Quote Investigator: QI has made some further progress tracing the humorous quotation that contrasts plagiarism with research. Here is a common version of the saying:
If you steal from one author, it’s plagiarism; if you steal from many, it’s research.
Previously the earliest known instance of this adage was dated 1938, but QI has located a new citation in 1932. A version of the saying was used by a representative of the McGraw-Hill publishing company named Ralph Foss during a conference for librarians [SLP]:
I am reminded of the man who was asked what plagiarism was. He said: “It is plagiarism when you take something out of a book and use it as your own. If you take it out of several books then it is research.”
The blog entry on this topic that was first posted on September 20th noted that the phrase was used by multiple people in 1938. The saying was attributed to Wilson Mizner by the hotel manager Frank Case; the expression was used directly by art teacher Joseph Cummings Chase; and Asa George Baker credited the words to a librarian. Perhaps the 1932 citation above helped catalyze the attribution to a librarian.
The exceptional researcher Barry Popik sent QI another interesting citation from 1939.