For computer science, the major organizations IEEE and ACM have quite strict plagiarism policies that specify what will happen if detected, you can look at them online:

https://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/plagiarism.html

http://www.acm.org/publications/policies/plagiarism_policy

Punishment ranges from "writing an apology letter" to a ban from publishing with the organization for two years.

They also pull the papers from their repositories, which looks for example like this:

http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1409540.1409543

As a reviewer I have found a couple of papers where authors have not cited some sentences correctly (taken something word-to-word without "" and page number). I have mentioned this in my review and those papers have not been accepted for publication. Also, I have found a couple of published papers where authors have not cited correctly, but again it has been a matter of a couple of sentences, not all text... Once I found a PhD thesis where somebody had copy-pasted several pages from my thesis without citing me at all, and what really surprised me - I contacted the university of that author and they even didn't reply me!

Thanks for your response, Tiia! I hadn't thought about the problem of plagiarism with respect to student dissertations...I wonder how much that happens too. I'm very interested in these experiences and how pervasive they are ! It's so amazing when authors "lift" text and present it as their own...you might think that this is less likely to happen at the top journals in the field or that people would never do this more than once or that top researchers wouldn't do this -- but, some of the most egregious cases of plagiarism I've seen (paragraphs lifted and presented as one's own along with presenting the same studies as another as one's own, etc.) were at one of the top journals in psychology and involved some top people in the field. If this looks pervasive enough perhaps a survey should be conducted to get systematic data on its frequency; what people count as "plagiarism" (perhaps there's some ambiguity that causes some problems); and what should happen if there is plagiarism in the review process or if it isn't discovered until it's in print. Given your experience, there's also the question about what to do when students' dissertations involve plagiarism...and how to insure that there is a process in place for institutions to deal with the problem.

This question is just incidentally coinciding with the situation I faced just three days before. One of my reviews was copied by some authors and they sent it to a journal for publication. To their bad luck, the paper came to me for review. Actually from the abstract itself, my lines were copied as such and then a little modification followed by regular copying of sentences. To my surprise, they didn't include my paper in the references. I think it was an intentional act to hide it from review process as most of the journals would search for the authors on the same topic for reviewing. Same was the case here also and it came to me for review. I highlighted every line which was copied and also attached my published review with my decision. Now I just got an acknowledgement that my comments have reached the editorial office. Decision is pending.

That's just incredible Alok! I'm very curious to find out what happens and if others have had similar experiences.

Here is one of the very finest examples of plagiarism which has been published in different journals and in different countries. Text is the same throughout the papers. Just the chemical used for inducing the diseased condition is different. See the attached file for details.

Wow!

For computer science, the major organizations IEEE and ACM have quite strict plagiarism policies that specify what will happen if detected, you can look at them online:

https://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/plagiarism.html

http://www.acm.org/publications/policies/plagiarism_policy

Punishment ranges from "writing an apology letter" to a ban from publishing with the organization for two years.

They also pull the papers from their repositories, which looks for example like this:

http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1409540.1409543

Just very briefly: in the journal where I usually do reviews any sign of plagiarism means an exclusion from publication. (Usualy forever). I have also seen some papers sent to me for rview that they are based on fake data from the beginning to the end (non-existing polymer grades and manufacturers!) and I was the only reviewer who suggested rejection. To my surprize the same group had produced several similar "papers" and had them published in other journals. So much about the ethics of science ...

Thanks Mathias and Gyorgy! Mathias these links are extremely helpful templates for other fields. Thanks so much! What was it in engineering Mathias that triggered this response? Was there a critical mass of cases reported among editors and/or a published report of the problem somewhere? I'm curious about the process that produced this clear, helpful policy.

Larisa, Your experience is akin to my own. Sorry you too had to go through that! I've found plagiarism (extensive) quite a number of times -- maybe half a dozen or more times at the top journals in my field. This was completely shocking to me every time -- I just couldn't believe it in part because of some of the senior scholars involved. And, the editor's response (the paper was rejected) was the same. I think I found the thread you are referring to. I hadn't seen it earlier. Thanks for point me to it! However, reading through it, I feel that the earlier thread had mostly a different focus (mostly I think about student papers). It didn't address the specific problem of plagiarism in the scientific literature review process in the way that would have been helpful to me. I'm really interested in the frequency of this type of behavior based on researchers' own experience and their first hand knowledge of the response to it by editors etc. when reviewers do point out the problems (and what can different disciplines learn from other disciplines that are doing an apparently better job in addressing it). The input I've gotten from some of the responders above seems to go way beyond what's in the other threads in pointing us to what different fields (for example in engineering) are really doing in the way of creating explicit policies and teaching tools that make it extremely explicit what is and what is not acceptable and what the consequences will be (pretty severe beyond mere rejection) that can deter this type of action in their discipline and possibly in other disciplines as well (much food for thought). ...please check out their responses.

Well, this is a very sensitive matter - as when teaching we might be faced with such cases, and at universities there is a system and procedure to follow - however, this is not the case when it comes to submissions by other academics to either books/journals etc...

What I think might happen is something similar to this researchgate that can be done in collaboration with publishers, so as the database can be built and take it from there.

From my experience, when academics are advised that their work is not 'original' they tend to withdraw the submission!!! which might end up somewhere else! especially with the pressure to publish!!!!

Indeed, thank you for the question, and there is a need for some serious work by publishers in collaboration with academics and universities.

Regards

Theodora Issa

Theodora you have hit upon one of my motivations for the question! That is the experience that having reviewed a heavily plagiarized paper by a senior academic at a very top outlet. It was rejected and apparently this academic kept submitting it to other journals (a number of them) hoping to get his paper eventually accepted somewhere even though many of the same problems with plagiarism remained. One could easily imagine that had at least one reviewer not been so knowledgeable throughout every one of these review processes, that the paper might have eventually gotten accepted somewhere. To my knowledge, this didn't happen...but it seems to me (and obviously the author) that it could have so easily been -- at least eventually -- fruitful to keep trying. I agree with you that more needs to be done...it looks like engineering may have a very good set of policies that might provide a guide for other fields.

Thanks Lynn - thank you for the response - indeed, this is a problem - and with the busy schedule of the more senior academics - it seems it is left to the less experienced to review!!!

Well, reviewing a paper/chapter etc... should be valued by universities - now it is being done by those scholars who are motivated and keen to be up to date with what is going on in the research of their field - without any recognition by their universities - previously, even if paper is reviewed an appreciation by the faculty was recorded through provision of some (though minimal) funds directed for research of that scholar... but this had disappeared!!!

I hope Engineering would assist in this vital matter.

Regards

Theodora Issa

Dear Professor (Dr.) Lynn Carol Miller, Yes, I've found plagiarism but in most of cases its because of language and not taken the direct concepts.

I can recount one case where I alerted the editor to a large amount of blatant plagiarism in a paper I reviewed. The editor wrote to the author to complain of the unprofessional behaviour and ban him/her from further submissions to that journal. That seemed appropriate to me because not only was it unprofessional but it wasted the time of everyone who had dealt with that paper. But what really surprised me was that the paper ever got sent to review.

Now that I am also an editor I have a strict policy of submitting papers for plagiarism checking before sending out for review.

Khaled,

Thanks for bringing that to our attention. It is interesting. I can see it is aimed at those who may be less experienced in publishing their work. I hope it will have a good impact. I think education is the solution but I acknowledge there are those who know that what they are doing is wrong but persist because it is an easy option.They may also think it is low risk but in these days of digitisation it remains an ever-present risk for the rest of their careers.