Medical Writing, Editing & Grantsmanship

Update: Science provides an overview of this case as well.

As reported in Chemical & Engineering News, “A CHEMIST IN INDIA has been found guilty of plagiarizing and/or falsifying more than 70 research papers published in a wide variety of Western scientific journals [n=25] between 2004 and 2007.”

The unprecedented fraud by Pattium Chiranjeevi of Sri Venkateswara University was discovered by Purnendu Dasgupta, the US editor of Analytica Chimica Acta, when a reviewer noted that a Chiranjeevi submission was similar to a published paper from a Japanese group. “In fact, Dasgupta says, but for the change in the name of the chemical being measured, the papers were identical.” Elsevier has retracted the 13 Chiranjeevi’s articles published in its journals.

In addition to trying to blame his students for the plagiarism, Chiranjeevi “was charging students a fee to award them degrees” – not sure if this means in addition to the University tuition or what, but maybe it was for the bonus lessons in scientific misconduct: “some of them [his students] were aware of and participated in the fraud he perpetrated.”

Dasgupta reported using eBlast, which is used to develop/maintain the Deja Vu database, to find reviewers but, interestingly, seems only after the fact to have considered it as a means to flag potential plagiarism.

In Nature Nanotechnology, we find a commentary by Philip Moriarty that notes “the increasing empahsis on commercialization and market forces in modern universities is fundamentally at odds with core academic principles.”

I like the quote from The Lancet’s conflicts of interest policy: “academics have a choice – to develop their entrepreneurial skills or to maintain a commitment to public-interest science – and we do not accept that the two options are mutually compatible.”

Dr. Moriarity forcefully states that “the focus on market-driven wealth creation within publicly funded academic research … is morally bankrupt.” Well then.
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Update: The Chronicle now reports Columbia has fired Dr. Constantine, a tenured professor, for plagiarism.

The Chronicle reports a remarkable case of plagiarism at Columbia University: “The investigation, which was conducted by a law firm hired by the university, found that Madonna G. Constantine, a professor of psychology and education at Columbia’s Teachers College, was guilty of plagiarism in at least two dozen instances, borrowing passages from both colleagues and students without attribution.” Try telling these folks that plagiarism is a “victimless” crime. No help from Deja Vu in this case apparently.

As noted in our earlier discussion of street versus classroom RCR (responsible conduct of research) training, The Scientist has a refreshing piece by two non-biomedical scientists — C. Neal Stewart, Jr., professor and Ivan Racheff Chair of Excellence in Plant Molecular Genetics, and J. Lannett Edwards, associate professor and graduate director in the Department of Animal Science (UTenn, Knoxville) — on their adventure in teaching research ethics (inspired by personal encounters with less than ethical behavior). Their tips and syllabus get right to the heart of the matter. Nothing pretentious or holier than thou business here. Sounds like everyone learned along the way: Read the rest of this entry »