out next month, spotted that some passages in the book echoed various other sources. The paper published a report last week which claimed that at least 12 sections in the book were lifted from other websites, and which included an admission from Goodall of her failure correctly to cite her sources.
Now publisher Grand Central and Goodall have released a statement to American media announcing the book's postponement "so that we may have the necessary time to correct any unintentional errors".
"It is important to me that the proper sources are credited, and I will be working diligently with my team to address all areas of concern," Goodall said. "My goal is to ensure that when this book is released it is not only up to the highest of standards, but also that the focus be on the crucial messages it conveys."
Seeds of Hope, an examination, according to its publisher, of "the critical role that trees and plants play in our world", combines Goodall's own stories with more detailed information about plants. It is in the latter sections, found the Washington Post last week, that "the instances of borrowing creep in". Goodall, famous for her studies of chimpanzees in the wild, admits in the book that she has "spent a lifetime loving plants, even though I have never studied them as a scientist".
Examples cited by the paper include a section on organic farming. "According to Oxfam, a British non-profit agency working to put an end to poverty worldwide, the spraying of pesticides on tea estates is often done by untrained casual daily-wage workers, sometimes even by children and adolescents," writes Goodall – a sentence that also appears on the website Choice Organic Teas, word for word.
Wikipedia also appears to have been used for a source: talking about the American botanist John Bartram, who lived during the 1700s and shipped seeds to Europe, Goodall informs her readers that "'Bartram's Boxes,' as they came to be known, were regularly sent to Peter Collinson for distribution to a wide list of European clients." The Wikipedia entry on Bartram contains a virtually identical sentence.
Although it also points to passages borrowed from a website about the history of tobacco, and from an astrology site, perhaps the most damning instance of "borrowing" is Goodall's use of a quote from the botanist Matt Daws. "'If seeds can survive that long in such poor conditions, then that's good news for the ones that are stored under ideal conditions in the Millennium Seed Bank,' Matt Daws said to me," she writes. Daws appears to have said something very similar in a 2009 article: "If seeds can survive that long in poor conditions, then that's good news for those in the Millennium Seed Bank stored under ideal conditions." And he told the Washington Post that "to be perfectly honest I have no recollection of speaking to her".
Goodall initially responded to the accusations in an email to the paper last week. "This was a long and well researched book, and I am distressed to discover that some of the excellent and valuable sources were not properly cited, and I want to express my sincere apologies," she wrote. "I hope it is obvious that my only objective was to learn as much as I could so that I could provide straightforward factual information distilled from a wide range of reliable sources."
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