Jane Goodall Makes Apology For Plagiarizing Latest Book; Washington Post Investigation Discovered Plagiarism

The Washington Post has discovered numerous plagiarized passages in Jane Goodall's latest book Seeds Of Hope. The theft of the passages has forced Goodall to apologize.

Jane Goodall is a world-renowned primatologist; she has been working with and studying chimpanzees since the late 1950's.

Her latest book co-written by Gail Hudson, Seeds of Hope is about plants, which is not Goodall's area of expertise. The Washington Post investigation revealed that passages in Goodall's book were plagiarized from Wikipedia and other websites including, Choice Organic Teas, Find Your Fate and niichro.com.

The Washington Post says, "Goodall explains the toxic dangers in some detail, writing: "Most of these chemicals - such as Aldrin 20E, Carbofuran 30, Endosulfan 35 EC, Malathion 50 EC, Tetradifon 8 EC, Calixin 80 EC - are listed as hazardous and toxic, and a number of them are banned in Western countries. Despite dangers of exposure to these poisons, the workers are frequently barefoot and in shorts rather than protected by recommended aprons."

The Post article goes on to say, "This material is replicated nearly verbatim from the same Web site page. Both passages also appear in nearly identical language on other organic tea Web sites and in the 2008 book, "Big Green Purse: Use Your Spending Power to Create a Cleaner, Greener World" by Diane MacEachern. The language can be traced to a 2002 draft report, "The Tea Market - A Background Study," which lacks an authorship credit."

Once the Washington Post article was released the Jane Goodall Institute issued an apology for the lack of proper citation in her book.

"During extensive research I spoke to as many experts as possible," writes Goodall in a statement released by the Jane Goodall Institute. "I also visited numerous websites dedicated to celebrating, protecting and preserving the plants of the world. 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."

Comments left on the Daily Beast website, another publication covering the Good all apology both support and condemn Goodall.

Username Kawlijah says, "A rose by any other name is still a rose. Plagiarism by any other name is still plagiarism, even if the writer is Jane Goodall."

"I'm sure Jane [Goodall] will straighten this out. I'm also sure she didn't have anything to do with this and depended on others to help her," writes KCMOfan.

In her apology Goodall says she will correct the mistakes in her book on her blog. She says she will also properly cite her sources in future publications of Seeds Of Hope.