Dishonesty in research discovered

The board of the Faculty of Science and Engineering has confirmed a case of what the Higher Education Ordinance terms misconduct in research. It consists of confirmed large-scale plagiarism of text in eight articles taken from almost fifty pieces of work by various authors.

In its investigation, the Faculty Board has only taken a position on the issue of whether misconduct has occurred and if so the nature and extent of it. The question of what measures should be taken against the researcher involved will now be handed over to the Vice-Chancellor and the university’s Staff Disciplinary Board.

The amount of plagiarised text varies from half a page or so in one article to virtually complete articles. Copied text has been found in accounts of background information, methods and models, and in descriptions of experiments, results and conclusions. In some cases there are references to original sources but on no occasion is the reader informed that the whole portion of text was written by other people. By copying the text in descriptions of experiments, results and conclusions it is made to seem as if the researcher was much more involved scientifically than was in fact the case. One further aggravating factor is that the experimental data that forms the basis of the results have not been saved, making it impossible to replicate the results presented.

”It is of course very regrettable to have to confirm a case of misconduct in research, as is the fact that it was not detected at an earlier stage,” says Ulf Nilsson, dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering. “On the other hand, what has happened does show that the system works. However, these events show us that we need to further increase our vigilance and perhaps have plagiarism checks on a random basis, in the same way as we do for our students’ work.”

“Taking previous knowledge and the results obtained by other researchers as a starting point is a natural part of the scientific process of moving research forward. There is an accepted practice for how this should take place. In the faculty investigation it is clear that the researcher in question had seriously neglected to make it clear which results were obtained by other researchers and what he had done himself. I can only state that this is totally unacceptable behaviour,” says Vice-Chancellor Helen Dannetun.

The faculty will soon make the final report of the inquiry available to all affected parties in accordance with the university guidelines for dealing with instances of academic dishonesty. The researcher in question has been relieved of his duties until further notice. The Staff Disciplinary Board met on 27 May.

 

Wed May 29 11:44:13 CEST 2013

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The board of the Faculty of Science and Engineering has confirmed a case of misconduct in research. It consists of confirmed large-scale plagiarism of text.

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