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Academic fraud

2004-12-21 01:48:29.89828+00 by Dan Lyke 2 comments

I got the latest Reason magazine, and it had an article titled "Cut-Rate Diplomas" by Paul Sperry[Wiki](not online yet) that raised my hackles a bit. It targeted one particular government employee who was, apparently, incompetent, but who rose to her position on the basis of credentials issued by some box top U called Hamilton University. What pissed me off about the article is that he blamed the fake diploma mills rather than the system which depended on some outside credentials.

I'm not quite sure how to tie these two things together without being insulting, but The Chronicle of Higher Education has a really interesting article on plagiarism in higher education: Four Academic Plagiarists You've Never Heard Of: How Many More Are Out There?

While this article delves into a few cases we uncovered, our reporting suggests that what we found is not exceptional. Indeed, an editor at History News Network receives so many tips about purported plagiarism that he now investigates only those involving well-known scholars.

So, an idea: All of this flack over P2P file sharing has raised the stakes in copyright infringement pretty high. Is there any way to let some of that whoopass loose in academia?

[ related topics: moron Current Events Education Copyright/Trademark ]

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment Re: made: 2004-12-22 16:36:03.963903+00 by: ebradway

This is pretty funny, especially since most professors include a statement in their syllabus that any plagarism would result in an immediate F in the class and likely disciplinary action. Schools try to be pretty hard on undergrads and grad students plagarizing but I guess it doesn't extend to academic papers and books!

#Comment Re: made: 2004-12-30 22:14:42.942629+00 by: Dan Lyke [edit history]

I just got the following with a request that I post it to the site...

From: Michael Pyshnov [address elided for spam concerns]
To: webmaster@flutterby.com
Subject: Academic Fraud
Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 16:02:54 -0500 (EST)

Dear Mr. Lyke,
Can you place the letter below on your web site, please?

Academic Fraud

Please, see my web site - "University of Toronto fraud"

http://ca.geocities.com/uoftfraud/

This site gives over 50 documents exposing unprecedented fraud going on in Canadian academia.

Briefly:

My PhD research of five years was stolen by my supervisor who, a few months before this, fraudulently changed my status to "lapsed student" and so removed me from the University. She published, in American journals, three papers claiming credit for my discoveries, then, said that my discoveries belong to "community" and she simply "salvaged" them. She characterized me as "a man of proven scholarly attainments" and "a very creative scientist", but her envy and hatred has put an end to my career. The documents show her pathological dishonesty.

The University has admitted that she "repeated" my experiments and "replicated or extended" my results, that she did not acknowledge this fact, and that my research was, in fact, based on theoretical paper published by me before I came to this university. Yet, these investigations ended with the conclusion that she did not steal my research. Five other professors and University of Toronto President participated in the fraud and obstruction of justice.

The fraud was followed by the largest cover-up in history. Over one hundred of organizations, govt. offices, law firms, etc. were corrupted and made to cooperate with the perpetrators of the fraud. The Government repeatedly refused to give me the constitutionally guaranteed equal protection of the Law and any help whatsoever.

This story is prohibited for publication in Canada's media for political reasons, and the fraud is continuing. I have no means of getting back the authorship of my research. No job has been available to me for 18 years. My protest that continued for nine months at the University campus was ended through harassment by the University police.

IT'S TIME TO STOP THIS FRAUD.
IT'S TIME TO STOP THE CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE.

Michael Pyshnov.

My address:

[I have removed the address and phone number for privacy reasons. I'll go check his web site to see if it's there, but if you wish to contact Mr. Pyshnov you can email me.)

If my web site does not show - print "university of toronto fraud" in Google and click on Cached.