Romania: Plagiarism Scandal Ensnares Prime Minister - The New York Times

Prime Minister Victor Ponta has been accused of plagiarizing half of his doctoral thesis. The science magazine Nature reported Monday that an anonymous whistle-blower had provided it with documents that indicate that more than half of Mr. Ponta’s 432-page thesis, written in 2004 on the International Criminal Court, was plagiarized from the work of two Romanian law scholars. Mr. Ponta denied the accusations, but addressed the issue on Tuesday by saying: “The only reproach I have is that I did not list authors at the bottom of each page, but put them in the bibliography at the end. If this is a mistake, then I am willing to pay for it.” His government less than two months old, Mr. Ponta has had to devote an exceptional amount of time to responding to allegations of academic misdeeds. His first education minister resigned on plagiarism accusations relating to a book about Romania’s entry into the European Union. His second quit soon afterward, also accused of copying academic work. Elsewhere in Europe, President Pal Schmitt of Hungary and Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg of Germany resigned when accused of plagiarism.