Sunday, December 11, 2011

Open cases of plagiarism in Germany

The VroniPlag platform has currently documented 17 18 cases of plagiarism in dissertation or habilitations. The first few cases - especially ones involving politicians in the wake of the zu Guttenberg case - were dealt with promptly:

Thesis,
Link
Name,
University
Documentation publicCurrent
status
KTzG 2009
Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg
(University of Bayreuth)
2011-02-16 After 2 weeks: doctorate rescinded
VS 2009
Veronika Saß
(University of Constance)
2011-03-28 After 6 weeks: doctorate rescinded
MCP 2007
Matthias Pröfrock
(University of Tübingen)
2011-04-04 After 12 weeks: doctorate rescinded
SKM 2001
Silvana Koch-Mehrin
(University of Heidelberg)
2011-04-10 After 10 weeks: doctorate rescinded
GC 2000
Georgios Chatzimarkakis
(University of Bonn)
2011-05-15 After 10 weeks: doctorate rescinded
BDS 2008
Dr. Bijan Djir-Sarai
(University of Cologne)
2011-06-01 still open
UB 2011
Uwe Brinkmann
(University of Hamburg)
2011-06-08 After 6 weeks: doctorate rescinded
MM 1987
Prof. Dr. Margarita Mathiopoulos
(University of Bonn)
2011-06-14 Still open, the university is said to be prepared to rescind doctorate, but proceedings delayed with legal challenges 
SH 2003
Dr. Siegfried Haller
(University of Halle-Wittenberg)
2011-07-24 Still open
JG 2009
Dr. Jürgen Goldschmidt
(Technical University of Berlin)
2011-07-30 Still open
CS 2008
Prof. Dr. Cornelia Eva Scott
(University of Krakau, Poland)
2011-08-08 University of Cracow annonces plagiarism found in Jan 12, refers to central authority
AH 1998
Dr. Arne Heller
(University of Hamburg)
2011-08-28 Still open
MW 2009
Dr. Martin Winkels
(University of Bonn)
2011-09-05 Still open
DV 2005
Dr. Daniel Volk
(University of Würzburg)
2011-09-19 Still open
UT 2003
PD Dr. Ulf Teichgräber
(Charité Berlin)
2011-10-12 Still open
PES 2004
Prof. Dr. Patrick Ernst Sensburg
(Fernuniversität Hagen)
2011-10-18 After 8 weeks the university determines this to be "no case".
DD 1999
Prof. Dr. Detlev Dähnert
(BTU Cottbus)
2011-11-01 Still open
NK 2006
Dr. Nalan Kayhan
(University of Heidelberg)
2011-11-17 Still open
AWB 1997
Prof. Dr. Andreas Wolfgang Bonz
(University of Heidelberg)
2011-12-21 Still open
MH 2007
Dr. Michael Heun
(Frankfurt School of Finance and Management)
2012-02-16 Still open

But since June, the universities have fallen asleep, it seems. I have written letters asking about the status of the investigations. In general, they are not expecting results before Christmas.

Gerhard Fröhlich from the University of Linz put it so nicely:
Self control mechanisms are a myth in science to avoid any serious external control. I have studied all fraud affairs precisely and in almost every case anonymous allegations coupled with mass media outrage – in most recent years with an interim period of outrage on the internet – were necessary before the institutions themselves agreed to take action.
It seems that the moment the outrage dies down, the speed of investigation slows to a crawl.

Updates:
  • 2011-12-21: Another case from the medical faculty of the University Heidelberg added; the University of Bonn is said to be prepared to rescind the doctorate of Margarita Mathiopoulos 
  • 2011-12-22: The Fernuniversität Hagen determines the case of Patrick Sensburg to be too weak to do anything about. The dean of the faculty announces on radio that the documentation is "malicious". The reader is encouraged to read the documentation linked above for themselves. The expert opinions on which this decision was based remain under cover. 
  • 2012-01-27: The University of Cracow had determined that there is plagiarism in the Scott dissertation and has referred the case to a central authority.  The decision by the University of Bonn on Mathiopolous, expected for February 12, is delayed to April 18 by an extension appeal filed by her lawyers. 
  • 2012-02-16:  Case 19, from the private Frankfurt School of Finance and Management, is added to the home page.

2 comments:

  1. You say "still open". Will you update it later on?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, as soon as I hear something I will update this table. I kind of like the overview it gives. After showing it to some of my fellow VroniPlaggers one remarked that we are celebrating 6 months of silence on the case of MM. I do find that quite a long time, considering that most of the work has already been done. They just need to check out that we worked correctly and then decide what to do.

    ReplyDelete