iThenticate Blog

The recent plagiarism scandals in Germany have had a common theme: Plagiarism in the dissertation written by the politician.

Jonah Lehrer, best known for a plagiarism and fabrication scandal that ended his once-promising career in science journalism, recently created a controversy when it was revealed that he was paid a $20,000 honorarium to speak at a conference hosted by the Knight Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to innovation in journalism.

It’s been another rough week for German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Annette Schavan, a member of Merkel’s cabinet and the Education Minister for the country, has resigned after her Ph.D was revoked following an investigation into her doctoral thesis that found evidence of plagiarism.

There are few accusations and allegations that can haunt a person and their career longer than an allegation of plagiarism. This is partly because plagiarism is seen as a serious  offence, especially in academic, journalism and literary circles. However, it’s also because  the lines between what is and is not plagiarism is frequently blurry and prone to debate.

For the second time in under a year, a reporter at the Washington Post has been accused of plagiarism and has faced disciplinary action because of it.

In August of last year, the journal of Microfluidics and Nanofluidics retracted a 2010 article entitled “Induced-Charge Electrokinetic Phenomena” by a University of Waterloo professor Dongqing Li and a PhD student, Yasaman Daghighi. The grounds for the retraction was plagiarism, specifically the misappropriation of text and data.

In Poland, a Catholic priest and a Professor at the University of Lublin is facing accusations that he plagiarized portions of a volume he wrote entitled, “The Evolution of Polish Church Law Until the 19th Century in the Light of Codification.”

As a wrap up of 2012, the Jonah Lehrer scandal will, most likely, be the most-remembered plagiarism and ethics scandal of the year. It was the scandal that brought down one of the world’s best-known science reporters and authors while also opening up the debate about the ethics of self-plagiarism in a way that had not happened before.