HealthyPlace bills itself as a large mental health website, claiming its the largest online (although ComScore, an independent Internet traffic measuring service disagrees, pegging its US audience at only 135,000 — just 16 percent of Psych Central’s US audience). It’s certainly been around for many years.
Yet for such a large website (and HealthyPlace previously lost its HON accreditation just three years ago), it sure appears to play fast and loose with content attribution.
“Content attribution” means simply that when you are reprinting content from other websites, you properly attribute and credit that source as the author of the article. Many websites are guilty of taking other people’s content and not giving proper attribution — it’s a common problem for online publishers. But most publishers work hard to ensure all content is properly attributed and, if need be, links back to the original website are included (a common requirement).
But I’ve never seen such wholesale copying and pasting (known in the business as copypasta) as what is done on HealthyPlace. Some people might call this wholesale plagiarism, but I will give HealthyPlace the benefit of the doubt and just say they must have simply forgotten to put in the attributions and gotten the proper permissions.
Below, you will find just a few dozen of the articles we found — with little actual research — that violate other websites’ and authors’ copyright and are published on HealthyPlace without attribution.
HealthyPlace and Lack of Attribution Articles
Not every article listed below is a complete and wholesale copying from the source website; sometimes HealthyPlace takes just a large portion of the article source, and then either combines it with other unattributed content, or adds a paragraph or two to try and make it seem like their own content.
In the list below, the first URL is the HealthyPlace article that is either missing attribution altogether, or suggests the reference article that follows (the second URL) is merely a “source” (when the copying is done wholesale and the source is actually the author). Almost every one of these articles is supposedly authored by an anonymous “HealthyPlace.com Staff Writer.” We have made copies of these pages, in case they suddenly change them and claim they always had proper attribution.
http://www.healthyplace.com/other-info/mental-illness-overview/what-is-a-mental-illness/menu-id-198/
http://www.nmha.org/go/action/stigma-watch
http://www.healthyplace.com/other-info/mental-illness-overview/how-do-you-know-if-a-mental-health-treatment-really-works/menu-id-198/
http://www.bluepages.anu.edu.au/treatments/scientific_evidence/
http://www.healthyplace.com/other-info/mental-illness-overview/how-do-you-know-if-you-need-therapy/menu-id-198/
http://www.enotalone.com/article/4883.html
http://www.healthyplace.com/other-info/mental-illness-overview/talking-treatments-for-mental-health/menu-id-198/
http://www.mind.org.uk/help/medical_and_alternative_care/understanding_talking_treatments
http://www.healthyplace.com/other-info/mental-illness-overview/types-of-therapy/menu-id-198/page-2/
http://www.psychnet-uk.com/x_new_site/psychotherapy/summary_of_therapy_types.html
http://www.healthyplace.com/other-info/mental-illness-overview/how-to-pay-for-mental-health-services/menu-id-198/
http://www.mhatc.org/fact_sheet_pdf/ How%20to%20Pay%20for%20Mental%20 Health%20Services.pdf
http://www.healthyplace.com/other-info/mental-illness-overview/coming-to-terms-with-a-family-members-mental-illness/menu-id-198/
http://www.associatedtherapists.com/ announcefamilymember.htm
http://www.healthyplace.com/adhd/treatment/behavior-therapy-for-children-with-adhd/menu-id-53/
http://www.revolutionhealth.com/ conditions/mental-behavioral-health/adhd/therapy/behavior-therapy (HealthWise)
http://www.healthyplace.com/alternative-mental-health/adhd/hormones-and-herbs-for-treating-adhd/menu-id-55/
http://www.lef.org/protocols/ emotional_health/attention_deficit_hyperactivity_01.htm
http://www.healthyplace.com/depression/severe-depression-treatment/possible-causes-of-hard-to-treat-depression/menu-id-2191/
http://www.examiner.com/ depression-in-west-palm-beach/ are-you-still-depressed-after-treatment?render=print
http://www.healthyplace.com/bipolar-disorder/treatment/ect-electroconvulsive-therapy-for-bipolar-disorder/menu-id-67/
http://www.umm.edu/patiented/articles/ where_else_can_help_be_obtained_bipolar_disorder_000066_10.htm
http://www.healthyplace.com/thought-disorders/main/schizophrenia-overview/menu-id-64/
http://www.cidpusa.org/schizophrenia.htm
http://www.healthyplace.com/thought-disorders/articles/beautiful-but-not-rare-recovery/menu-id-64/page-2/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A59614-2002Feb11¬Found=true
http://www.healthyplace.com/thought-disorders/articles/overcoming-the-impossible-my-journey-through-schizophrenia/menu-id-64/
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200101/overcoming-the-impossible
http://www.healthyplace.com/anxiety-panic/main/anxiety-disorders-symptoms-to-treatments/menu-id-69/
http://www.suffolkcognitivetherapy.com/fact2.htm and http://www.freedomfromfear.org/aanx_factsheet.asp?id=17
http://www.healthyplace.com/anxiety-panic/main/talking-to-children-about-terrorism-and-war/menu-id-69/
http://aacap.org/page.ww?name=Talking+to+Children+about+Terrorism+and+War§ion=Facts+for+Families
http://www.healthyplace.com/bipolar-disorder/women/treating-bipolar-disorder-during-pregnancy/menu-id-67/
http://www.obgmanagement.com/pdf/1601/1601OBGM_Article2.pdf
http://www.healthyplace.com/bipolar-disorder/women/breastfeeding-and-psychiatric-medications/menu-id-67/page-2/
http://www.healthyplace.com/bipolar-disorder/women/breastfeeding-and-psychiatric-medications/menu-id-67/
http://www.healthyplace.com/anxiety-panic/ocd-center/does-your-child-have-obsessive-compulsive-disorder/menu-id-60/
http://replay.waybackmachine.org/20060318021448/http://www.kidshealth.com/parent/emotions/behavior/OCD.html
http://www.healthyplace.com/anxiety-panic/ocd-center/so-much-clutter-so-little-room-examining-the-roots-of-hoarding/menu-id-60/
http://www.healthyplace.com/other-info/mental-illness-overview/how-do-you-know-if-you-need-therapy/menu-id-198/page-2/
http://www.enotalone.com/article/25073.html
http://www.healthyplace.com/other-info/mental-illness-overview/types-of-therapy/menu-id-198/page-3/
http://www.psyweb.com/Mdisord/MdisordADV/AdvPsych.jsp
http://www.healthyplace.com/anxiety-panic/ocd-center/hoarding-not-a-usual-compulsion/menu-id-60/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3769677.stm
http://www.healthyplace.com/abuse/dissociative-identity-disorder/types-of-dissociative-disorders/menu-id-57/
http://www.dissociationuk.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/dissociation.html
http://www.healthyplace.com/abuse/dissociative-identity-disorder/diagnosis-of-dissociative-identity-disorder-did/menu-id-57/
http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=Helpline&Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=20562
http://www.healthyplace.com/depression/grief/coping-with-loss-bereavement-and-grief/menu-id-68/page-2/
http://www.nmha.org/reunions/infoCoping.cfm
http://www.healthyplace.com/depression/grief/grief-recovery/menu-id-68/
http://www.grief-recovery.co.uk/programmes.htm
http://www.healthyplace.com/depression/grief/nine-common-myths-and-realities-about-grief/menu-id-68/
http://www.nfda.org/grief-resources/understanding-death-a-grief/43.html
http://www.healthyplace.com/thought-disorders/main/schizophrenia-overview/menu-id-64/page-2/
http://www.cidpusa.org/schizophrenia.htm
http://www.healthyplace.com/thought-disorders/articles/beautiful-but-not-rare-recovery/menu-id-64/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A59614-2002Feb11¬Found=true
http://www.healthyplace.com/adhd/depression-and-adhd/neurofeedback-for-depression-and-adhd/menu-id-53/
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/03/prweb115160.htm
http://www.healthyplace.com/adhd/depression-and-adhd/nine-symptoms-of-depression/menu-id-53/
http://www.nasdonline.org/document/1453/d001247/understanding-depression-yours-and-theirs.html
http://www.healthyplace.com/adhd/depression-and-adhd/adhd-and-teen-depression/menu-id-53/
http://www.babyart.org/teen/teenager-depression.html
This is simply a sampling of articles where we found no attribution in the article that appeared on HealthyPlace. There were also plenty of properly attributed articles that we came across in our research, and even some original content. The sheer variety of sources that HealthyPlace is getting its unattributed content from is impressive — ranging from The New York Times and The Washington Post, to non-profit organizations, UK charities, and professional publications.
HealthyPlace seems to be a less-than-healthy place if you’re an author or copyright holder. Because it appears to do a fair amount of copying and pasting of other people’s content, without telling its readers it’s doing so, and apparently — as far as we can tell — with little respect for other publications’ copyright. We can only guess about motivation, but one might suspect that it’s far cheaper to copy and paste other people’s content than it is to pay for it.
This may be the tip of the iceberg, or this may be just an unlucky random sampling. Forgive us if this seems petty, but we expect more from a website that bills itself as “America’s Mental Health Channel.”
