August 15, 2016
At the beginning of July 2016, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. received allegations against one of its New Testament commentaries and immediately undertook a careful investigation. Eerdmans is now withdrawing that book and two others by the same author.
Eerdmans editors compared the text of The Letter to the Hebrews (Pillar New Testament Commentary, 2010) with various secondary sources and submitted findings to external experts for verification. Summing up the findings, Editor-in-chief James Ernest said, "Our own editors and our outside consultants agreed that what we found on the pages of this commentary runs afoul of commonly accepted standards with regard to the utilization and documentation of secondary sources. We agreed that the book could not be retained in print."
Examination of the same author's Letter to the Ephesians (PNTC, 1999) and Epistle to the Philippians (New International Greek Testament Commentary, 1991) found them less pervasively flawed but still untenable.
The author, Peter T. O'Brien, was presented with the findings and provided the following response: "In the New Testament commentaries that I have written, although I have never deliberately misused the work of others, nevertheless I now see that my work processes at times have been faulty and have generated clear-cut, but unintentional, plagiarism. For this I apologize without reservation."
President and publisher Anita Eerdmans summed up the company's stance as follows: "Eerdmans is steadfastly committed to the highest ethical standards in academic and business practice, and we apologize to all who are negatively affected by this situation. Our Bible commentary series, among the best of their kind, are authored and edited by the field's top scholars. The strong measures we are taking in this case are meant to underscore our firm belief that our commentary program is, and must remain, solid."
Eerdmans is taking the following steps:
● Ceasing sales and pulp stock of all three volumes, placing them out of print.● Offering credit to individuals and trade partners who have purchased the above three volumes. For detailed instructions on how to pursue this option, please write to commentarycredit@eerdmans.com.● Discussing best practices for quality control with press editors, series editors, and authors.
Members of the media wishing to contact Eerdmans may send e-mail to publicity@eerdmans.com.
We just learned about this and are reviewing the situation to determine the best way to proceed.
For now, we are removing these volumes from our website.
We'll post here with updates.
Thanks!
Senior Director, Content Products
Ouch.
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Humbling to see a godly theologian fall into error by carelessness. For my money, O'Brien has the second best commentary on Ephesians (after Hoehner). Since I gave my print copy away, I hope I get to keep my Logos one!
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I hope we get to keep them, they are extremely helpful regardless! The information plagiarized or not is awesome and doesn't undermine the quality of the work (just my opinion). I don't want credit and if they want MY copies, they need to pay big bucks for them! (Publisher, that is, not FL is not their fault).
DAL
I guess this begs the question... Since we have this digital library, can FL legally just pull these from our "virtual" library?
I mean if I had it in print, i can touch it,. But this digital books its a different story.
Don't worry, we won't take anything away without your approval. If you like these commentaries, you'll be able to keep them.
Matthew Miller: Don't worry, we won't take anything away without your approval. If you like these commentaries, you'll be able to keep them.
This is good news. I was getting worried.
James C.: Matthew Miller: Don't worry, we won't take anything away without your approval. If you like these commentaries, you'll be able to keep them. This is good news. I was getting worried.
Ditto, thank you, FL! 👍
"If you like your commentary, you can keep your commentary."
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So, what's the BIG Problem about it? He just forget to mentioned the Name of someone else he cited? Just put the Name in and that is it.
Matthew Miller: If you like these commentaries, you'll be able to keep them.
Sounds eerily similar to, "If you like your Dr,, You can keep your Dr.."
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Matthew C Jones: Matthew Miller: If you like these commentaries, you'll be able to keep them. Sounds eerily similar to, "If you like your Dr,, You can keep your Dr.."
I would expect FL to be a bit more honest than…
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Jack Caviness:I would expect FL to be a bit more honest than…
Seriously though, I wanna keep the commentaries. (And I do believe Faithlife.)
Can't there be one place I can go and not run into politics ?
Orthodox Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."
Seems to me the content of the commentary is still strong - if under referenced. At this point I think I want to keep mine. We shall see. I saw this in another forum, and wondered what Logos would do. Glad to see they have already responded.
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I would think that Logos cannot remove your books unilaterally any more than Eerdman's can come to your house and claim your physical copies.
Still, it's a very unfortunate situation. The commentaries will remain useful to read, but one would have to be very careful about citing them. I wouldn't to give mine up, but it would be nice if they could be flagged somehow as a reminder.
Sean:... I wouldn't to give mine up, but it would be nice if they could be flagged somehow as a reminder.
Perhaps resource citation could have a reminder.
Awesome would be resource updates with secondary sources appropriately cited.
Keep Smiling
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Keep Smiling 4 Jesus :): Sean:... I wouldn't to give mine up, but it would be nice if they could be flagged somehow as a reminder. Perhaps resource citation could have a reminder. Awesome would be resource updates with secondary sources appropriately cited. Keep Smiling
My thoughts also.
Plagiarism is such a slippery thing. I like Peter O'Brien's work and I believe that it was unintentional. Still, the rules regarding plagiarism in academic work is very strict. I hope they offer him the chance to correct his mistakes.