March 30, 2012

Hungarian president loses doctorate in plagiarism case

Semmelweis University has stripped Hungarian President Pál Schmitt of his doctoral degree after determining that he copied much of his thesis from other sources, prompting opposition politicians to call for his resignation, the Hungarian media reported.

The university's rector announced the decision yesterday (29 March) after a review panel determined that 180 pages of the 215-page dissertation on the Olympic Games were similar to other work, and that 17 pages were identical.

The Hungarian magazine HGV first reported in January that a large part of Schmitt's dissertation, written in 1992, appeared to copy from a work by the late Bulgarian researcher Nikolay Georgiev's Analyse duprogramme olympique (des Jeux d'Olympiade). The issue raised considerable media interest in Bulgaria.

Schmitt's entourage at first tried to explain that he had written his thesis together with the Bulgarian author, now deceased. But it soon became clear that Georgiev wrote his research several years earlier.

Hungary's four parliamentary opposition parties have urged Schmitt to resign amidst growing media pressure.

Schmitt, 69, has held the mostly ceremonial post of president since 2010. He served as an ambassador during the 1990s, and was a vice president of the European Parliament from 2009 to 2010. After briefly serving as speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary in 2010, Schmitt was elected as president by a 263-59 margin in the Parliament with the support of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

Schmitt was a successful fencer in his youth, winning Olympic gold medals. He later became the chief of protocol of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and presided over the World Olympians Association between 1999 and 2007. 
 EurActiv.com

March 13, 2012

iThenticate Assesses The Damaging Effects of Research Misconduct

To: BUSINESS, STATE AND TECHNOLOGY EDITORS
New report examines the distinct costs caused by the rise in plagiarism, falsified research and other scholarly misconduct
OAKLAND, Calif., March 13, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Turnitin, creators of iThenticate and the leader in plagiarism prevention, today announced the release of a new report titled, "True Costs of Research Misconduct." The report explores the reasons for the dramatic rise in research misconduct over the past decade and defines four distinct categories of damages caused by research misconduct--individual, brand, capital and human.
To download this free report, visit: http://www.ithenticate.com/research-misconduct-report.
"Research misconduct often creates a ripple effect of costly damages that impacts organizations and the general public--ranging from lawsuits to revoked PhDs to misdiagnosis," said Chris Cross, general manager of iThenticate. "This report calls attention to the importance of establishing preventative measures that will contain a growing and concerning problem."
Due to the growth of the researcher population and a growing pressure to 'publish or perish,' more researchers have taken to cutting corners, resulting in falsified research, fraudulent data, paraphrasing, duplication and blatant plagiarism. Publishers are responding by retracting published research, and implementing more stringent editorial processes and technology solutions.
"If a journal were to be discovered publishing erroneous material, people might think twice about the reputation of that journal," said Benson Honig, a journal editor at Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice. "Checking articles through iThenticate prior to submission can protect a journal's reputation and ensure that only top-quality work is being published."
iThenticate helps publishers, researchers and organizations reduce all types of misconduct by comparing manuscripts against the world's largest comparison database--which is comprised of more than 20 billion web pages, and more than 116 million content items, including 30 million published research articles from 283 leading science, technical and medical (STM) publishers. >>>>

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