Viewpoint: The spectre of plagiarism haunting Europe - BBC NEWS

Debora Weber-Wulff  

Professor of Media and Computing, University of Applied Sciences, Berlin

A spectre is haunting Europe, and this time it is the spectre of plagiarism and scientific misconduct. Some high-profile politicians have had to resign in the last 18 months - but the revelations are also shaking respected European universities.

Many European countries, especially Germany, have long considered it unnecessary to give plagiarism more than a cursory look. One trusts in the self-cleansing powers of science, end of story.

Last February, a reviewer of German Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg's doctoral dissertation discovered and documented some plagiarised passages.

When the papers pounced on this, zu Guttenberg denied any wrongdoing, calling the accusations "absurd". If he had messed up the odd footnote, he said he would fix it for the second edition.

Within days, a group of people formed around a wiki they called GuttenPlag Wiki and proved him to be quite wrong. He had to resign just two weeks later.

That was not the end of it. Soon it was suspected that a major ex-politician's daughter was guilty of plagiarism in her dissertation, and a new wiki was set up, VroniPlag Wiki, to document this case. Quite soon plagiarism was discovered in yet another dissertation, and it has not stopped. Currently there are 27 documented cases on the site. >>>>

German minister loses doctorate after plagiarism row

Germany's defence minister has been stripped of his university doctorate after he was found to have copied large parts of his work from others.

Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, an aristocrat who lives in a Bavarian castle, admitted breaching standards but denied deliberately cheating.

Analysis revealed that more than half of his thesis had long sections lifted word-for-word from the work of others.

So far the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, has stood by the minister.

The University of Bayreuth decided that Mr Guttenberg had "violated scientific duties to a considerable extent".

It deplored the fact that he had lifted sections of text without attribution.

Last week Mr Guttenberg said he would temporarily give up his PhD title while the university investigated the charges of plagiarism. He admitted that he had made "serious mistakes".

His thesis - Constitution and Constitutional Treaty: Constitutional Developments in the US and EU - was completed in 2006 and published in 2009.

Chancellor Merkel insisted on Monday that she was standing by her defence minister, who was seen as something of a rising star in her conservative coalition.

"I appointed Guttenberg as minister of defence," she told reporters.

"I did not appoint him as an academic assistant or doctor. What is important to me is his work as minister of defence and he carries out these duties perfectly."

German minister gives up doctorate after plagiarism row

Germany's defence minister has given up his doctoral title for good, after allegations that he had plagiarised sections of his thesis.

Last week Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said he would temporarily give up the title while his university investigated the charges.

The University of Bayreuth says he has now asked them to retract his doctorate in law, according to German TV.

Mr Guttenberg admitted that he had made "serious mistakes".>>>