Plagirism again, please join the discussion on research gate

Sun Mar 30 15:03:06 UTC 2014

Dear Valia

While you are obviously right that there are official procedures that need to be followed (and I agree that the University of Sevilla should be contacted on this matter), I think Stefan has the right to warn the community that his work has been stolen and that illegal copies of his work are for sale. Of course, we have to be careful about accusing anyone before it’s known whether the person who created the ResearchGate profile is indeed who she (or he) claims she is. But there can be no doubt that we’re dealing with plagiarism of the worst kind (the verbatim copies point to conscious stealing rather than involuntary copying).

First of all, official investigations take time, and during that time there is a risk that people will cite the fraud papers instead of crediting Stefan (and the other people who have been plagiarized). Even if the fraud papers ever get retracted, the papers that cited them in good faith will not, so the wrong citations may continue to propagate afterwards. Since scientists are still often evaluated based on the citations generated by their work, this matter goes far beyond the theft of an article.

Secondly, the smooth running of scientific communities does not rely solely on legal rules or procedures, but rather (and I would say, even more so) on peer review and discussion. I believe Stefan has been most exemplary in crediting other people in his own work, and is currently a major force in making scientific research openly available to the community. I know from personal experience that he will contact other researchers for discussion about an article if he’s unsure about some parts of it, in order to avoid any kind of misrepresentation when he refers to those articles. I am not sure why you would want to suggest that his actions are misogynist, or that he might have another secret agenda with bringing this out in the open.

Best

Remi

On 30 Mar 2014, at 13:56, Valia Kordoni <evangelia.kordoni at ANGLISTIK.HU-BERLIN.DE> wrote:

> Dear Stefan,
> 
> thank you for your reply. I strongly suggest that you may forward to the
> lists the message which Shalom Lappin sent you (cc'ing me), the one which
> for some reason he could not post to the HPSG mailing list. It says it
> all, and in a way which finds me in total agreement.
> 
> Stefan, (smaller or bigger, it does not matter) communities base their
> smooth existence on rules and laws. Whoever has evidence of wrongdoing,
> violation, offence against themselves is actually, in my opinion,
> *obliged* to seek justice through legal authorities, like, in your case,
> the legal department of your university and the university of the other
> person, and, if necessary, courts of law.
> 
> I am still not clear what it is exactly that you may be seeking through
> the series of the relevant to the topic messages to the public lists. To
> make the case known to the community so that the community may profit? A
> noble aim, one could've said. But the same result you would have
> definitely achieved, if you would've gone public after having cleared the
> case through the legal channels mentioned above, but also very much better
> articulated in the message of Shalom Lappin to you. In the latter case,
> you would've presented the community with a undoubtful legal decision.
> 
> In such a situation, there would be no reason for anybody to feel
> uncomfortable and overwhelmed which is still my situation, since I still
> miss the reaction of the other side.
> 
> Regards,
> Valia
> 
> On Sun, March 30, 2014 12:44, Stefan Müller wrote:
>> Dear Valia,
>> 
>> I see your point and maybe I overreacted. But on the other hand this is
>> such an unbelievable case and I think such cases have to be discussed in
>> public. People have to become aware that this is not tolerated and that
>> it is not just Germany where two ministers (defense and education) had
>> to step down and several other politicians are under investigation.
>> 
>> Please rest assured that I would not have acted differently if she was
>> male. Referring to the gender of the accused person in this debate is
>> almost an insult to me. I try to be gender-balanced in everything I do
>> (for instance Language Science Press [check the board], my staff, ...).
>> Even my family is gender-balanced: one boy and one girl and my wife is
>> full Professor.
>> 
>> Well, I should remove the "almost".
>> 
>> Furthermore she has a way to respond to the discussion on ResearchGate:
>> 
>> https://www.researchgate.net/post/Shouldnt_this_paper_be_withdrawn_from_researchgate_Plagiarism
>> 
>> Guess what she did when I addded a review and started the discussion:
>> She started to follow me. I asked her to unfollow me and so she did. I
>> asked her twice to remove the papers, but she did not.
>> 
>> https://www.researchgate.net/publication/255947424_TYPOLOGICA_SEMANTIK_IM_DEUTSCHEN_UND_IM_SPANISCHEN_TOPOLOGISCHE_DEIKTISCHE_UND_DIMENSIONALE_KONZEPTE_DER_LOKALEN_PRPOSITIONEN
>> 
>> She seems to be absolutely unaware of the dimensions of her failure.
>> 
>> If one uploads papers to platforms like RG or academia the purpose is to
>> make people read this stuff and discuss it, to get publicity. To build a
>> web of trust and respect. This is what RG tries to measure with a score.
>> If one plagiarizes somebody elses work, one should be aware of the risk
>> that it is discussed on discussion places like RG. If one realizes the
>> mistakes one made, one can withdraw a paper.
>> 
>> Using the email lists is basically an effective way to invite people to
>> this discussion. Otherwise they may not check there RG accounts and miss
>> the opportunity to participate in such exiting debates.
>> 
>> I incorporated Detmar's findings in the annotated document:
>> 
>> http://hpsg.fu-berlin.de/~stefan/Plagiarism/TYPOLOGICA_CarmenCastro.pdf
>> 
>> Note: If this case would not have become public, we never would have
>> learned about these additional cases of plagiarism in this and other
>> documents. It takes a lot of time to look into this in detail.
>> 
>> Best wishes
>> 
>>        Stefan
>> 
>> 
>> PS: For those who do not know me: There is one small portion in this
>> email that is not meant seriously.
>> 
>> St.
>> 
>> Am 30.03.14 09:54, schrieb Valia Kordoni:
>>> Dear All,
>>> 
>>> I personally feel (from the first moment I read the original message)
>>> extremely uncomfortable that all this sensitive info is being discussed
>>> on
>>> a mailing list, and we are all implicitly/explicitly being asked to pass
>>> judgements on the scientific deeds and the quality of such deeds of a
>>> (female) person, and to take sides. Is she a member of any of the lists
>>> where the original email went to? How can she participate in the
>>> discussion and get the chance to defend herself, if there is anything to
>>> defend and if she can? I am really sorry to say this. I strongly believe
>>> that such issues should be taken to and resolved by justice
>>> bodies/courts:
>>> defaming someone is bad an offence as plagiarism.
>>> 
>>> Regards,
>>> Valia
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> Stefan Müller       Tel: (+49) (+30) 838 52973
>>                    Fax: (+49) (030) 838 4 52973
>> Institut für Deutsche und Niederländische Philologie
>> Deutsche Grammatik
>> Habelschwerdter Allee 45
>> 14 195 Berlin
>> 
>> http://hpsg.fu-berlin.de/~stefan/
>> 
>> http://langsci-press.org/
>> 
>> http://hpsg.fu-berlin.de/Projects/CoreGram.html
>> 
> 
> 
> ----------------------------------------
> PD Dr. Valia Kordoni
> Institut  für  Anglistik  und  Amerikanistik
> Humboldt-Universität Berlin
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