Some retraction news from outside of science: The Bath Magazine has pulled an issue whose running-centric cover was virtually identical to that of the Boston Magazine tribute to last year’s tragic marathon in that city.
According to the Bath Chronicle, the UK magazine was aware of the Boston Magazine cover art — a heart-shaped ring of running shoes — but decided to proceed with its version anyway. We’d call that an error in judgment.
From the Bath Chronicle:
The Bath Magazine has recalled 18,000 copies of its February edition and will now print a fresh cover before it is redistributed early next week.
…
Bath Magazine posted an open letter on its website this morning from publisher Steve Miklos admitting the publication knew about the Boston Magazine front page but decided to proceed anyway.
Mr Miklos explained the idea behind the Bath front page image was to merge the magazine’s two February themes the Bath Half and Valentine’s Day.
Boston Magazine, for its part, was not pleased by the overlap:
Last spring, as we tried to figure out how best to honor the resilience of our city in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings, we asked runners to lend us the shoes they wore in the race. In turn, their shoes, and the cover we produced, helped us to raise over $125,000 for the One Fund, the charity established here to benefit those affected by the bombing.
You liked the shoes cover so much that you borrowed (others have used less charitable phrases) the concept for your February issue on the half marathon in Bath.
We can’t speak for the dozens of runners who donated their shoes to us for that image. We can’t speak for the runners who are preparing to run this April. But we hope that if you were so bold as to borrow our idea, you will also borrow the spirit of that cover – and make a significant donation to the One Fund in the name of those who were unable to finish the race.
Bath Magazine did promise to make a donation to the fund.
Hat tip: Death Reference Desk
Uh-oh. The Bath Magazine’s website is currently down (500 Internal Server Error): http://thebathmag.co.uk/
Yup, took me awhile to figure out that the Bath Magazine wasn’t about designing bathrooms… and the Bath Half (half bath!) really threw me. I could not figure out why they would put shoes on their cover. Got it now.
I see no issue here at all. They used different shoes and the heart has a different shape.