[Coral-List] plagiarism in coral reef science in India

[Douglas Fenner]

Michael,
    Thank you for this.  I knew it was a problem in academia.  While
copy/paste and the internet have made plagiarism easier than ever, the
ability to search for matches may also help detect plagiarism.  I note that
the Journal of Threatened Taxa, an online publication produced in India,
states on its website very clearly that it has procedures to detect
plagiarism.  It is clear that many scientists in India are honest and do
not engage in these practices, and the problem is by no means restricted to
India.  It is just shocking to see such a blatant example of it in
documents published by professionals (instead of just students) and the
authors getting away with it and benefiting from it.  Who says crime
doesn't pay?
     There is one tool for dealing with it that may be quite powerful, a
tool anyone can use, and that is publicizing these cases.  For the
scientific and management communities, it is necessary that people be able
to trust peer-reviewed publications.  It is not always easy for a user to
distinguish legitimate from illegitimate publications, and this was the
reason I posted this information.  But public scrutiny and awareness is
likely to be a powerful tool, the consequences of getting caught publicly
could be such that it would act as a deterrent.  But only if violations are
made public, and the scientific community cares and pressure builds for
supervisors to act.  So in the long run, publicizing these violations will
hopefully improve this situation greatly.  I hope people who have
information of misconduct will speak out or pass the information to those
who can speak out, and we can make our scientific community better than
ever.
       Cheers, Doug

http://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/index

http://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies  (see
"Policy against scientific misconduct")


On Sun, May 20, 2018 at 4:05 AM, Michael Newkirk <michaeljnewkirk at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hi Doug,
>
> I'm really sorry to hear this. I have to say, unfortunately, that I
> encounter plagiarism on a regular basis. Some of you whom I've interacted
> with know that I'm a professional editor and the chief editor of WordsRU.
> We have always had a strong academic integrity policy, which I formally
> published it to the website a few years ago. Interestingly, and sadly, it
> still does not encourage some authors to write and publish ethically. I see
> all levels of it: from poor citation and summarization to completely
> copy-pasted theses and dissertations. For the former, we advise. For the
> latter, all I can do is send them on their way and basically say in the
> nicest way possible that we don't want their business.
>
> There are also companies that pose as editing companies but actually
> rewrite previously published material for students or ghostwrite entire
> manuscripts up to the dissertation/thesis level---for a hefty fee. If I
> read your post correctly, Doug, it sounds like perhaps the book you are
> referring to had a team of authors, with introduction author being more
> genuine or perhaps a hired ghostwriter. Then, the folks that wanted to copy
> and paste could just fill up the book after getting some face validity from
> the intro writer. Who knows!
>
> I've taught at the uni level as well (language education and research
> communication), so I've dealt with the matter in both academia and in
> business. There is a lot that is being done, and not being done, on both
> sides that contributes to plagiarized work being published and degrees
> being awarded to individuals who simply copy-paste and/or blatantly fail to
> acknowledge the work of others.
>
> Hopefully, running into something like this won't become the norm for you!
> :)
>
> Best,
>
> Michael.
>
> On Fri, May 18, 2018 at 12:15 AM, Douglas Fenner <
> douglasfennertassi at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Abstract:  A group in India has published several articles with long lists
>> of names of coral species in the Andaman Islands.  Those lists contain the
>> names of several Caribbean corals.  In 2010 the same group published a
>> book
>> on the corals of the Andaman Islands.  The text describing every species
>> was copied verbatum from Veron (2000) with no quote marks and no citation
>> of the source.  The introductory text was also copied verbatum from
>> sources
>> without quotes or attribution, so nearly the entire book was copied
>> verbatum.  I provide the references to these works, and detailed quotes
>> from the book and the sources below my signature.  (this post is long, so
>> I
>> provide an abstract)
>>
>>
>>
>
>


-- 
Douglas Fenner
Contractor for NOAA NMFS Protected Species, and consultant
PO Box 7390
Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799  USA

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