There are probably examples of students caught engaging in scientific misconduct (e.g. not acknowledging the idea and year-long unpaid work of another scientist, or stealing confidential results). However, it is understandable that a university would do everything they can to protect a plagiarism supporting laboratory head - and continue refusing to acknowledge the life's work of the victimized scientist. Are there any examples of how to succeed scientifically against a stealing institute or university?
In my limited knowledge some cases of scientific plagiarism were seen and examined in India by the Society for Scientific Values, now a part of Indian National Science Academy, New delhi. Once it did examine a case that pertained to a famous Structural Chemist, Prof. C.N. R. Rao of IISC, Banglore!
With proof one can always try the press, but in general whistle-blowers lose their jobs, so move on, then blow the whistle. The journal Nature has been probing scientific fraud, outcomes, and philosophy over the years. In general the path is long, hard and not for the weak of conviction. The institution will always protect the institution, but if you can frame the issue such that revealing the plagiarism is in the institute's interest (pressure by popular press) then positive outcomes are more likely. i.e. make them look good for tackling the issue head on. The likelihood of losing one's position is high, and getting it back (and your name) could last years or never come. This really is no different than the adviser stealing the students work. Hope this helps...
1) http://www.nature.com/naturejobs/science/articles/10.1038/nj7396-137a
2) http://www.nature.com/news/redefine-misconduct-as-distorted-reporting-1.12411
3) http://www.nature.com/news/misconduct-is-the-main-cause-of-life-sciences-retractions-1.11507
4) http://www.nature.com/embor/journal/v8/n1/full/7400884.html
Also some books on scientific fraud. I like this one, written by the guy who investigates the cases...
http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9148.html
Here are some more:
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052970204456604574205760527855726
Thanks to Kirk, Narendra, Alf for your answers!
It sure will be a life-long long run to fight the plagiators, but there are obviously some examples how to fight. I just updated my profile on Nature network.
I thought I could trust biophysicists who even gave me their institutional keys and promised me for years I will exclusively develop the project on all homing molecules... I was just too naive to trust those members of the German academy of science who even wrote supporting letters, but then had my project overtaken by their lab members.
Character and personality of the scientist concerned determines bad habits like tendency to cheat and plague-rise. One can only black list such persons through Refereed Scientific journals after giving them an opportunity to explain privately to the professional body or authority. It is difficult to weed out such acts as it is part of nature and environment one lives through and grows!.
It is difficult to exclude those members of the German academy of science; they seem too big to fail - and the academy does not support fighting against plagiarism supporting members.
There were some priority disputes between Hooke & Newton, and Einstein & Hilbert.
There is a big list of famous plagiarism incidents here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_plagiarism_controversies#Academia
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Physics