I’ve noticed a disturbing trend that has been growing right along with the Internet: Lifting printed material off of Web pages and passing it off as own’s own writing.

This actually happened not once, but twice this week at the magazine. One author “wrote” an article for us that turned out to be, basically word-for-word, a company’s educational brochure, which had been posted online. Another author took material directly from a Web site and inserted it into her article. And, a couple of months ago, someone who spoke to a reporter spoke words directly from a Web site, pretending they were her own.

Our editors check to make sure the material we publish is original (both of the articles that came in this week were found out, and will not run in MASSAGE).

I have to believe that some people simply don’t understand what plagiarism is, and how to put together original material. So I offer this, for those who are creating Web sites or marketing materials:

- If you see text on a Web site that you want to use, contact the site’s owner and request permission to use it. Then put quotation marks around the text when you post it on your site, and attribute the material to the original site. You should, however, make sure that the text was original to the site you saw it on, and not lifted from somewhere else. This rule also applies to text in print form.

- Generally, copyright law allows us to use up to 100 words of someone else’s work without obtaining permission to do so. Attribution (where the material came from) must still be noted.

- If you’re writing an article for a newspaper or magazine, follow the steps above, and also hand in a source list so the editors can fact-check your material.

- If a reporter asks you for quotes for an article, make sure they’re your own, not something you’ve read.

In this electronic age, access to information is easier than ever. Using it without permission, though, is a legal liability to the one who “borrows” it, and disrespectful to the one who created it.

Until next time!

I’ve been corresponding with a MASSAGE Magazine reader who had some surprising information to share about the spa she works at. I’ll leave the therapist’s and spa’s name out of this posting; I’m sharing it because I’d like to hear from readers to find out if you’ve ever heard of anything like this.

This woman is a massage therapist employed by the spa (she is an employee, not an independent contractor). Every time she gives a massage session, the spa charges her, the employee, a “product charge” of $4.25. As this therapist notes, “The actual cost of product is pennies.”

In 2006, she told me, more than $3,000 was deducted from her pay to pay for the products she used to massage the spa’s customers. This therapist contacted the Department of Labor in the state where she lives, and found out this practice is legal. Still, I’m surprised by this situation.

Stories of massage therapists treated by spas in a less-than-exemplary manner used to abound in the massage field. Therapists at spas used to be expected to perform many massages, back to back, each day, for example, for a low percentage of the total session fee.

Have things changed? Spas are the number-one employer of massage therapists in North America (www.massagemag.com/News/2007/June/SpaTrends.php), and I would hope that relations between spas as employers and massage therapists as employees has improved in recent years; yet, charging an employed massage therapist a product fee doesn’t seem like a very positive management practice.

What is your experience—positive or negative—with working at a spa? You can leave a comment here, or email me at kmenehan@massagemag.com.

Until next time,

Karen

Karen Menehan
MASSAGE Magazine Editor-in-Chief

This weekend I visited a good friend in Northern California. Her twin boys, Will and George, are 7 now. Seven! How did that happen, when it seems they were just tiny babies?

As always, my friend Mimi and I reminisced; we’ve known each other for 25 years, so we have lots of funny, and some not so funny, stories in common. We have camped and backpacked together, worked together in both a disc-drive factory and an upscale restaurant, and traveled to New Orleans together before the town was hit by Hurricane Katrina. And since we live a few hours’ apart from each other now, there are always lots of new stories to share with each other. Friends have died, and babies have been born.

As we all travel through life, there is so much to notice, so much to appreciate. So many stories.

One of my favorite sections to edit here at MASSAGE Magazine is Imprints. That’s where we run stories from clients and therapists of heartwarming or humorous events. We’ve published articles about seemingly miraculous client healings, therapists’ world travels, funny business situations, and outreach for the homeless, children and medical patients—and so many other topics.

Which leads me to ask, what’s your story? Send your idea for an article my way, and your Imprint could be published in MASSAGE Magazine. You can reach me at kmenehan@massagemag.com.

Until next time,

Karen

Karen Menehan
MASSAGE Magazine Editor-in-Chief

There has been some discussion by the media lately about beauty-product safety. Do you really know what’s in your lipstick or eyeshadow? How about your massage lotion? Some ingredients in popular products have been linked to allergies, toxicity, even cancer.

So I was happy when MASSAGE Magazine reader Jon Borges recently told me about a Web site that takes a lot of the guesswork out of purchasing products for our faces and bodies.

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetic’s (http://safecosmetics.org) database allows you to search by company name, product name or ingredient and obtain reviews and ratings on product safety.

I have to admit it: Until I visited this site I had no idea that personal-care products like lotions, shampoos and cosmetics are not regulated by the FDA. “It is perfectly legal and very common for companies to use ingredients that are known or suspected to be carcinogens, mutagens or reproductive toxins in the their products,” the Web site notes.

The campaign itself entails a “Compact for Safe Cosmetics,” which is “a pledge to remove toxic chemicals and replace them with safer alternatives in every market they serve. So far, 600 companies have joined the pledge.

I urge you to visit the campaign’s site to find out what you’re really putting on your—and your clients’—body, and I also urge any company that formulates products for the massage field to enter information about their products and sign the Compact for Safe Cosmetics.

Until next time,
Karen

Karen Menehan
MASSAGE Magazine Editor-in-Chief

Welcome to my blog! I’m looking forward to telling you about some of the behind-scenes action here at MASSAGE Magazine, and sharing ideas and information about the massage profession.

MASSAGE has some exciting changes planned for 2008. Among them: a new business column that will give you more of the financial nuts and bolts of running a practice. Author Eva Rosenberg (http://taxmama.com) runs a full-time tax practice; teaches nationwide; and is the author of “Small Business Taxes Made Easy: How to Increase Your Deductions, Reduce What You Owe, and Boost Your Profits.” She’ll be writing about a lot more than just taxes, though. I can’t give too much away here; let’s just say these will be the most in-depth business articles offered by any massage publication!

This new column—and some other new material that I’ll tell you about soon—will begin in MASSAGE’s February issue. Our January issue is our annual Buyers Guide, which you’ll want to save and refer to all year.

Until next time,

Karen

Karen Menehan
MASSAGE Magazine Editor-in-Chief