|
Turkish physicists face accusations of plagiarism (Nature, September 2007)
More than a dozen theoretical physicists at four universities in Turkey seem to be involved in a massive plagiarism scandal.
Almost 70 papers by 15 authors have been removed from the popular preprint server arXiv, where many physicists post their work, by the server’s moderators. They allege that the papers plagiarize the works of others or contain inappropriate levels of overlap with earlier arti-cles. This is probably the largest single incident of its sort ever seen on the server, according to physicist Paul Ginsparg of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and founder of arXiv. “What these guys did was way over the line,” he says.
Not all the researchers or universities alleg-edly involved in the scandal could be reached as Nature went to press, but the author with the most papers withdrawn called the
Onsekiz Mart University in Çanakkale. SarioÄŸlu says that most of the plagiarism seems to have come from two rival groups, one at Onsekiz Mart and the other at Mersin and Dicle.
Many of the papers concern an obscure theory of gravity known as the Møller version of general relativity. Few people would be likely to check such work, allowing the students and professors to build their publication record without fear of being caught, says Ginsparg. “They were following the optimal strategy.”
“They’re isolated, their English is bad, and they need to publish,” says SarioÄŸlu. “So they plagiarize, I guess,” he says of the alleged plagiarizers.
A recent analysis turned up numerous examples of plagiarism on the arXiv server (see Nature444, 524–525; 2006).
accusations “ridiculous”. “We car- Gins parg says that it’s not uncom-ried out a good collaboration,” says mon for scientists with a poor Mustafa Salti, a graduate student command of English to plagiarize at the Middle East Technical Uni-introductions or background par-versity (METU) in Ankara whose agraphs from earlier work, often name is on 40 of the withdrawn adding an appropriate citation. He papers. “Most of our papers have been published in the science citation index journals. Until now no one has claimed that we plagiarize.”
The trouble began last November, when Salti and another graduate student, Oktay Aydogdu, underwent oral examinations for their PhDs. Although both had an extensive list of publica-tions in gravitational physics, they struggled to answer even basic, high-school-level questions,according to Özgür SarioÄŸlu, an associate pro-fessor at METU. “They didn’t know fundamen-tal stuff like newtonian mechanics,” he says.
Suspicious, one of SarioÄŸlu’s colleagues, AyÅŸe Karasu, began to look through the duo’s publication record. Using Google, she quickly turned up a paper from which it seemed the students had lifted several lengthy sections. By mid-February, faculty members had identified dozens of articles on arXiv that they say seemed to be partly or completely plagiarized.
They notified Ginsparg, who began his own investigation. So far, the search has turned up 67 papers, about half of which have appeared in low-profile peer-review journals. In addi-tion to the two students at METU, the papers were authored by professors and students at three other universities: Dicle University in Diyar bakir, the University of Mersin in Içel, and thinks that although such practices are ethically questionable, it is inappropriate to be overly draconian.
Katepalli Sreenivasan, director of the Interna-tional Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy, which has a programme of collaboration with physicists from the developing world, agrees. “There are some cultures in which plagiarism is not even regarded as deplorable,” he says. Problems of academic integrity come up frequently at the centre, and are dealt with on a case-by-case basis, he adds.
But both think that the Turkish case clearly crosses the line. “It’s dishonest and sloppy,” Ginsparg says. He adds that, although arXiv normally declines to publicize such incidents, the size and scope of this case made it an exception.
Salti and Aydogdu have been suspended for two terms, according to SarioÄŸlu. They cannot be expelled because METU’s ethics policies for students do not include rules on plagiarism. But, he says, it is unlikely they will be able to continue at the university. Meanwhile, Salti says that he and several authors plan to bring a lawsuit against arXiv. It remains unclear whether the other three universities involved have taken any action.
■Geoff Brumfiel
(NATURE|Vol 449 | 6 September 2007)
(Nature, 6 September 2007)
|
Türkçesi
Yazar Sanih açık 2007-09-11 20:26:59
http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/gundem/7261115.asp?gid=48&a=952647 |
Sadece kayıtlı kullanıcılar yorum yazabilirler.
Lütfen hesabınıza giriş yapınız veya kayıt olunuz. Powered by AkoComment 2.0! |
Arama 
