Nature 449, 8 (6 September 2007) ; Published
online 5 September 2007
Turkish physicists face accusations of plagiarism
Geoff Brumfiel
ean.btturk.net/stable/rezalet.pdf
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
ean.btturk.net/stable/rezalet.pdf
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v449/n7158/full/449008b.html
Nature 449, 8 (6 September 2007) ; Published
online 5 September 2007
Turkish physicists face accusations of plagiarism
Geoff Brumfiel
Abstract
Scores of papers are removed from arXiv server.
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
articles. 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 allegedly
involved in the
scandal could be reached as Nature went to press,
but the author with
the most papers withdrawn called the accusations
"ridiculous". "We
carried out a good collaboration," says Mustafa
Salti, a graduate
student at the Middle East Technical University
(METU) in Ankara whose
name is on 40 of the withdrawn papers.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
publications in gravitational
physics, they struggled to answer even basic,
high-school-level
questions, according to �zg�r Sariog brevelu,
an associate professor
at METU. "They didn't know fundamental stuff like
newtonian
mechanics," he says.
Suspicious, one of Sariog brevelu's colleagues,
Ays cedile 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 addition to
the two students at
METU, the papers were authored by professors and
students at three
other universities: Dicle University in
Diyarbakir, the University of
Mersin in I�el, and Onsekiz Mart University in
�anakkale. Sariog
brevelu 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
M�ller 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 Sariog brevelu. "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 Nature 444, 524�525;
doi:10.1038/444524b 2006).
Ginsparg says that it's not uncommon for
scientists with a poor
command of English to plagiarize introductions or
background
paragraphs from earlier work, often adding an
appropriate citation. He
thinks that although such practices are ethically
questionable, it is
inappropriate to be overly draconian.
There are some cultures in which plagiarism is
not even regarded as
deplorable.
Katepalli Sreenivasan, director of the
International 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
Sariog brevelu. 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.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
