Now Three Takes on Plagiarism
Just read two interesting takes on plagiarism. First one is from the Daily Times editorial and the second one is a news report from DNA.
Teachers should not defend plagiarists!
A general body meeting of the Punjab University Academic Staff Association (PUASA) has taken a very strange stance on the matter of plagiarism among the university faculty. The teachers condemned the compulsory retirement of six professors — one from the psychology department and five from the physics department — against whom plagiarism was proved. Their plea was that removals were effected to pressurise the teachers. But the question is: pressurise for what? If the pressure is being felt against the tendency to copy other people’s theses then this pressure is demanded by a civil society already harassed by news of intellectual theft at the University.
Meanwhile, the vice-chancellor, Prof Mujahid Kamran, should be supported in his campaign against plagiarism in the once great seat of learning in Lahore. The Higher Education Commission has been keeping its grants in abeyance during the time it took for the University to punish the plagiarists. It has now released the funds. Meanwhile, at the Government College University (GCU) in Lahore a similar action against an erring teacher has earned the gratitude of those who want to see our teachers better rewarded for original research. Unless plagiarism is treated with toughness, merit will not be properly recognised. *
and from mumbai
Mayank Tewari
NEW DELHI: Some of India’s most reputed academics, including a vice chancellor and the director of a top Delhi engineering college, are under investigation for plagiarism, as the cancer of copying from other people’s work spreads across all layers of Indian higher education.
DNA had last week reported how a professor at the Sri Venkateshwara University in Tirupati had plagiarised 70 scientific papers, and published them in international journals, only to be finally exposed.
But the professor continues to teach at the varsity.
With no severe punishment for such academic fraud and in the absence of guidelines, Indian higher education institutions are witnessing massive spread of the malaise, because published scientific papers are key to promotions and good postings.
“Even researchers from some high profile institutes like the IITs are indulging in plagiarism,” says Dr KL Chopra, president of the Society for Scientific Values, which is dedicated to detecting scientific fraud.
Last week, the vice chancellor of the Aligarh Muslim University, Prof PK Abdul Aziz, was asked to go on a long leave by the Uttar Pradesh governor till allegations that he copied his Phd thesis are refuted.
Dr Ranjit Singh, Director of one of India’s top engineering colleges, Netaji Subhash Institute of Technology in Delhi, is being investigated by the institute’s governing for allegedly copying the works of other scientists and claiming them as his own. Turn to
“What India needs are clear regulations and guidelines to deal with scientists who have been found guilty of misconduct in research or plagiarism,” says Dr KL Chopra, who is a former director of IIT Kharagpur. The Society for Scientific values exposed Prof Abdul Aziz and Prof Ranjit Singh.
and now this:
Senior White House aide admits plagiarism From Kathleen Koch
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A senior White House official admitted Friday that he copied large sections of another writer's work for an essay appearing in a Fort Wayne, Indiana, newspaper.
The White House aide admits he plagiarized in an essay he wrote.
In an e-mail to The News-Sentinel, Tim Goeglein, special assistant to the president and deputy director of public liaison, apologizes, saying, "It is true. I am entirely at fault. It was wrong of me. There are no excuses."
Goeglein goes on to say he has reached out to the author, Jeffery Hart, whose 1998 writings in the Dartmouth Review he copied nearly verbatim.
"I have written to Jeff to apologize, and do so categorically and without exception," he said.
The White House press office provided the e-mail to CNN. Spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore said the White House was made aware of Goeglein's column and actions Friday morning.
And is falsehood same as plagiarising?Author of best-selling Holocaust book admits falsehood
She didn't live with a pack of wolves to escape the Nazis. She didn't trek 1,900 miles across Europe in search of her deported parents, nor kill a German soldier in self-defense. She's not even Jewish.
Defonseca, a Belgian writer now living in Massachusetts, admitted through her lawyers this week that her best-selling book, Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years, was an elaborate fantasy she kept repeating, even as the book was translated into 18 languages and made into a feature film in France.
"This story is mine. It is not actually reality, but my reality, my way of surviving," Defonseca said in a statement given by her lawyers to The Associated Press.
"I ask forgiveness to all who felt betrayed. I beg you to put yourself in my place, of a 4-year-old girl who was very lost," the statement said.
posted by temporal at 2/29/2008
4 Comments:
"Palgiarism" ??
its self-explanatory isn't it.. of course people are not putting in the effort to write their own material.. just as they are not putting in the effort to spell check what they publish!
oops!
thanks for pointing it out.
fixed the typo
:)
Governor being misled by HEC on charges of plagiarism
EMANUEL SARFRAZ
LAHORE - The Higher Education Commission of Pakistan’s blacklisting five faculty members of Punjab University’s Centre for High Energy Physics seems to be a biased decision, as they are not considered plagiarists by the foreign institutions.
Prof Dr Fazal-e-Aleem, who has earned the status of meritorious professor, Maqsood Ahmad, Rashid Ahmad, Sohail Fazal and M Alam Saeed were accused of plagiarism with respect to six different publications. All are continuing to write research papers as the American Institute of Physics never alleged plagiarism against them and continues to publish their papers.
Of the six papers stated to have been plagiarised, Dr Aleem was shown as one of the authors of five of them. Interestingly he was not among the authors of the paper ‘Benefits of Basic Science’. The paper ‘Current status of exotic hadrons’ was part of the allegations. The paper was revised through an errata handed over to the editor on April 9, 2006. This was before the complaint was lodged by Dr Mujahid Kamran then serving as dean of science at the Punjab University. The other articles ‘Computational methods: Tool for Electronic Structure Analysis of Solids’ and ‘Path of Elementary Particles’ were also retracted and the thought republished. Interestingly this fact was not considered during the inquiry. The HEC in its newsletter declared Dr Aleem and other CHEP faculty members of plagiarism even before the final decision had been made.
A researcher is well within his rights to send an erratum to the publisher to rectify any mistake made by him or to add/ omit anything published in a research journal or even textbooks. Errata/Retractions are a normal and internationally acknowledged way of dealing with inadvertent mistakes, human and electronic errors and even to incorporate further developments or changes. It would be of interest to notice that Nobel Laureates like Rutherford and Chairman HEC Ataur Rehman had errata published to their research papers.
Meanwhile, ‘Current status of exotic hadrons’ was published by AIP as part of the conference proceedings held in Cairo. Editor of the proceedings and the Program Chair Lotfia El Nadi on receiving the complaint termed it “out of place”. “The paper is a review article in which the authors presented recent experiments of worldwide laboratories, not their own work. The authors do not claim any results of their own. The authors handed over errata. We consider the complaint of Dr Mujahid Kamran as out of place,” she wrote to the then VC. The referring conference committee found no plagiarism.
The paper ‘Technology in Aid of Physics Teaching’ was never published and Dr Aleem also did not participate in the conference.
The paper ‘Benefits of Basic Science’ was published in a web magazine ‘Science of Africa’. It was without and ISSN number and for this publication no credit can be claimed by the authors. It was not a research article but a popular one. The paper ‘Mystery of matter’ was not published in any research journal or conference. Therefore the issue of plagiarism could not be raised.
Total publications of CHEP faculty members from 2004 to 2007 was more than 180. The faculty of CHEP published their research work in journals of international repute including AIP Conference Proceedings, Physical Review Letters, Physical Review D, Computational Material Science and Physica B. Last year 20 research papers were published including ‘Evidence for BO’, ‘Evidence for the Rare Decay B+’ and ‘Search for Lepton Flavor Violating Decays tau +’. ‘Design and performance of high uniformity linear filament electron gun’ and ‘Ab-intio Study of Structural Properties of III Nitrides’ have been highly acclaimed.
Punjab University Syndicate fully debated the issue and settled the matter with minor punishment for the four lecturers. PU sources disclosed that HEC is exerting pressure on the Punjab University to again take up the issue.
As the issue has been settled by Syndicate, only the Chancellor/Governor can review the decision. According to sources the Chancellor is being misled about the whole issue. The fact that the AIP and the foreign institutions do not consider the five CHEP faculty members to be plagiarists was kept secret from the Chancellor.
“PU is the oldest seat of learning and has a prestige and reputation not matched by any other institution in sub-continent. It should not come under the pressure of HEC. The stand of the PU Academic Staff Association on the matter is clear. It has voiced its concern on the growing interference of HEC in the affairs of varsity.
“The new vice chancellor Dr Mujahid Kamran was the complainant against Dr Aleem and other CHEP faculty members. Dr Kamran and Dr Aleem are both professors of Physics and their careers run parallel to each other. Dr Aleem has published more than 150 papers and won many national and international awards. He did not need to plagiarize for conference papers, which has no academic value.
“The whole issue was blown out of proportions and the fact that AIP and other international journals did not consider Dr Aleem and other members of CHEP faculty as plagiarists was not taken into account. It would be in the best interest of PU if the chancellor also takes into account the correspondence of foreign institutions with the then VC before taking any decision ” sources said.
Governor being misled by HEC on charges of plagiarism
EMANUEL SARFRAZ
LAHORE - The Higher Education Commission of Pakistan’s blacklisting five faculty members of Punjab University’s Centre for High Energy Physics seems to be a biased decision, as they are not considered plagiarists by the foreign institutions.
Prof Dr Fazal-e-Aleem, who has earned the status of meritorious professor, Maqsood Ahmad, Rashid Ahmad, Sohail Fazal and M Alam Saeed were accused of plagiarism with respect to six different publications. All are continuing to write research papers as the American Institute of Physics never alleged plagiarism against them and continues to publish their papers.
Of the six papers stated to have been plagiarised, Dr Aleem was shown as one of the authors of five of them. Interestingly he was not among the authors of the paper ‘Benefits of Basic Science’. The paper ‘Current status of exotic hadrons’ was part of the allegations. The paper was revised through an errata handed over to the editor on April 9, 2006. This was before the complaint was lodged by Dr Mujahid Kamran then serving as dean of science at the Punjab University. The other articles ‘Computational methods: Tool for Electronic Structure Analysis of Solids’ and ‘Path of Elementary Particles’ were also retracted and the thought republished. Interestingly this fact was not considered during the inquiry. The HEC in its newsletter declared Dr Aleem and other CHEP faculty members of plagiarism even before the final decision had been made.
A researcher is well within his rights to send an erratum to the publisher to rectify any mistake made by him or to add/ omit anything published in a research journal or even textbooks. Errata/Retractions are a normal and internationally acknowledged way of dealing with inadvertent mistakes, human and electronic errors and even to incorporate further developments or changes. It would be of interest to notice that Nobel Laureates like Rutherford and Chairman HEC Ataur Rehman had errata published to their research papers.
Meanwhile, ‘Current status of exotic hadrons’ was published by AIP as part of the conference proceedings held in Cairo. Editor of the proceedings and the Program Chair Lotfia El Nadi on receiving the complaint termed it “out of place”. “The paper is a review article in which the authors presented recent experiments of worldwide laboratories, not their own work. The authors do not claim any results of their own. The authors handed over errata. We consider the complaint of Dr Mujahid Kamran as out of place,” she wrote to the then VC. The referring conference committee found no plagiarism.
The paper ‘Technology in Aid of Physics Teaching’ was never published and Dr Aleem also did not participate in the conference.
The paper ‘Benefits of Basic Science’ was published in a web magazine ‘Science of Africa’. It was without and ISSN number and for this publication no credit can be claimed by the authors. It was not a research article but a popular one. The paper ‘Mystery of matter’ was not published in any research journal or conference. Therefore the issue of plagiarism could not be raised.
Total publications of CHEP faculty members from 2004 to 2007 was more than 180. The faculty of CHEP published their research work in journals of international repute including AIP Conference Proceedings, Physical Review Letters, Physical Review D, Computational Material Science and Physica B. Last year 20 research papers were published including ‘Evidence for BO’, ‘Evidence for the Rare Decay B+’ and ‘Search for Lepton Flavor Violating Decays tau +’. ‘Design and performance of high uniformity linear filament electron gun’ and ‘Ab-intio Study of Structural Properties of III Nitrides’ have been highly acclaimed.
Punjab University Syndicate fully debated the issue and settled the matter with minor punishment for the four lecturers. PU sources disclosed that HEC is exerting pressure on the Punjab University to again take up the issue.
As the issue has been settled by Syndicate, only the Chancellor/Governor can review the decision. According to sources the Chancellor is being misled about the whole issue. The fact that the AIP and the foreign institutions do not consider the five CHEP faculty members to be plagiarists was kept secret from the Chancellor.
“PU is the oldest seat of learning and has a prestige and reputation not matched by any other institution in sub-continent. It should not come under the pressure of HEC. The stand of the PU Academic Staff Association on the matter is clear. It has voiced its concern on the growing interference of HEC in the affairs of varsity.
“The new vice chancellor Dr Mujahid Kamran was the complainant against Dr Aleem and other CHEP faculty members. Dr Kamran and Dr Aleem are both professors of Physics and their careers run parallel to each other. Dr Aleem has published more than 150 papers and won many national and international awards. He did not need to plagiarize for conference papers, which has no academic value.
“The whole issue was blown out of proportions and the fact that AIP and other international journals did not consider Dr Aleem and other members of CHEP faculty as plagiarists was not taken into account. It would be in the best interest of PU if the chancellor also takes into account the correspondence of foreign institutions with the then VC before taking any decision ” sources said.
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