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[engineering_graduate]

I recently came across an M.S. thesis with some academic integrity issues. I'm concerned about the dilution of academic standards since the student who "wrote" the thesis was awarded an M.S. degree in the same department where I earned B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees. I may be shooting myself in the foot by not ignoring the issue but after investing a good portion of my life into my education I feel like I need to do what I can to preserve its value. I also feel an ethical and professional responsibility to address the problem (please be kind in your responses, I'm still young and somewhat naive). Unsurprisingly, the response from the department has been tepid and the provost only offered a generic reply.

I can post a link here to a preview of the thesis from UMI ProQuest so that you can evaluate the extent of the plagiarism, maybe it's not that bad and happens everywhere as the department claims. (There are extensive sections copied verbatim from other sources, in some cases references are cited that don't contain information supporting claims in the text, there is a reference to Wikipedia and to class notes amongst other infractions.)

What is typically done in these situations? Is a rewrite a valid option even if the majority of the text is not original (essentially the whole thesis would need to be rewritten in order to comply with common academic standards)? Do you think the thesis advisor should be awarded tenure after signing off on a plagiarized thesis?

[mended_drum]

In my field, someone would send a note to one or more of the scholars who have been plagiarized, and those scholars would call the department chair and make it darned clear that they wanted action taken or they would go public about the theft of their work. 

Those who've had their work appropriated are better poised to object than an outside observer.

[larryc]

You have done the right thing in bringing this up to administrators at your school. They have told you to STFU.

I would go public in manner that Mended Drum suggests. Fire off an email to the aggrieved scholars. Follow up a few weeks later with documentation of the plagiarism to local newspapers, your professional society, your school's accrediting agency, and the Chronicle of Higher Ed.

However--the school is going to know that you were behind all this. This will forever burn the bridges between yourself and the institution. And someone may well go over your own thesis with a fine-toothed comb--will it hold up? Are you ready for the drama?

[engineering_graduate]

Thank you for the tips. Bringing the thesis to the attention of the original authors sounds like a good idea. Local newspapers may not possess the journalistic prowess to take the story by the horns and run with it (nobody was killed and there are no kittens involved).

I don't know that I want to burn bridges between myself and the school and I certainly don't want the school to go down in flames, especially if this is one of the more extreme cases.

At the same time, I would like the school to uphold reasonable academic standards and I have a feeling it will require some pain on both ends to achieve that. If this is not a widespread problem, it shouldn't be that difficult to for the school to fix (certainly easier than in the case of Ohio State). The reputation of the school may even not be affected negatively if the issue is resolved quickly -- at the very least it will show that there are mechanisms in place to address problems.

I don't mind someone going over my work, depending on who does it, they may even learn something. ;) Besides, I took great pride in creating the work, I'd be pleased if someone read it, even under these circumstances.

[der_gadfly]

Righteous indignation is a natural reaction.

You have done the right thing in bringing this up to administrators at your school. They have told you to STFU.

If this is the case, then one should probably STFU... for now. Hold onto the contempt and perhaps reprise the argument in a few years. The plagiarist will probably get outed bysomeone else, and you can revel in the satisfaction thatthe perpetrator got caught and they cannot pin it on you. (see below)

I would go public in manner that Mended Drum suggests. Fire off an email to the aggrieved scholars. Follow up a few weeks later with documentation of the plagiarism to local newspapers, your professional society, your school's accrediting agency, and the Chronicle of Higher Ed.

However--the school is going to know that you were behind all this. This will forever burn the bridges between yourself and the institution. And someone may well go over your own thesis with a fine-toothed comb--will it hold up? Are you ready for the drama?

Getting to ones' ends and staying off the radar screen is the prefered path, whenever possible, however, if one cannot STFU, then get ready for all sorts of nastiness: the internet is an unforgiving place with a long memory.

[guinness4life]

I would recommend minding your business. I speak from experience. This person's probably won't get very far in life anyway. The person's advisor is obviously going to be on the hook for this too if they didn't use Turnitin.com or something at the least to check for plagiarism. I doubt they did.

If the advisor has pull, that's a problem for you. Also, the Uni will probably try to screw you for exposing them. They're not going to say, "Good job, thanks for making us look bad." Unless you have juice (i.e. tenure or are married to the dep't chair or something) and substantial amounts of free time, don't even bother.

I think the anonymous e-mail to the scholars plagiarized was the best idea, but now everyone will know it's you since you already e-mailed the provost. Personally, I wouldn't do anything at this point. Honestly, I don't think it's worth the trouble.

You may want to e-mail a copy of the paper and the one it's plagiarized to the guy's employer though, if they don't have university ties. They may not care, though.

My story:

I'm sure it's plagiarized, that kind of thing is rampant in some quarters. Tons of people were plagiarizing and completely drylabbing stuff from start to finish. I thought it was disgusting, too. What's worse none of the folks doing research on humans got anything approved by the IRB, which the school (and worse, the IRB) knew about, but turned a blind eye to. I was having problems with the IRB because I felt they were stalling my research intentionally for the better part of a year, so this infuriated me. So, yeah, I can understand your frustration.

I had oodles of documentation (there was no "if" there was a problem where I was) for what amounts to institutionally endorsed plagiarism and ethical breaches. I only approached anyone after I had my degree and no future plans of affiliation with the university because I anticipated problems.

Know what happened? The people I'd complained to flat out lied to their supervisor (who I contacted after no word for several weeks). They never informed him of any of this. Then they denied knowledge of everything and alternately claimed this was the first time they'd heard of it or that I was lying.

I e-mailed their supervisor their e-mails and scans of their letters, which had dates proving they were wrong. Their supervisor responded that I could schedule a hearing - presided over by them, on matters in which they were personally involved. I said that was absurd, which led him to "consider" scheduling a meeting several months later when the university director of X could make it.

Before that happened, the school sent me a Cease and Desist letter and censured my thesis advisor. Newspapers didn't pick up the story, I contacted several. Civil liberties groups didn't want it because they weren't interested in the issue as a test case. Someone in my family passed away and by that point, I honestly didn't care.

The process of exposing anything as corrupt as this can easily take months. I'm not independently wealthy and didn't have the time or resources for it once I had to bury a relative. I just let it go at that point.

[post_functional]

OP, what do you have against this thesis author really?

[totoro]

They are correct. The first issue sounds like slack scholarship standards, but not unexpected at the masters level, though this should be addressed at the bachelors level. The second issue - references don't actually support claims - probably happens in many published papers. I often review papers for journals that claim that my papers support all kinds of things they want to claim which they do not. A reference to Wikipedia and class notes could be legit and certainly isn't plagiarism. So STFU.

Now if the whole thing was lifted from somewhere else that would be another issue.

plagiarism, maybe it's not that bad and happens everywhere as the department claims. (There are extensive sections copied verbatim from other sources, in some cases references are cited that don't contain information supporting claims in the text, there is a reference to Wikipedia and to class notes amongst other infractions.)

[engineering_graduate]

Thank you for the responses and for expanding the discussion by exploring all angles of the situation.

OP, what do you have against this thesis author really?

Nothing other than deficiency in professional integrity and degradation of the value of my education through willful neglect. I certainly don't have any personal issues with the individual, though I expect some may not believe that. I agree that having ulterior motives would dilute my argument and I wouldn't feel confident raising it in that case. Not having an ulterior motive probably helped set the tone for a very fruitful exchange with the department. More on that in the update below.

A reference to Wikipedia and class notes could be legit and certainly isn't plagiarism. So STFU.

Please allow me to disagree with the opinion you postulated and your argument to end the discussion. I use Wikipedia extensively and I don't think many people doubt that it's an extremely valuable tool. It should however be used in proper context. In my experience, the quality of Wikipedia articles is still quite inconsistent. I frequently come across articles that contain text copied verbatim from other sources without attribution, which I understand is the very definition of plagiarism. The more refined articles with content on par with academic publication typically contain references that are more suitable for citing anyway. While I'm very uncomfortable with academic elitism, I find the notion of citing Wikipedia in professional publications questionable. In this particular case, the quality of the thesis was not increased by quoting a Wikipedia article and class notes that are not accessible to anyone outside the class. I still appreciate your opinion.


Now for an update on the case. I went against the collective wisdom on this thread (not to defy it but rather because I wanted to use the momentum generated by the original activity which was before the posts with advice and similar experience appeared). I engaged in a discussion with the department stating my grievance and offering constructive suggestions. Evidently, once the department took a closer look at the thesis, they realized how inadequate it was and that there is an issue that needed to be addressed. They removed the thesis from circulation and put a process in motion for resolving this case and prevent similar future occurrences. The student will be given an opportunity to rewrite the thesis which will be evaluated by a different committee. If the rewrite does not happen or the new work does not meet the requirements, the degree will be revoked. There are details that will need to be worked out and only time will tell if the system works, but it's comforting to know that at least in this one case the situation took the right course. Even if it doesn't change the big picture.

[totoro]

Please allow me to disagree with the opinion you postulated and your argument to end the discussion. I use Wikipedia extensively and I don't think many people doubt that it's an extremely valuable tool. It should however be used in proper context. In my experience, the quality of Wikipedia articles is still quite inconsistent. I frequently come across articles that contain text copied verbatim from other sources without attribution, which I understand is the very definition of plagiarism. The more refined articles with content on par with academic publication typically contain references that are more suitable for citing anyway. While I'm very uncomfortable with academic elitism, I find the notion of citing Wikipedia in professional publications questionable. In this particular case, the quality of the thesis was not increased by quoting a Wikipedia article and class notes that are not accessible to anyone outside the class. I still appreciate your opinion.

I agree that it isn't good scholarship. And better should be expected in a master's thesis. OTOH it doesn't worry me much as it is only a masters thesis. Personally, at this point in my career I really don't care what degrees the universities I attended give out (though I have no concerns about that) but can see that you would be concerned about this.


Now for an update on the case. I went against the collective wisdom on this thread (not to defy it but rather because I wanted to use the momentum generated by the original activity which was before the posts with advice and similar experience appeared). I engaged in a discussion with the department stating my grievance and offering constructive suggestions. Evidently, once the department took a closer look at the thesis, they realized how inadequate it was and that there is an issue that needed to be addressed. They removed the thesis from circulation and put a process in motion for resolving this case and prevent similar future occurrences. The student will be given an opportunity to rewrite the thesis which will be evaluated by a different committee. If the rewrite does not happen or the new work does not meet the requirements, the degree will be revoked. There are details that will need to be worked out and only time will tell if the system works, but it's comforting to know that at least in this one case the situation took the right course. Even if it doesn't change the big picture.

I'm surprised, but I guess that is good that they want to uphold high standards.

Now here is some really serious plagiarism:

http://www.econjobrumors.com/topic.php?id=10495

Yes, two refereed journals published almost the same verbatim paper by supposedly different authors.