AW: Plagirism again, please join the discussion on research gate

[S. Hackmack]

In my exchange with GRIN the following statements were made (translations mine):

Concerning my complaint that they publish anything without checking:
"It is not correct that we publish 'anything'. We may not check the content, but we do take care to ascertain formal correctness (i.e. that papers obey correct forms of citation, that they do not state sensitive or secret information, that they do not use unpublished study results etc.)
My thoughts: But how can they check for these things without checking the content?

Concerning my questions as to their pricing:
"Authors themselves decide whether they use GRIN's open access platform or whether they trade their work. Prices can be suggested by the authors, if they do not make a suggestion, the price is established by GRIN. It is not true that [as I had claimed] we have no work with the texts sent to us, since we do have to re-format (that is why we ask for Word, not Pdf-files), and we have to ensure that the texts may be used with various types of medium such as different e-readers. Then there are costs for obtaining ISBNs, the various distribution channels, running costs and so forth. I am afraid that you are underestimating the complexities of the publishing process"

As concerns plagiarism, the topic under discussion:
"I agree that our system is open to abuse, but this can also be the case with 'ordinary' publishers. And yes, of course we rely on the author's respective claims. We do make spot-checks occasionally by having the university confirm that the works did, in fact, pass grade, but in your case this was unfortunately not done. Concerning the MA-thesis, this would not have helped anyway, since the university itself published it on their page for 'Outstanding Theses' [This is true. After contacting the department in question, they took the link down]"
My thoughts: Even if spot-checks are being made, nothing prevents authors to change the work in the period after evaluation and before uploading it. In the version that the author published via the University, the source that he plundered was actually cited. This citation was missing in the final version obtainable via GRIN.

Best regards,
Susanne Hackmack

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: The HPSG-L mailing list [mailto:HPSG-L at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG] Im Auftrag von Arnold, Doug
Gesendet: Montag, 31. März 2014 12:00
An: HPSG-L at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
Betreff: Re: Plagirism again, please join the discussion on research gate

Dear Colleagues

I had not come across GRIN before this email thread started. I must say I think it is a very bad thing, and we should do what we can to discourage its use.

First, I'm disappointed that you have to pay for on-line access to content deposited with them -- surely this goes against the whole idea of open access? (and surely it makes it much harder to check for plagiarism).

Second, as Susanne says, how do they justify taking money for what is essentially similar to places like research gate? As far as I can see, the only thing they offer over and above things like research gate is the possibility of purchasing printed copies.

Am I missing something?

Best
Doug

On 31 Mar 2014, at 10:30, S. Hackmack <hackmack at UNI-BREMEN.DE> wrote:

> 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