Plagirism again, please join the discussion on research gate

[S. Hackmack]

Having been in a situation completely similar to Stefan's a few weeks ago, I would like to address the problem of GRIN, i.e. the publishers of the work in question. After chancing upon the plagiarized version of a paper of mine in GRIN's catalogue I contacted both GRIN and the University (LMU Muenchen), where, according to the author, he had handed in said work as a 'Seminararbeit'. Having become suspicous, I checked further work of the author and found more instances of plagiarism, for example in his MA-thesis which he'd copied in large parts from a 'Diplomarbeit' that had been online for two years prior to his work. Again, I notified GRIN and the LMU. As concerns the LMU, the department in question seems to take no measures whatever to secure against plagiarism: if you google the title of the plagiarized work, that paper of mine is the very fist hit you get offered (at least here in Germany). As concers GRIN, they were very apologetic and took all of the author's work (about 12 titles) down. But this does not mean that you cannot access these works anymore, for the internal workings of online publishing and bookselling (Amazon / Abebooks / ZVAB (an online antiquarian booksellsers) / Amazon Marketplace etc) cannot prevent that some copy somewhere will be up for sale. Now if a student researched some topic, he or she may find the content of the book on Amazon's 'Look Inside'. Even if he or she cannot order a copy from Amazon anymore, the book may still be available at one of the many other dealers. When I wrote to GRIN to question their business model and to ask them how they justify taking 12,99€ (for the PDF-version, a printed copy is more expensive) for putting something online that they actually do nothing with in terms of editing, checking etc., they argued that this was a sort of crass exception, but of course this is rubbish: they cannot possible know this - because they don't check. I am writing this to stress the need to discuss this point and this kind of publishing house with students, for they, too, may be duped. I feel sorry for sincere authors that do use GRIN in good faith and believe in GRIN's blurb concerning the 'advancement of science', but in my opinion GRIN (and others of the same ilk) ought to be shunned.
Best regards
Susanne Hackmack