Dear Ljubomir

Plagiarism is the unauthorized copying of various informations, and is considered a crime by Brazilian laws. Plagiarism is present in our daily lives and in many cases there are no settings in a clear way, about what is plagiarism, especially for the student. It is our responsibility , guiding our students to explain what can and should be done to reduce the occurrence of plagiarism, giving concrete examples of plagiarism, inside and outside the classroom so that students understand the seriousness of the problem and encourage the use online sources, recommending trusted sites and blogs. Plagiarism is becoming more present day and this is mainly due to the ease of access to information and a cultural problem

This is my first thread after two months! I could not stand it any more! It is very important question for me, for educational system, for my country!

Dear Ljubomir, I am absolutely not surprise. Probably you have heard that our previous president had have a similar story with his thesis. He hs already steped down but we cannot forget this shame.

Thanks dear @Agnes! Yes, I remember the case, but there were no punishment for media that have published a story about the President! Right! The issue of media freedom is relevant here.

Dear Ljubomir

Plagiarism is the unauthorized copying of various informations, and is considered a crime by Brazilian laws. Plagiarism is present in our daily lives and in many cases there are no settings in a clear way, about what is plagiarism, especially for the student. It is our responsibility , guiding our students to explain what can and should be done to reduce the occurrence of plagiarism, giving concrete examples of plagiarism, inside and outside the classroom so that students understand the seriousness of the problem and encourage the use online sources, recommending trusted sites and blogs. Plagiarism is becoming more present day and this is mainly due to the ease of access to information and a cultural problem

Indeed plagiarism should be considered as commencing a crime. However, IT technicians and professionals should focus on building/developing detecting plagiarism once happened.

Dear Lubomir,

In the UK, this does not seem a problem -- there have not been stories that high government official plagiarised in their theses. The more common problem is that students plagiarise in their coursework. Once found out, the mark would be zero and there is no second chace of retaking the module. So this means an irrecoverable failure. Still a very tiny number of students take the risk.

In China, there are allegation that some high government officials have other people do the research work and write the theses for them. So they have not plagiarised but this is worse. Some research students or researchers are willing to do these for these officials to get favour. These are more difficult to detect and deal with -- their theses contain original work (no plagiarisation) but the original work is done by someone else.

These officials seem safe at present. Who knows one day in future they may get exposed and would bitterly regret waht they did, I hope.

Dear Agnes,

Your president has the decency to step down. This does not happen in China. Most people some top leaders got PhDs in a dubious way but they just carry on apparently feeling unashamed.

Dear Nelson,

There are law provisions ragarding plagiarism and academic misconduct in China but they are rarely used and perceived to be toothless. Serious plagiarism cases are diluted as misconduct cases while misconduct cases are softened as misunderstanding cases. There is no independent panel for plagiarism and misconduct. So many exposed case just drag on and some pale out of people's attention.

I completely agree with Mario that plagiarism is very negative, regardless who made it.

Well, if you have a fake PhD, which is copied in some way, then this is not an ordinary plagiarism case. This is a crime. The next time he will still the money of Serbian people! Lately in Greece they found a medical Doctor, who was a Doctor on fake documents!

I totally agree with the opinion of Mario Vincenzo Russo.

I am copying from a Wikipedia entry on plagiarism committed by Martin Luther King, Jr. and discovered posthumously. The question is: Should a national hero be forgiven for plagiarism if his other deeds so greatly ennobled him and his country? I am inclined to say yes, but my scholarly vocation makes me deny this to a certain degree. Perhaps it is enough to repeat the commonplace, "Nobody´s perfect." And yet.....????? So I stand betwixt and between, unable to make up my mind. Any other opinions?

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s papers were donated by his wife Coretta Scott King to Stanford University's King Papers Project. During the late 1980s, as the papers were being organized and catalogued, the staff of the project discovered that King's doctoral dissertation at Boston University, titled A Comparison of the Conception of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich and Henry Nelson Wieman, included large sections from a dissertation written by another student (Jack Boozer) three years earlier at Boston University.[1][2]

As Clayborne Carson, director of the King Papers Project at Stanford University, has written, "instances of textual appropriation can be seen in his earliest extant writings as well as his dissertation. The pattern is also noticeable in his speeches and sermons throughout his career."[3]

Boston University, where King received his Ph.D. in systematic theology, conducted an investigation that found he plagiarized major portions of his doctoral thesis from various other authors who wrote about the topic.[4][5]

According to civil rights historian Ralph E. Luker, who worked on the King Papers Project directing the research on King's early life, King's paper The Chief Characteristics and Doctrines of Mahayana Buddhism[6] was taken almost entirely from secondary sources

Plagiarism is a crime. Its happen in Indonesia on few of regional governor and a high rank official that come from high rank university and their degree is drawn back by the university. Its been a new trend ti gain phd in easy way where governmental official pay someone to do their dissertation without cross check evaluation and defense it on phd trial.

For me there is no pride and knowledge effort on doing plagiarizm as it disgrace,ashame and unconfident behaviour of your knowledge and experience as researcher and human.

Dear Ljubomir,

Plagiarism is a dishonest scholastic act in which a person presents the findings or results of someone or others as his/her own and take a credit for it or using to augment a result with out giving credit and recognition - it is technically an academic crime. A political person is an individual who takes oath and swears to serve the public with honesty and integrity to the common good of the society, but the person fails here - he displayed that his is not honest and he will not serve the public with integrity for the common good but only for self betterment.

I read Germany's minister of health copied a doctoral thesis and accepted a wrong doing and disgraced self and resigned. If the claim about the health minister you mentioned in your country of Serbia is proven true ( not because it is posted out there in media ), then it is a mistake and that disqualifies the person to take the post. It does sound that health related fields have some problems of honesty in their research findings. Why health ministers are caught with such acts, probably it is because they came out to take political posts and public scrutiny exposed them, but had they been stayed in their original posts, they could have never been exposed. Probably it may be a quasi tradition of doing things in that field, as there are huge number of health related publications produced every year.

But aside from plagiarism, contemporary politics seen in developed western world today is as deadly (not by weapon but by character assassination and doing any tricks available from the book to smash and defeat opponents) if not more as third world politics ( where weaponry killings and jailing are normal means of putting down opponents).

Just to support my allusion, how bad and nasty contemporary politics of the west can be: Republican presidential contenders in USA were saying to public and in media that the now president Barack Obama was not born in America but in Kenya ( they said that because, to run for president, a person has to be American born - which they failed to prove to the American public - this is a huge political gamble people devise and play to smash opponents to dust).

Dear Ljubomir,

Plagiarism has many forms. Unfortunately this term is used only for its primitive form, when a part of research done by another researcher is copied without any change. Someone should be really stupid to act in that way. I guess in many cases of plagiarism the “authors” have bought their dissertations, not necessarily by money. For me more elaborated forms of plagiarism, which cannot be proved, are doing much more harm to science.

Dear Ljubomir

After the above considerations I'll just add that plagiarism, of course, is seen as a criminal offense and should be repudiated in all its forms whomever it may concern. Fortunatelly, and to my knowledge, serious reports of plagiarism in Portugal are ocasional and, when detected and investigated, are very seriously condemned.

Thanks for sharing this truly importante issue.

Best regards,

JP

@Ljubmir, plagiarism is illegal, unethical act, which is the manifestation of lack of intelligence also.

Years ago, a foreign student's doctorate was withdrawn by the Board of Regents of a well-known university in our country because it was uncovered that s/he plagiarized his/her dissertation.. A wealthy businessman returned his doctorate honoris causa to his alma mater because he read a Speech whom his writers plagiarized. Then a Supreme Court Justice and a Senator were also involved in plagiarism. There was however no solid outcry from the academics or authors against the "misdeed".

From these events, we could see the following:

Plagiarism can be easily addressed by a school if a student commits it

It is very difficult to a address if a non-student, influential person commits it

The public or masses does not consider plagiarism a big thing

This is something that we researchers must address.

Eddie, I completely agree. I wish I knew how we can address it.

Nelson, this would seem so trivial yet if the school, where almost all members of the public go, will succeed in inculcating that plagiarism is a hideous crime, then we would have already partially succeeded addressing the matter.

The plagiarism should always be repudiated.

In some circumstances, the existence of a ghost writer can be tolerated. But plagiarism is a criminal act!

Dejenie is correct. German practice is to remove government officials from office regardless of their status and strip them off the PhD. German Ministers of Defense (caricatured as Minister of Self Defense) and of Education/Research (!) have suffered recently.

The public used wikis to document the plagiarism in the Web.

Http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/noose-tightens-around-puducherry-minister/article2521304.ece

Similar topic here on RG: https://www.researchgate.net/post/Black_market_for_academic_papers_Can_this_be_true

There are no opinions that plagiarism is a crime, and there must be serious legal consequences for committing it in all countries. Apart from an appropriate law to deal with it, it will be still more proper to muster public opinion for providing severe condemnation for it. The punishment should be proportionate to the gravity of the offense.

As dear Huajiang has mentioned about China, it is prevalent in Indian bureaucracy too, where the powerful government officials have the research/thesis written by subordinates and due to their power in the system have it approved by the examiners concerned. And, mostly no one knows the way what has gone on in the black box.

So long as there i a strong public opinion against it, and the political will to solve the menace it would be difficult to treat it.

With the advent of communication and internet the occurrence of plagiarism will be widespread further in near future. Nowadays when i check my mailbox I see email from some virtual university or illegal institutes which advertise for giving higher education degree within few day provided the applicant pay them some money! This is tempting when you are a high official, busy, egoist and want sharp promotion to higher levels quickly! If it is proven, then it is crime, of course. I hear such things in news from time to time. We need more stronger legislation's to combat such plagiarisms What German practice seems nice.

I think Govt officials have a greater need to be honest and transparent. Whether they like it or not, they have to function as role models. We need role models who show integrity and self discipline.

Plagiarism is dishonesty in academic fields. It reminds us to be sincere, honesty and cautious in all we do today, so that things we do will not come back to haunt us in the future when there may be bigger national issues at stake, as in the case Prof Ljubomir as cited above.

Dear Ljubomir, evidenced plagiarism, discovered by scientists is publicly announced as crime in Poland, in online journal "Forum Akademickie" (Academic Forum) with names, details and contexts of uethical, behaviors. It happens, (however I do not have right now in mind the names) of scientsts being political leaders as well, making such crimes as plagiarism.

Plagiarism should be condemned by all counts. If this happens with political backing it is all the more dangerous. It should be condemned by all. The PM should immediately resign his position for supporting plagiarism. This shows to the extent the politicians are willing to go when their cause is involved.

Dear Ljubomir,

Severaly years ago the PhD of President of Hungary (at that time) was withdrawn and he had to leave his position. It was the largest scandal in this field. Similar suspect relating to politicians are appeared in almost every 1-2 years.

Such kind of behaviour MUST be not tolerated. If high ranking person used plagiarism, best solution is to strip him/her out of the post. Permanently. I am glad that there are good examples from various countries.

Dear Ljubomir,

You have got many good responses!.I agree with most of responses that committing these kind of Plagiarism should be strongly condemned in every country.

It is disgusting. And from top officials, its a bad example, they are supposed to be role models !!!

Dear @Ljubomir, plagiarism is a crime. Unfortunately, many people get promotions based on plagiarism and when caught there is no penalty.

How do you scientifically define and demonstrate Plagiarism given the hundreds of visible and invisible exchanges amongst colleagues (see my own question related to this remark)?

Cheers

It is very hard to define this word 'Plagiarism'...One hears the songs from youtube and then try to sing the same....what it could be?

Indeed, it is really a difficult issue to comment about. It includes all things like,,,individual psychology, local environment, pressure on individual (any kind) and the involved circumstances.....In some countries it is more and in some it is less but one can find it in different forms.................

I think the best work for detecting and revealing plagiarism has been done by far form the German organization 'VroniPlag', see here:

http://de.vroniplag.wikia.com/wiki/Home

They have forced many-many German officers to resign!

My dear colleagues, many thanks for your kind opinions, fine examples, as well as for many ideas that may be accepted as a way for fighting plagiarism successfully! I have seen that @Beata gave a primer as well as @Demetris! Such praxis should be promoted! Penalty is a MUST for plagiarism! Yes @Jaja, role models must be punished first!

My dear @Nageswara, I do agree deeply with Your proposal!

Yes dear @Costas, the real word for this is CRIME!

Dear @Nelson, thanks for new information that I have not known about: "...plagiarism committed by Martin Luther King, Jr. and discovered posthumously." ! Yes, dilemma have arisen! I made my mind,no one should be be forgiven for plagiarism!

@Dejenie, @Michael, fine inputs on German praxis and a funny story on Minister of SELFDefence! :)

As I have written "This issue became not only the question of plagiarism, but also the question of freedom.", please give some comments about this side of the story!

Finally, the web page is available now, so You do have original story!

http://pescanik.net/2014/06/getting-a-phd-in-serbia-the-case-of-minister-stefanovic/

"related to high Government officials" it is a probleme in Germany.

In most of the cases its realted to social science topics, which is called often in the papers "soft science".

The probleme is, that the titels are so broad and the clear cut differentiation what was done by the author him/her self, and what was taken fom even a newspapers is not visible. Let me construct an artificial title : " The special relation und considering the north-south tension as studied by market-exchange between February 2005 and

October 2005".

Dear All,

I think many of your reactions are exaggerated. People are apparently not able to give away ideas they cannot test themselves. Anyway, I have no problems to do this to serve the community in stead of the individual.

By the way, I made a list of let say 1000 questions dealing with research and education practices based on personal experiences before I started with RG (November last year). I will certainly not claim ownership because people raised similar questions well before I did....

Cheers again

Dear all.

Here in Spain there was an example last year. Alejandro Blanco, currently president of the Spanish Olympic committee, submitted his thesis to University of Vigo. It is said that it was found that a thesis on the same subject had been submitted before.

Here you can read a report in English.

http://copy-shake-paste.blogspot.com.es/2014/01/spain-prizes-for-plagiarists.html

I can't agree more with Lj: "no one should be forgiven for plagiarism", especially people in the gov or in higher positions! These are the people who are supposed to be good RAW MODELS in their society!

Dear All,

As Marcel put it out: plagiarism permeates almost perfectly our (present) world. He is right that plagiarism as a subject is a gnawed bone thrown in front of us. However, the stage and the intention of plagiarism are various. It is a permanent (free) store for some of our fellow-men and at the same time a source of rage and intellectual loss for others. Politicians do everything to get the power. Plagiarism is but a soft abuse. Base of plagiarism is that majority of targets (humble people) will not recognise this intellectual stealing.

The best known Hungarian case is that of Pál Schmitt the former president.

A Hungarian portal published an article which claimed that material that amounts to around 180 of the 215 pages of Pál Schmitt's 1992 doctoral thesis, had been lifted from a 1987 manuscript by Bulgarian sports researcher Nikolay Georgiev, together with a page's worth of material from a work by Hristo Meranzov and Georgiev.

After a formal investigation the Council of the Semmelweis University advised the University Senate to withdraw Schmitt's doctorate title. The University Senate withdrew Schmitt's title on 29 March 2012. On 2 April, Schmitt announced to the Hungarian Parliament that he would resign as President.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%A1l_Schmitt_academic_misconduct_controversy

Plagiarism is intellectual theft!

Period!

Dear Jesus,

It seems to me that Olympic committee members prefer to get pseudo-scientific degrees. See the case of the former Hungarian president, a well known personality of the Hungarian Olympic committee.

Dear Mohammed,

Plagiarism is a fraud, a cheating. This is the most severe intellectual offence mainly among scientists. However, I have not heard that somebody has ever punished because of it.

Dear Marcel,

Certainly, the modest simple soldiers of science exaggerate on plagiarism. Please, consider the authorities and various committees have never exaggerated when trying to call big potatoes to account for plagiarism. I think the emotions of simple people are understandable.

Two more topics for more discussion:

- Probability laws predict that there can be overlap in topics or ideas just by chance alone. How to distinguish between conscious versus unconscious plagiarism?

- Some people are much more sensitive to details than others, which might cause inter-individual variation in how plagiarism is perceived. What is plagiarism for some is not plagiarism for others or not?

Dear László,

I am sorry, I have seen your comment only now. Fortunately, Pál Schmitt did not have a PhD degree. He had but a university doctor’s degree. In addition, his dissertation had nothing to do with science.

Dear Beata,

Dear All,

Who have ever been punished for plagiarism as he/she should have to be punished in Poland or elsewhere?

Very high quality discussion heats up, many fine examples with explanations. Let's move on! And this is our form of protest and struggle against plagiarism!

Dear Ljubomir,

You have mentioned freedom. Here you are a picture of Pawel Kuchynski:

Plagiarists should lose their degrees and positions in universities and ministries.

Dear Marcel,

1. Please, do not mistake coincidence for plagiarism. See the Lotka-Volterra equations. Neither Alfred Lotka nor Vito Volterra plagiarised. I think the measure of probability can be calculated even in individual cases. Your question “How to distinguish between conscious versus unconscious plagiarism?” – I feel – has no practical importance because most of plagiarism can be recognised immediately.

2. In terms of laws on plagiarism there is no individual sensitivity.

Dear Huajiang Ouyang, the day that the original Thesis Writers will open their mouth and start speaking with details, it will be a cultural turning point for your country. But, you have to wait for a long time, I suppose...

More discussion:

What about the importance of scale? One sentence, one paragraph, one chapter, one thesis, five articles, 20 ideas, etc. Therefore, I think that individuals perceive the importance of plagiarism in different ways or not?

Dear Marcel,

Please, first continue what have you started!

Tell me what?

Dear Marcel,

Here you are:

"Two more topics for more discussion:

- Probability laws predict that there can be overlap in topics or ideas just by chance alone. How to distinguish between conscious versus unconscious plagiarism?

- Some people are much more sensitive to details than others, which might cause inter-individual variation in how plagiarism is perceived. What is plagiarism for some is not plagiarism for others or not?"

Dear Concha,

What is the gravest step?

Dear Concha,

Willing plagiarism is a mean behaviour. Keep in mind that essence of plagiarism is, stealing intellectual property in order to have benefits!

What about stealing intellectual properties without personal benefits? Robin Hood style?

What about secret spying? Ethical governments vote ethical laws against plagiarism favoring secret spying systems at the same time (cheap argument: security reasons)....

Dear Concha,

I know exactly what you mean. I only wishes to say that in practice, the world is not black or white. There is always a grey zone. To me, intellectual ownership is extremely difficult to identify. For instance, if you write something for the first time, it does not automatically imply you were the first that had the idea.

From a historical perspective, the only traces you have are (published) written traces, discriminating against people that have ideas, but are not able to write it down properly. Despicable from a social point of view?

You can find an overview of the VroniPlag wiki (in English) in the link below. I think, it could well be a model for academic publications in other languages.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VroniPlag_Wiki

I think that in writing a thesis or a paper, one should cite references of ideas, books, papers, theses.... that has influenced him/her for the research handled; But with the variety of sources of same topics, which are mostly redundant, may be the original source could be forgotten. However, the candidate to the dissertation is exposing his/herself publicly to a jury of academicians who must master the topic and consequently are able to discover the plagiarism, since the candidate couldn't be able to respond objectively or correctly to the questions and comments of the jury, related his work and the thesis content. So if the candidate has been allowed the title, this means that the jury is also corrupt or incompetent!! This is a dilemma for the academic sphere for accepting such things!! and a dilemma for universities to organize incompetent juries for doctoral theses!!!

The oral presentation of the work is the real assessment of the candidate from his/her mastering of the topic, from plagiarism and from real relevant new ideas and skills of the candidate

Thanks a lot Michael for VroniPlag in English link. I am not, unfortunately, good with German language! I do not have to ask @Demetris for the link!

For officials from politicians or other high positions in administration and related, it is a very strong fraud, which must be punished. Generally those use their power and influence in order to be delivered academic titles, and in most cases use students who are waiting for favors or for recruitment, and who write for them theses 'may be bad ones or copied ones'. These officials do not take dissertation and oral presentation, as they use their influences for registering their theses in informal way. Unfortunately this kind of cheating is very present these last decade in my country. And we could meet people who do not master even the scientific terminology or the basics of the field with doctoral titles.

If GOLD rusts, what then can IRON do!

Dear Raoof,

where did you get this citation?

Cheers

Wow! He is brave enough to confess hmm.. I have nothing to add Prof. Our dearest colleagues have helped to make this thread very interesting... No such confession yet from the government officers over here..

Dear Concha,

I only published on bird research and shared a lot and with pleasure!

I also think that basic functioning of research and education as discussed in RG is shared by many people from different research and education environments which make it very likely that different people make the same comments based on independent experiences.

Cheers

Plagiarism is theft, deception, fraud and lies. Students should be expelled from the school permanently - no excuses, exceptions or extenuating conditions. This is called "single sanction" policy or "one strike" (as in U.S. baseball) and you are out. Government officials should be held to any applicable employment policies or procedures and also any applicable laws regarding falsification of employment application.

Plagiarism means taking a credit for someone else work. This is a reflection of modern technology trend (copying files, music etc), results of neglect and poor parenting of the younger generation and today's current economic treatment and conditions of academic institutions (high cost of tuition and a pressure to succeed). Younger generation run by instincts to survive. About the ministers caught on plagiarisms, well it is normal for them (and for us I suppose) because it is all about power; otherwise they would not be in high ranking well paid jobs such as government posts. These people are power driven, what do you expect. Yes, plagiarism is bad because it decays trust in institutions which are the foundations of any civilization. It also damages the scientific, artistic and humanitarian progress which lasts longer than civilization.

@JamesBowman - I would be very careful with 'one strike' policy. What if you are wrongly accused of plagiarism. Humans are very creative creatures and any 'bad' person can turn 'one strike' policy to his/her advantage. The best way to deal with it is to get rid of incentives to do plagiarism.

When we talk about Plagiarism, we talk about some human traits of super negative value. For Instance Prophet and Messenger Muhammad God's Prayers and Peace be upon him,

said: "من غشّنا فليس منّا " translated as "He who cheats us is not one of us''. This is in fact a sort of banishing statement (in the sense that perpetrators "risk" of not being belivers) to those that do any sort of cheating whether to advance themeselves to where they should not be (and this is a reflexive action that may or may not hurt others but looked upon very lowly as it is equivalent to lying", or whether the action of cheating is excercised upon someone else or the community (a binary operation), such as knowingly selling corrupt or contaminated products to the community, with intent to harm. In this case the negativity of this action is compounded, since the conseuences of the action do not only falsely insure the benefit of the perpetrator at the cost of the harm (possibly mortal) of autrui, a member or all the community!

From Facebook: by Soumma Sabri Former Secretary General of Watch Tunisie (https://www.facebook.com/soummas?fref=nf): announcement in : Arabways:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/arabways/

Do you have a panel / session idea for the IACC International Anti-Corruption Conference in Tunis in October 2014?

You only have until June5 to submit your proposal

shout if you have ideashttp://16iacc.org/agenda/sessions/

Dear friends, thanks for very fine contributions, proposals for measures to be taken, different experiences about plagiarism.

@Fethi, this Conference is a real cite where some sessions could treat plagiarism,yes!

Please post this link as Your contribution to the following thread on corruption.Thanks!

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Corruption_remains_one_of_the_biggest_challenges_for_all_societies_Do_you_have_examples_of_corruption_in_your_society

As we made a relation of corruption-plagiarism, please read this very unusual example: " A grassroots anti-plagiarism group said Tuesday that the head of the Kremlin’s newly created anti-corruption department Oleg Plokhoi ripped off a significant portion of his doctoral thesis."

http://en.ria.ru/russia/20131211/185436465/Kremlins-Anti-Corruption-Chief-Accused-of-Plagiarizing-Thesis.html

I believe that plagiarism is a serious matter. It may also speak to a failure in checks and balances at several levels. Plagiarism, dependent on the age, circumstance and training, may be the result of naivety, combined with ignorance of proper referencing, and/or carelessness. In this case, I am probably talking about the plagiarism that might occur among undergraduate students writing papers for courses. The plagiarism in these cases may be missed as a result of an instructor not having access to current software and technology to check for such. Manual reading and searches are very difficult when an instructor has many students. For the master and doctoral-level students, one would expect a higher level of preparedness for writing and personal commitment to not plagiarizing. However, there is a broader net for checks and balances--a thesis/dissertation chair, supported by a committee, with other checks and balances at several levels leading up to defense and so forth. In the worse cases, failure could occur at multiple levels, with the student plagiarizing deliberately or accidentally, the committee chairperson failing to periodically and routinely review the evolution of the student's work, complicated further if committee members fail to check as well. It is a difficult situation when plagiarism factors into the functioning of public officials and speaks to the failure of a potentially broader system of checks and balances at several levels. However, an accusation must be supported by some facts to substantiate the truth of the matter. Specifically what was plagiarized and to what extent?

We blame governments for corruption that is used by its citizens and ask them to do something against it, e.g. by establishing anti-corruption departments. They have to deal with a huge number of transactions and contracts, which can only work with citizens' support.

Why not force the academic institutions to establish mandatory and effective anti-plagiarism routines? After all, they need and ask us for more and more publications to improve our individual rankings and satisfy their selection mechanisms. That is the reality of the academic world, in which humans work.

Universities, for example, should be an independent partner of the public and other institutions, and they should guarantee that the budgets are used ethically and effectively. Let them help all of us by sifting all publications (published by their first authors) for plagiarism, which could be supported by appropriate software.

Two case studies for discussion:

1) How do you deal with someone helping writing a student that does not master English? The language expert is paid to help but he/she is not indicated as author, perhaps briefly mentioned in Acknowledgements. Who is intellectually owner of what has been written where in an article?

2) A constructive friendly anonymous referee gives hints or ideas to improve a manuscript from another team submitted for publication. The suggestions might improve future studies of that team. It's like a gift. How do you handle intellectual gifts in the context of ownership identification and plagiarism?

Dear Ljubomir

Plagiarism seems to be a problem among some well know politicians, businessmen and officials worldwide. Below are examples of plagiarism in Russia:

http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20140224162330475

and Germany:

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052748703561604576150341564716876

Plagiarism is easy to be checked now, since many relevant software applications exist. What is more difficult to revealed is the paid work, ie when somebody hires another person to write his work. So, for those cases, probably a difficult interview would be a good solution for universities...