Stories

“Academics and researchers are ill prepared for what to do when they’re victims of publication misconduct“, say authors of an article published by BMJ.com, whose work has been plagiarised multiple times. They describe the struggle with their defense against plagiarism: the publisher of the plagiarised paper first didn’t respond at all, and took some action only after an …

Journals need to provide better guidance for victims of plagiarism Read More »

Jack Grove (2023). ‘This might tank my career’: Pruitt accuser on whistleblowing. Times Higher Education. Accessed on 15th June 2023 – link   What would you do if you realised that some of your published co-authored papers have inconsistent data, most likely due to data fabrication or falsification? Would you report it? Would you be …

To speak or not to speak Read More »

“Leading international scientists who discovered articles written by artificial intelligence that have been published in their name have backed plans for legal action.” Jack Grove. Identity theft victims back legal action against journals. Times Higher Education, 2nd February 2023. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/identity-theft-victims-back-legal-action-against-journals Accessed: 16th February 2023   Recently, concerns have been raised by the scientific community over …

What to do when AI tools publish papers under your name? Read More »

When Matthew Schrag (a neurologist at Vanderbilt University, USA) shocked the Alzheimer disease’s scientific community in 2022 with claims of significant misconduct on a leading paper in the field (2006), it opened the eyes to a problem that has long been rooted in the scientific community, and not just in neurosciences. Why took it 16 …

A Call for Whistleblowers Read More »

Following the filing of a complaint and affidavit in July 2022, Georgios Laliotis, a postdoctoral researcher from Ohio State University (OSU), was found guilty of creating and sending fake recommendation letters, supposed to be from his supervisor, Dr Philip Tsichlis. It all started when Laliotis’ contract at OSU was terminated on 30th November 2021, after …

Fired postdoc faked recommendation letters from supervisor Read More »

“The narrative around plagiarism is often extremely simplified: There is a plagiarist and there is a victim. It’s a simple and compelling narrative. There is a bad person that has stolen or lifted from a good person by using their work without the decency of at least giving them proper credit. It’s a visceral and …

Plagiarism: the two sides of the coin Read More »

“In August 2021, Matthew Schrag, a neuroscientist and physician at Vanderbilt University, got a call that would plunge him into a maelstrom of possible scientific misconduct. A colleague wanted to connect him with an attorney investigating an experimental drug for Alzheimer’s disease called Simufilam. The drug’s developer, Cassava Sciences, claimed it improved cognition, partly by …

“You can’t cheat to cure a disease” (by: Matthew Schrag) Read More »

“A major controversy in marine biology took a new twist last week when the University of Delaware (UD) found one of its star scientists guilty of research misconduct. The University has confirmed to Science that it has accepted an investigative panel’s conclusion that marine ecologist Danielle Dixson used fabrication and falsification in work on fish …

You cannot hide from misconduct, not even underwater! Read More »

“Last week, a plagiarism scandal rocked the Guggenheim Bilbao and their Basque Artist Program. The original allegations were published by Hannah Swayze, a producer who worked on the short film Blue by artist dayday. According to the claims, the Spanish artist Gala Knörr used the film as inspiration for her painting entitled Young Cowboy Gazing. …

A reparative solution to a case of plagiarism Read More »

Including someone’s name in a paper to increase the chances of being published, adding someone’s name to a paper based on their seniority level, adding the names of one another on papers to increase their list of publications and adding someone’s name in return for opportunities are all examples of gift authorship. This is a …

Do you want to be a co-author of my paper? Read More »