Give me some credit – how to avoid plagiarism and scraping

Have you read the book I co-authored? Or my journal papers in Public Relations Review? Or the chapters I have written in edited texts? What about my blog posts? If you have and judge my writing worthy of using, reviewing or criticising in your own work, then you’d better give me some credit.

If you’re producing online content, and I find you have reproduced my work without permission, I WILL get you to remove it. I am happy for you to quote me or link within your own work, but expect a reference to be evident with a hat tip. If you’re a bot scraping this post, well you won’t understand it anyway – and I won’t be posting your nonsense link-baiting comments either.

If you’re a student writing academic assignments, and you’re planning to use my work, then I deserve a citation with a full reference so that it is clear to your reader that the points you are making originated with me. Besides, you’ll gain credit for referencing sources – whereas plagiarism can get you kicked off your course.

If I sound frustrated, angry even, well I am. I put a huge amount of time and effort into my published work (largely for little, if any, financial return). I expect others to do the same with their work. Stealing and passing off in my view are crimes that rob the originator of their due credit, and deny the writer the intellectual pleasure of crafting their own informed thoughts.

Scraping content, or plagiarising others’ work is an increasing problem – thanks in large part to the easy access offered by the internet. If you can ‘cut and paste’ then you can simply lift someone else’s work, or stitch together your own piece and who is to know? The surfed answer is all too common among students these days – using search engines, skimming what you find, lifting the interesting parts and hey presto, a few hundred or thousand words ready for grading. However, with online search facilities and anti-plagiarism software, there’s a strong chance you’ll get caught.

Turnitin named last week as Plagiarism week with the theme Originality Matters (ironically a not very original promotional PR idea) – and it published various academic videos and other online resources.  This is a hot topic in academia and professional education – and taken as a very serious offence.

I appreciate that sometimes the etiquette of online linking or academic referencing can be confusing, complex or simply time-consuming. But that’s no excuse. There are some excellent online resources that you can draw on (links in green):

• Plagiarism.or – this is a great site that doesn’t look like boring academic or legal stuff. I love the descriptions for the Types of Plagiarism

• WriteCheck (which sponsors Plagiarim.or) is a paid plagiarism checker run using Turnitin. Many Universities and other academic bodies use Turnitin to check for plagiarism and some offer students the chance to run their work through the system first to avoid silly mistakes.

• Purdue Online Writing Lab – has really detailed advice on using APA, MLA and Chicago style of referencing. Many Universities have open online access to their guides to using the Harvard style – I recommend the Bournemouth University guide.

• Microsoft Word includes a feature enabling you to reference as you write. How-to-Geek has a guide to using it as does the Microsoft site. There are other online referencing systems, such as Endnote, that enable you to build up a personal reference list which you can draw on repeatedly. This is helpful for anyone completing a series of academic assignments.

• Bookmarks – are a great way to record sites that you visit when researching a piece of work, which you can then check when it comes to adding links or including references. Of course, you could use Google Bookmarks – and Mozilla support has a guide to using bookmarks in Firefox. You could use goodreads or a similar online resource (even a Pinterest board) to note the texts you have found for an assignment with a personal – or shared – list.

Or just ask – yes, that old-fashioned concept of seeking clarification from your tutor or the person you are citing how best to reference the source. If you are unsure or don’t know, ignorance isn’t a defence.

You can apply some of these ideas to avoid scraping online content – although that is often done with intent rather than ignorance. There are methods that can be used to prevent scraping – you can find advice e.g. via Sentor or a post written by Amanda DiSilvestro. But if you don’t know if you are web or data scraping (as if) – check out the Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_scraping (which also lists some measures to stop the bots).

It may sound old-fashioned in a world where newspapers use Tweets as if they’ve spoken to someone, or lift information directly from a Facebook page as background information. A world where politicians infamously relied on a ‘dodgy dossier’ of poor quality student work. A world where it is easy to check facts and also find lies and damned lies amongst the statistics. But that’s the very reason why referencing, citations and credit is important. If you can’t, don’t or won’t substantiate your points, arguments and opinion with reference to sources and evidence, what veracity does your work have in a world full of lies and half-truths?  And why should anyone give it credit?

[Picture via Microsoft Clipart]

Do the CIPR presidential candidates appeal to women?

Both candidates standing in the CIPR President-Elect 2013 elections (who will become President in 2014) are white, 40+ years old and male. As men comprise a minority of PR practitioners, perhaps it is time to throw into the debate, a question about how appealing Stephen Waddington and Dr Jon White are to women?

It is a relevant consideration given that the UK PR Week-PRCA 2011 PR Census, revealed the occupation is dominated by the young and female.   Also, CIPR “aims to develop an inclusive culture, raise general awareness of diversity within the public relations industry and to increase the number of public relations practitioners from all backgrounds”.

What are some of the issues that face women working in PR that the candidates should address?

1. Salary disparity – women in PR are paid less than men at all levels according to the data from the PR Census study. Nearly 30 years ago, US researchers released the Velvet Ghetto study noting a million dollar income penalty over the course of a woman’s career in PR. It isn’t difficult to argue that things haven’t changed much.

2. Mid-career chasm - there also appears to be a black hole with women leaving PR in mid-career, possibly as a result of a lack of flexible options for combining family and work commitments.

3. Friendliness trap – academics have claimed that women working in PR are expected (particularly at the start of their careers, and specifically in agencies) to adopt overtly feminine behaviour, which serves as a trap to their subsequent credibility and career progression.

4. Female dominated education – the majority of PR undergraduates are women, with men often less than 10 per cent of a class. A gender imbalance is frequently notable among cohorts studying the CIPR’s professional qualifications. The willingness of women to seek qualifications (perhaps buying into the professional agenda of career development) does not seem to be generating them greater career rewards.

5. Marginalisation of women as communicators – women have traditionally occupied technician roles in PR, with claims made that they have softer skills best suited for a communications-dominated position and function. In the past, women were employed to target female-oriented media and organise parties. This continues today, but additionally, they dominate specialist areas such as internal communications and lay claim to relationship building.

Of course, these issues do not affect all women and most apply beyond public relations.  We can also argue that with self-efficacy and personal agency, women are as capable as men of building successful careers. The current CIPR President is female, as was the one before. There have been a total of eleven women Presidents compared to 52 men. The first was Margaret Nally in 1975, followed by Norah Owen in 1981 and then Carol Friend in 1986. In the 1990s, two of the ten Presidents were women; in the last decade they accounted for three out of ten. This decade, so far it is three out of four, with Jane Wilson holding the role of CEO since 2010 as well.

So let’s cut the male candidates some slack – but invite them to comment here whether they believe there are specific considerations relating to women, and other sectors of society, in building careers in public relations. And how their year in office could help address some of the issues that I’ve mentioned above.

Over to you guys… how do you appeal to women in PR?

Love and heart break – losing my Barley dog

Sometimes  you feel an overwhelming need to write. Today is one of those times. I’ve had a bit of a blogging block so far this year, but just need to express my feelings today – which are ones of love and a broken heart.

Well actually, two (and more) broken hearts as this morning, I had to make the terrible decision to put my little dog to sleep. My Barley was a miracle dog on many levels. It was a miracle that he ever came to live with me 8 years ago as he was a perpetual runaway before we found each other and he learned stability and love.

When a dog joins my life, it’s for keeps – no matter what. In Barley’s case that meant curbing his inclination to go for walks on his own. More importantly, it involved keeping him fit, alive and happy over the past four years since he was diagnosed with a serious heart problem and given weeks to live.

Barley never knew he was ill and just got on with things – a lesson for us all. Although he could no longer chase the sticks he adored discovering on our walks, he kept on going. Worked out ways to climb the stairs, scramble onto the bed and remain master of the pack. He was my little godfather dog – a miracle helped by modern heart medicine.

He would look at me with eyes filled with that wisdom of generations of dogs who know when they’ve found a loving home. He adored me, and this was reciprocated a zillion times over. No matter how many drugs he needed, how many trips to the vet, how many hot roast chickens or increasingly slow walks, nothing was too much for my Barley.

Barley was a miracle dog for my other two. For my old boy, he reversed the depression that set in when his previous companion died. They soon became best of friends. For my mad Rhodesian Ridgeback who was totally untrained when I rehomed her, Barley taught her how to behave. When she stepped out of line, he would stop still, slowly turn to look at her – and she’d immediately know she had to mend her ways.

His body was a minor miracle as it adapted shape to fit his ever expanding heart. He had the biggest heart of any little dog – literally. I knew he couldn’t last forever; that his life would be shorter than without the heart problem. But we took the years, months, weeks, days, hours and seconds we were given and stretched them as far as possible.

He made it to 11 years old (thereabouts) but today – sadly we knew the time had come. Despite our best efforts time caught up with us.

Many people think of love on Valentine’s day – many nurse a broken heart. I do both for a little black and white mongrel dog. He filled my heart with memories and a love of life that we hoped was forever. His heart just broke today and mine is pretty bruised.

If you’ve ever loved and lost a dog, you’ll know how I feel. If you’ve ever been loved by a dog, you know how lucky I was to have my Barley.

Perhaps not a typical Valentine’s day love story – but a celebration of unconditional love all the same.

Is public relations out of touch?

Last December, Judy Gombita wrote about the pressures on PR practitioners and social businesses to remain in touch throughout the traditional Western holiday season – or at least to provide information on their availability.

One year on, and it seems most PR people are out of touch at this time of year. Their email bounce backs indicate in some cases, they are away from the office for up to three weeks. Indeed, the holiday period seems to stretch from Friday 14 December to Monday 14 January.

Of course, email is only one element of PR communications and many people work in teams, so share cover. But there’s a distinct impression that even with the advent of social media, public relations is largely out of touch.

The latest news on PR Week is around one week old now. The most recent posts at PR Moment are even older. Does this indicate an acceptance that there’s no point in talking with PR practitioners once the party season kicks in?

When I began working in PR around 20 years ago, I viewed the period between Christmas and New Year as a key time for reaching people. Back then, it meant preparing ideas in advance which the media could fit into their schedules. When I worked for a vehicle breakdown company, we issued fun seasonal stories, various weather related driving facts and advice, or reviews and forecasts, for example.

When mobile phones became more common, it was possible to have out of office contact (before then, it was usual for home numbers to be included in releases or provided to key media). Email made it possible to issue stories even when away from the desk (rather than relying on unpredictable Christmas post). Laptops and ftp enabled uploading of topical stories onto the internet.

Today we have the immediacy of social media – always on, demanding hyper connectivity from PR practitioners, or so we are led to believe. Perhaps this time of year provides a valuable silence, which I wrote about at PR Conversations in September. We all need to relax, get away from the everyday pressures and allow for calm reflection. Silent night – or a month maybe – without the cacophony of PR communications?

However, Twitter (or Instagram) shots of ‘celebs’ in their Christmas jumpers, onesies or swimwear on Caribbean getaways, shows this shade of PR has not taken a break.

Our marketing colleagues have also tapped into the shopping season. There was a seamless shift from advertising (offline and online) Christmas gifts, to last-minute vouchers, to Christmas day online shopping opportunities to full blown Sales. Promotional PR ran alongside this linear process.

Undoubtedly – or hopefully, crisis plans are in place should PR be called upon to handle some unforeseen issue over this period. The crush of meetings before the wind-down actioned planning and budgeting for 2013. Some PR people will be in the office catching up or looking ahead, making good use of this quiet period.

Others will be working in countries where the year end/start is business as usual. This is increasingly important in a 24:7 interconnected world. We need to be aware of the holiday periods in different parts of the planet. Many of these now extend into holiday weekends, providing opportunities for engagement rather than simply staying out of touch.

There are arguments both for and against a rest over the festive season – although it seems a contradictory modern phenomenon to go slow for up to a month when globalisation, multi-cultural communities and social media challenge us to be ever available.

I’ve always felt that PR blurs practitioners’ personal and professional lives, but I’m not clear whether I am out of touch given the tendency for many to be literally out of touch over the holidays.

Olympic lessons for public relations

As the Paralympic games get underway in London, it is hard not to be inspired by the achievement of athletes who have overcome considerable personal challenges to be the best in their field. This commitment to excellence (something I wrote about recently at PR Conversations), which we also witnessed in the London 2012 Olympics just a few weeks ago, offers a number of lessons for public relations.

Planning – we see the end result of years of planning, along with its limitations, as the games play out. Most of the steps that PR practitioners should apply in their work can be found in sports – setting goals, developing a strategy and detailed tactics, considering available resources and measuring results – on an ongoing basis, but with a clear end achievement in mind.  The limitations of planning (for example of the Team GB mens’ road cycling team) can be seen when flexibility – or a plan B – isn’t present.  As I advocate in The Public Relations Strategic Toolkit, planning needs to allow for changing circumstances, which is often reflected in adaptive athletic performances.

Team work – this is evident not only in sports where players have to work together to achieve the ultimate prize of a medal, but how athletes support each other at a national and a discipline level. The merits of this can raise the performance of the individual to higher levels as they seek to emulate the success that others achieve – and when things don’t go to plan, the team can help provide counsel and motivation to try again. In PR, we often hear people talk about being a team-player, but there seems little focus on how a team spirit is cultivated and how different competencies can work together with the sum of the parts resulting in a better performance.

The appliance of science – the consequences of investing in analysing performance and making improvements on the basis of sound data have been emphasised by a scientific approach to sport. The ‘marginal gains‘ ethos of the Team GB cycling team (also behind the team Sky Tour de France success) emphasises the cumulative effect of making 1% improvements across your entire modus operandi. This links to the Japanese idea of kaizen (continuous improvement) and also demonstrates that there is rarely a single magic solution to improving performance. How many of us working in public relations take a close look at our processes and procedures and eliminate what isn’t efficient? Do we look at where we can make marginal gains? I often ask students who submit planning assignments whether they could achieve the same (or better) results in different ways as it seems in PR we are often guilty of going with a good idea (or sometimes a poor one) without examining in detail alternative approaches, or how a plan could be tweaked to be executed to maximum effect – or improved year on year when an event is repeated for example.

Coaching – most of the athletes who picked up Olympic medals praised their coaches; the people often behind the scenes who focus on supporting and motivating those who physically reach for gold. I’ve rarely met anyone in PR who has a coach in their lives – whether in their organisation or professional network. Why not? We may have mentors or supportive bosses, but what about the role of a coach who is there to challenge and give guidance on training and development in the way we see in sports?

Talent spotting – alongside the coaches – and psychologists, sports scientists and so forth – many sports have invested in talent scouts. This is about identifying those with potential and pro-actively investing in their development. In public relations we have got better at encouraging young people to enter the field – although debates around paying interns and dismissing the value of degree courses continue to reflect barriers to real understanding of talent development in my view. I also think that talent spotting and development is something that should be done at all stages of a career. Let’s champion, mentor and invest in the best talent we can attract and retain to work in public relations – and stop tolerating the mediocre and those who propagate poor practices.

Building a narrative – part of the psychology of sports can be seen in visioning success. This is a mental process of building a story of what winning will be like and recalling the steps that lead to this result from previous experience. It can sound a bit fluffy, but as story-tellers in public relations, we are used to crafting narratives that present a particular position or perspective of information. I’m not advocating self-delusion or minimising the importance of the hard work that is required to reach the end point, but emphasising how there needs to be a strong narrative thread drawing together the dream and the potential outcome.

This last point about the importance of narrative was evident in the Olympic opening ceremony (bonkers and brilliant) crafted by Danny Boyle. He had a vision – which may have been as simple as putting on a performance that his late father would have loved – and carried that through. The narrative was captivating overall (in my view) but of course it took time, money and dedication of a cast of thousands to realise. But the story helped keep all the parts together. In marketing plans this is often viewed as a creative concept, and again, I don’t often see this approach underpinning PR plans, where there is huge potential to go beyond thinking of simple key messages and crafting a compelling narrative.

I am sure these points will be evident as the Paralympics unfold over the next couple of weeks. There will be times when plans go awry, when team support helps athletes cope with success, and failure, when less than 1% will separate the gold from the silver, from the bronze, from the rest, when final words of coaches provide the necessary uplift of confidence and motivation, when talent comes to the fore and when we all discover engaging new stories.

Let the games begin…

PR is about action not procrastination

PR time – balancing urgency and importance (after Stephen Covey)

One of those silly PR surveys yesterday made me think – it was about procrastination and the time we waste in putting things off. I am very familiar with the idea with students – and PR practitioners – who are deadline-oriented creatures and expert also at displacement behaviour where you focus on other tasks rather than knuckling down to the priority at hand.

I also advocate Stephen Covey‘s notion of ‘first things first’ and include an adaptation of his urgent-important matrix in the forthcoming Public Relations Strategic Toolkit.

Feminization of public relations

I’ve produced this infographic as part of my presentation at next week’s International History of Public Relations Conference. My paper aims to foreground the career experiences of women working in public relations in Britain during the 1970s and 1980s. As well as reviewing the existing historical literature (where the presence of women is largely missing) and conducting qualitative interviews, I wanted to put the story into some statistical context.

Although the veracity of any data is impossible to verify, it does provide heuristic knowledge of the increased feminization of the field of public relations over the past four decades. During the 1970s and 1980s, the data indicates the percentage of women in PR in the UK increased from around 10% to 40% – from one to four in every ten practitioners. This has risen further in the last twenty years to almost seven in ten practitioners.

God Save the Queen – a life in public relations

The Jubilee celebrations marking 60 years since Queen Elizabeth II became monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland have reflected an enormous spectacle of public relations. They have provided a promotional occasion for London, the Royal Family, several Commonwealth countries and (in a more subtle and less aggressive way than the forthcoming Olympics), for several brands, such as Waitrose which provided the Buckingham Palace picnic hampers.

Titanic centenary – memorial or marketing?

The disaster of the Titanic’s sinking a centenary ago has been reported in crisis management texts such as Fearn-Banks to illustrate the need for planning and other advice the authors wish to highlight. However, reading Coombs it is clear that the key issues were operational, so the Titanic appears appropriated by public relations as a reason for criticism, even before there was an established occupation to critique.

Are you too smart to work in PR?

“For decades a stream of bright young men and women, most of them with college degrees ranging from B.S. to Ph.D., have been coming to my office to ask me and my wife how to enter the profession of public relations.”

These words were written by Edward Bernays in his 1961 publication: Your Future in Public Relations.

In 1943, a chapter in Averill Broughton’s book: The New Profession, asked ‘Do you belong in the public relations field?  Broughton noted:

Let us grant that any really intelligent man or woman of imagination and sensitivity, who also possesses good business judgment and a wide experience with people and the practical world we live in, can become a successful public relations executive.