Pressure Rises On German Science Minister In Plagiarism Scandal

An anonymous reader writes "Germany's minister for science and education, who is currently under investigation by her alma mater for plagiarizing parts of her Ph.D thesis, is facing new accusations: a total of 92 alleged incidents of plagiarism (German) have been documented by a blogger, who calls 'this number of violations inexcusable.'"

Comments

No fun

[tsa]

I've been plagiarized once. This bitch had copied one of my articles I wrote in a Proceedings of a conference, with pictures and everything, and used it in an overview article. The worst part of it is that my professor didn't care about it. I'm still mad, and it happened 15 years ago.

Re:No fun

[RogueyWon]

Plagiarism does seem to be getting more and more common, with people getting ever more casual about it. When I was at University in the 90s, there were a small number of students caught engaging in plagiarism. If it was felt to be deliberate, it was basically immediate expulsion. If it was more likely to be carelessness or ignorance of proper academic processes, the consequences were still severe (being made to redo substantial chunks of work).

Speaking a couple of months ago to a niece who's now at University, I was told that around a third of the students in her year for her subject had been caught copying material from the net. The response, a few sessions where they were sat down and told "Plagiarism is bad, mkay".

I came across a hilarious example of (non academic) plagiarism a couple of months ago, while sifting a pile of job applications.

This was the first sift and I had a pile of about 50 in front of me (which I was aiming to get down to about 15 or so by weeding out the obvious no-hopers). We had three other people sitting down with a similar pile (200 applications for 2 posts - this has been the norm for us over the last couple of years - I guess the job market is a scary place right now).

Anyway, I'm only being fairly cursory about it, but even so, I spot that three of the applications seem to use the exact same stock few (clumsy, badly worded) paragraphs. I tap the first line of one of these paragraphs into google and the first hit is a "how to write a job application" site. A very poorly put together site (think site design that dates from the circa 1998 geocities era), written by somebody whose first language is probably not English. The paragraphs in question aren't even particularly relevant to our job application form (which is fairly specific and focussed).

A quick e-mail around to the other people on the panel turns up a total of 6 forms which use text from that site. Clearly it had somehow managed to get a high ranking for a few of the relevant search terms. But seriously, you're competing against hundreds of other people and you decide to use material you've copy/pasted from something that is only one step away from having animated gifs of dancing cats? Unless said site had itself plagiarised its content from somewhere else, of course..

Re:No fun

[alendit]

I have been plagiarized once. This bitch had copied one of my articles I wrote in a proceedings of a conference, with pictures and everything, and used it in an overview article. The worst part of it is that my professor didn't care about it. I am still mad, and it happened 15 years ago.

Re:No fun

[Savage-Rabbit]

Plagiarism does seem to be getting more and more common, with people getting ever more casual about it. When I was at University in the 90s, there were a small number of students caught engaging in plagiarism.

Are you sure plagiarism rates are increasing? Maybe it's simply that these days, with everything being digital, it is way easier to uncover plagiarism. I wonder what would happen if one was able to digitize the scientific literature of the last 100 years and then started plagiarism checking Phd. thesis from the same period with a computer.

Re:No fun

[Inda]

I have been copied just the once. This bastard had duplicated a single of my articles I typed about the events of a symposium, with images and the whole lot, and used it in a general idea piece of writing. The most unpleasant part of it is that my university lecturer didn't worry about it. I am still round the bend, and it occurred 15 durations previously.

She should step down.

[Nyder]

Seriously, what example does that set that your Minister for Science and Education is a cheat?

Go Germany!!!!!!

Re:She should step down.

[man_of_mr_e]

Actually, no. In fact, the supreme court found that the rules that were in place before the election were unconstitutional. In particular, the rules regarding recounts were unconstitutional because there was no statewide standard for counting ballots, and thus ballots could be counted differently in different counties. This, the Supremes ruled, was a violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment.

Those counting rules were in place prior to the election, but the SCOTUS ruled that the recount had to be stopped because (in part) of this violation. The other part was that putting a statewide standard in place would take too long, and would prevent certification of the vote in time to meet the mandated date that certification was required (December 12th, which was also the date of the decision).

Basically, it was all a huge cluster fuck, with conflicting rulings, laws, standards, etc.. In fact, because the counting process was ruled to be in violation of the 14th amendment, SCOTUS should have ruled that the original count was not valid as well, and forced the SCOFL to mandate a standard and then do a full recount by that standard. That way, the rules in effect prior to the legitimate count would have been the same as after the legitimate count.

Re:State of the question

[alendit]

Funny, but fundamentally wrong. Copy and give credit = standard scientific proceeding. Copy and say it's yours = plagitism. It quite easy, really.

Seems to become a national hobby...

[Fusselwurm]

... after Mr Guttenberg had to quit as Defence Minister because of plagiarism, it seems to have become a sport to topple politicians this way. It's a fun thing to watch.

Re:Oh who gives a fuck?

[AliasMarlowe]

Just reading the title of her dissertation ("Person and conscience—Studies on conditions, need and requirements of today's consciences.") is enough to give me the giggles. Some of us got our PhD the hard way - by doing actual science or engineering that advanced the state of knowledge in their field. Just spewing some pseudo-intellectual waffle-gab should not count, except maybe towards a pseudo-PhD.

Re:Achtung Schweinhund!

[snakeplissken]

Wenn ist das Nunnstück git und Slotermeyer? Ja! Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput!

No actual plagiarism

[Anonymous Coward]

This is actually old news... And it has been quickly determined that the accusations are bogus. It's a desperate plot by political enemies against the minister.

For example, the first instance of alleged plagiarism is the following text:
Schavan's thesis:

Dabei haben sich – vergröbernd dargestellt – zwei unterschiedliche Verhältnisbestimmungen herauskristallisiert: [...]

Allegedly plagiarised text:

Er hat nachgewiesen, daß jedes Tier mit seiner artspezifischen Umwelt in einem Funktionskreis verbunden existiert.

Even if you don't understand German, it should be obvious that no text has been copied. The accusators of schavanplag call this "concealed" plagiarizing. There would be some truth to this if Schavan had actually known the source and paraphrased the text without citing. It is, however, equally likely that she had just came to the same conclusions based on the same sources.

Some minor quality problems have been found, too. For example, some citations contain typos. While that should not happen, it's far from plagiarism. (Furthermore, the thesis was published in 1980. Without computers, it's much harder to avoid such errors.)

Re:No actual plagiarism

[Chrisq]

This is actually old news... And it has been quickly determined that the accusations are bogus.

Do you have a reference to this?

Re:Oh who gives a fuck?

[Savage-Rabbit]

The Pirate Party is actually clear that they want to retain the creator's right to attribution. It's only the economic rights they want to abolish.

The problem being that the creators sustain them selves by the same economic rights the pirates want to abolish.

The Germans are self-policing...

[acidfast7]

... as shown by the website here: http://de.vroniplag.wikia.com/wiki/Home/English

As an academic who earned a PhD in the US and worked as faculty in Sweden and now Germany, you're being quite naïve if you don't think this happens in every country including the US. The difference is that the Germans self-police (in standard volunteer wiki-style), while the US and Sweden do not, to my knowledge.

As far as it being a "sport", that's ridiculous. Being that we (Germany's inhabitants) take titles very seriously, with good reason, as the Chancellor has a doctorate in Quantum Chemistry, every thesis should be thoroughly scrutinized.

I would wager my degrees that the percentage of pages plagiarized are very similar between the US, Sweden and Germany. We just find the plagiarism over here and hold politicians (and all others) accountable.

Re:The Germans are self-policing...

[Tom]

The difference is that the Germans self-police (in standard volunteer wiki-style), while the US and Sweden do not, to my knowledge.

Even in Germany, this is quite new, and only started when one infamous dazzler (who I'm not going to name because it would only improve his Google rankings) was uncovered, denied everything and went on the offensive as PR experts tell you to do in such cases - except that the Internet geeks banded together and ripped his PhD thesis apart page-by-page showing massive abuse so much that he not only lost his PhD but also had criminal investigations for copyright violations launched against him and public pressure forced him to give up all his political positions.

He's since twice tried a comeback, both times the public made it clear that we don't like liars and fraudsters.

That was a part of recent history that makes me proud, but it is very recent history.

Re:Oh who gives a fuck?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, and I might sustain myself with a right granted to me by law that forces everyone to give me a few dollars every so often for no reason at all. I mean, sure, authors think of new material, but the mere fact that that's the only way they know how to sustain themselves doesn't justify such freedom-violating laws. Find a business model or die.

Re:Oh who gives a fuck?

[greentshirt]

Much of science is based on pseudo-intellectual waffle-gab. The experimental method, for example, empiricism, skepticism, many basic classificatory schemes, and actually even the groundwork for modern discoveries such as the atom. But what am I doing tell you all of this stuff, obviously you know the value of pseudo-intellectual waffle-gab, because your signature quotes Voltaire and not Newton.

Re:Oh who gives a fuck?

[TFAFalcon]

And those rights also sustain some grandchildren of the creators. The world needs some IP rights, but they are completely out of control right now. So if any negotiations are to be balanced, the anti-IP side has to start with wanting to abolish IP altogether, since the pro-IP side wants to extend it to eternity.

Re:Oh who gives a fuck?

[fph il quozientatore]

Yeah, and I might sustain myself with a right granted to me by law that forces everyone to give me a few dollars every so often for no reason at all. I mean, sure, authors think of new material, but the mere fact that that's the only way they know how to sustain themselves doesn't justify such freedom-violating laws. Find a business model or die.

Exactly. I have a research position at a university. I get paid to write scientifical papers that are then available for everyone to download on my website. Why would the same thing be inconceivable for musicians?

Re:Oh who gives a fuck?

[Vintermann]

Well, in that case, you can make the same statement to book buyers: Find a funding model, or die. (Although it's not quite that bad, fortunately).

But there is no lack of other potential funding models. The main difficulty, both for authors and readers, is that we aren't used to these other funding models, and thus we're confused by them, scared by them, and unable to take full advantage of them.

Right now something exciting is happening, as Kickstarter is gradually, slowly, wrapping people's minds around the idea that you can approach creative projects as a investments/ventures for non monetary gain.

Re:Oh who gives a fuck?

[HaZardman27]

And it is not welfare, nor is it for those of poor skill, quite the opposite.

Sorry, I must not have phrased what I was saying clearly. I'm not trying to compare researchers at universities to welfare recipients; I was trying to point out that state-funded artists and content producers would essentially be just that.

And do not talk as if currently used business models are the best we can do

No, they clearly aren't. But the ability for content producers to sell and distribute content digitally is removing much of the need for big business there. With that type of model, an artist or producer's ability to sustain that career is completely dependent on whether or not consumers appreciate his/her work enough to pay for it. If you aren't producing anything of worth, why should you be supported in doing so?