Plagiarism kills publishing, innovation - Daily Nation

An essential ingredient of all publishing is originality of content. Content here is taken to mean information being conveyed and how it is presented. A properly referenced piece of writing is distinguished from self-indulgent twaddle by the originality of the content and unique packaging.

When credible publications borrow material from secondary sources, it’s good practice to acknowledge them. This is further acknowledgment of the fact that sources of content are integral when making the decision to publish.

Publishers are constantly vouching for originality of the content they publish, which constitutes real value to the consumer. We faced the challenge recently at the Kenya Yearbook Editorial Board (KYEB) as we sought to ensure that our new book title, Women Trailblazers in Kenya, was up to scratch.

The task was not made any easier by the fact that the stories of these prominent personalities had previously been documented elsewhere. How do you ensure that the stories are free of plagiarism? How do we tell the stories differently? We leave our readers to judge the results of our painstaking work.

The challenges are the same when called upon to tell the stories of our founding fathers — as we have done before with the publication of the Kenyatta Cabinets and Kick-off coffee table books. The question uppermost in our minds should be whether we are regurgitating the old available information or have a fresh way of retelling their stories. How do we write captivatingly about such subject matter that has historical resonance?

Clearly, publishers have a duty to ensure their revise and rewrite editors are truly up to task as they plough through content with a tooth comb to ensure that plagiarism does not compromise the value of the content they present to their readers. Thank God, today there is software that enables one to verify whether certain content had been published before.

In the course of writing, we derive impetus from the information we gather that has been published. Indeed, such information helps us determine where there are gaps. Once we identify a part of the subject matter that has not been told, we are able to come up with novel content that becomes part of the building blocks of perpetuating knowledge. Suffice it to say that “knowledge is built by people with knowledge”.

Without familiarity of content previously published in a particular field, it is virtually impossible to claim authoritatively that one is creating new knowledge, leave alone useful content. Essentially, the pursuit and packaging of content, as is the case with knowledge, is an intricately interwoven affair that calls for constant cross-referencing.

The intimated continuum of growth of knowledge and, by extension, content should explain why teaching and learning must not be allowed to take place on static recordings that allow no room for improvement, inquiry and interrogation.

It is critical that the question of context be addressed every time we share information. This is significant because the level of depth and complexity of information should anticipate the level of comprehension of the target audience. Again, the forum for which content is designed will dictate the nature of technical detail.

While an academic journal addresses a certain type of audience, a yearbook or newspaper, meant for general reading, will call for a different type of packaging.

The same goes for statistical data, where those less inclined to the interpretation of graphs and other less abstract data should be served with, say, content that is explained using photos and illustrations that, nonetheless, capture the essence of the story.

On this score, there are notable intellectuals in Kenya who have distinguished themselves as astute scholars when it comes to packaging information, earning them admiration among their professional peers. They have done a wonderful job of stepping down technical language to layman level when they write for the newspapers.

To ensure we give the best possible to our readers via publications, we must be cognisant of how we handle content, add value through research, package the right content for the right target audience and, above all, make our product easy and enjoyable to read and comprehend.

Production of content that is guided by clear tenets of furtherance of knowledge that is useful to targeted audiences will certainly add value to conversations today and in the future. This is what publishers ought to constantly focus on.

Mr Mwasi, a publishing expert, is the CEO of Kenya Yearbook Editorial Board.