Links

Links galore!

It seems like time is passing so quickly and I never get around to posting the links that have been collecting as tabs in my browser. So I'm cleaning out my tabs, here's the first round of links:

• Top Chinese politicians have been found to have plagiarized in their PhDs, report the Hong Kong Free Press and Digital Journal. 
• The German weekly magazine Der Spiegel had to admit that one of their prize-winning journalists, Claas Relotius, was actually fabricating or embellishing his stories. They published a list of the fabricated stories, as then
  The story broke when two residents of Fergus Falls, Minnesota, USA began fact-checking the story Relotius published about the town: "And yet, he reported on very little actual truth about Fergus Falls life. In 7,300 words he really only got our town’s population and average annual temperature correct, and a few other basic things, like the names of businesses and public figures, things that a child could figure out in a Google search."
• A Houston-based company that sold completed assignments primarily to Chinese-speaking students in Australia and New Zealand has settled out of court in New Zealand: Case described in Stuff, settlement at Radio New Zealand. The company is still in existence, because what they do is not (yet) illegal in many countries. The Times Higher Education published an article in March 2019 on the problem, identifying international students as the problem, although in the interview with Tracey Bretag she makes it clear that it is not a problem with international students per se, but with students who do not have the language skills necessary to do university work.   
• There's a app for that - Quarz reports that in South Korea ghostwriters can be hired by app.

There will be more to come!