Plagiarism scandal hits Turkish academia - Hürriyet Daily News

Some 34 percent of academic theses in Turkey have high plagiarism rates, according to a report by the Education Policy Research and Application Center (BEPAM) of Istanbul’s Boğaziçi University. 

In its study on the “quality of academic writing,” BEPAM examined 600 theses in total, including 470 master’s theses and 130 doctoral theses written between 2007 and 2016, daily Cumhuriyet reported.  

Some 477 of these theses were written in public universities, 123 were in private universities, 89 were written in English and 511 were written in Turkish. The researchers used the “Turnitin” plagiarism program and similarity index to examine the theses selected. 

The study revealed “heavy plagiarism” in 34 percent of the theses. The rate was 46 percent in private universities and 31 percent in public universities. 

Meanwhile, in a similarity index that indicates whether scientific studies are “original,” Turkey’s average was found to be 28.5 percent, compared to a world average of 15 percent. This similarity index rate was 24 percent in English theses and 29 percent in Turkish ones. It was 28 percent in public universities and 31 percent in private universities, showing that theses written in public universities are in a slightly better condition than those written in private universities. 

The initial aim of the BEPAM study was not to examine plagiarism rates, but the high number of plagiarized theses led researchers to look more closely. 

The number of plagiarized studies in public universities was 150 (31 percent) and 57 (46 percent) in private universities. This number was 173 (36 percent) in master’s theses and 34 (26 percent) in doctoral theses. It was 25 (28 percent) in English theses and 182 (35 percent) in Turkish ones. 

Institutions such as Boğaziçi University, the Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ) and Bilkent University provide education in English, and seem to be in a relatively better condition in terms of plagiarism and similarity. 

‘Serious ethical issue’ 

Researcher Dr. Ziya Toprak, who conducted the study, said the results showed that many Turkish students “do not know how to write theses,” while academics do not know how to teach thesis writing. 

Toprak noted that there are no Academic Writing Centers at any university in Turkey that see writing as a primary instrument of knowledge production.

“Unfortunately there are serious ethical issues in our country. Certainly, there are many who unknowingly plagiarize. The findings of the research focus mainly on the theses that have high levels of plagiarism, so clearly plagiarism is at serious levels. We are not talking about a few lines or a paragraph. It was done deliberately, indicating a serious ethical issue,” he said.

Paper mill websites increase in Turkey

Çağla Pınar Tunçel - Hürriyet Daily News

Academics have decried the rise in the number of Turkish “paper mill” websites offering to write theses for students, yet company officials have defended their business, saying they are legal even as scholars warn of the ramifications.

“Our company, which is run by academics, provides translation service and ensures that the text conforms with linguistic terminology while writing the thesis,” one company official told the Hürriyet Daily News on condition of anonymity.

The official said the business was legal because his company only provided thesis “consultancy” and paid tax, but added that many other disrespectful companies were becoming involved in plagiarism as they wrote the theses.

But Bertil Emrah Odar, the dean of Koç University’s Law Department, told the Daily News that the businesses, which offer unique and personalized content, were entirely illegal and could result in the student who bought the paper becoming the subject of an investigation by either the Higher Education Board, or YÖK, or university administration.

“An academic may lose his title in the event of plagiarism,” she said. “If the person is a member of an association, for instance a doctors’ or lawyers’ association, then the group may decide to ban the person from the occupation forever.”

According to Ali Çarkoğlu, an academic at Koç University, said that even if an investigation did not result in any punishment, a scholar thought to have bought an article would likely be ostracized by the academic community.

The cost of purchasing such material ranges between 5,000 and 20,000 Turkish Liras, depending on certain criteria, such as whether the work is a Master’s or a Ph.D. theses, whether there were any surveys conducted or whether there are any foreign sources, Doğan news agency, or DHA, reported Monday.

Requests to write theses are usually rejected if there is less than eight weeks left to finish the work, while the clients are also required to transmit all interviews with thesis advisors to the consultancy businesses, according to reports.

Most writers refuse to do any work for less than 1,000 liras, or pen any theses for less than 3,000 liras. Reports indicate that many customers are attendees of private universities, while students who are employed in a job are also more likely to use such services.

Following negotiations, some 20 percent of the price is paid by the clients at the beginning of the work, while another 20 percent is paid after the draft theses are finished. The rest of the amount is paid after the work is finally completed, according to reports.

Many of the enterprises work with around 300 to 400 expert personnel who specialize in about 200 different topics, reports said.

Turkish testing official embroiled in new academic scandal

A top educational official already embroiled in a controversy over an alleged cheating scandal on a national exam has been accused of academic plagiarism.

According to the new claims, Professor Ali Demir, the chairman of Turkey’s Student Selection and Placement Center, or ÖSYM, plagiarized in an article he wrote while working as a lecturer at Loughborough University in 1990. He was reportedly saved from being fired through the intervention of influential scholars at the university.

Demir worked at Loughborough University as a lecturer after completing his doctoral degree at the school. During this period, he penned a nine-part series of articles for a Turkish magazine called “Teknik ve Tekstil” (Technology and Textile). The series appeared to be entirely the work of Demir, but the new allegations say it was instead nearly a word-for-word translation of work by a German writer named Peter Latzke.

Latzke was only mentioned by Demir in a brief acknowledgement in the first part of the series.

The claim of plagiarism was first made by Professor Mike Denton of Leeds University, who brought his allegations to the attention of the Loughborough University administration. They were communicated to Professor Gordon Wray, the head of the school’s textile department, who immediately proceeded to launch an investigation into the matter.

Following a long series of discussions and meetings, Wray accepted as a compromise a written apology from Demir, to be published in the magazine.

“Associate Professor Demir has just obtained written permission for this work from [European textile journal] Melliand Textilberichte. Associate Professor Demir apologizes to both Mr. P.M. Latzke as well as to Melliand Textilberichte for not having obtained written permission prior to the publishing of the series,” said the explanation at the beginning of the ninth and last part in the series.

Demir has recently come into the spotlight in Turkey for his alleged role in a cheating scandal that has erupted around the university entrance exam that took place March 27. ISTANBUL - Radikal