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

Fri May 25 13:38:28 EDT 2018

Hi Doug,

I meant to respond the other day, but in between the time I wrote you and
you responded, I had to deal with another plagiarism case. :( The thing is,
our company does not use any plagiarism software, nor am I an academic
expert in the fields in which I catch potential clients plagiarizing the
work of others. I just simply review their file to set the fee, and when I
see something that looks suspicious or the individual submits work with no
citations or references, I just copy and paste a few sentences into Google
to check.

Although using plagiarism software is preferable, I think it's fine if a
university does not want to buy a license. I'm not sure how much it costs,
but perhaps the cost is not feasible in some areas of the world. The big
thing is the commitment to academic integrity and having a system, even as
simple as mine, to investigate written work intended for publication or as
part of a degree.

When the stakes are high, when one generally must publish in English for
the most impactful reach (it's own issue), and when one needs to get ideas
out quickly, people *anywhere* in the world can be tempted to cut corners.

At the student level, what I see is a lot of universities taking on a large
number of ESL students, but they do not have the support structures in
place to ensure their success. They're happy taking their tuition money,
though. And when the uni has an agreement with other institutions, those
institutional partners tend to have "expectations" about the percentage
that will graduate. It appears that if plagiarism and disciplining students
is antagonistic to part of an institution's financial model, why look? A
good example is a client I had about this time last year. The MA student's
supervisor (Canadian university) contacted me and said, "I just need him to
graduate by June. Can you help?" regarding his student. The professor
seemed taken aback by my stance on academic integrity---that I would not
rewrite everything as I saw fit. I told the prof that I would fix language
issues but would not engage in active rewriting. I found very clear,
copy-paste plagiarism in the middle/final third of the work, whole
sections, which I flagged and did not touch. The student, as far as I know,
graduated with a master's from a Canadian institution. I mention students
(who plagiarize) because when they become professionals, they might
continue the same behavior.

It's happening everywhere and at every level. The only thing I've learned
for sure is that I cannot assume who's standing guard. Improvements can be
made, but I think such initiatives have to start with student education and
adequate support as well as faculty accountability, in order to build a
stronger academic culture.

Best,

Michael.

On Sun, May 20, 2018 at 11:05 PM, Douglas Fenner <
douglasfennertassi at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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
>
> New online open-access field guide to 300 coral species in Chagos, Indian
> Ocean
> http://chagosinformationportal.org/corals
>
> Even without El Nino, 2017 temperatures soared.
>
> http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/01/even-without-el-
> ni-o-2017-temperatures-still-soared?utm_campaign=news_
> weekly_2018-01-19&et_rid=17045989&et_cid=1800664
>
> Coral reefs are bleaching too frequently to recover
> https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/01/the-
> global-scourge-on-coral-reefs/549713/?utm_source=atlfb
>
> How to save the "tropical rainforests" of the ocean
> https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/theworldpost/wp/2018/
> 01/09/coral-reefs/?tid=ss_tw-bottom&utm_term=.80ce291c546b
>
>