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Scientific plagiarism in India

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</gallery> ism]] </ref>aption1 File:Example.jpg|Caption2 </gallery> Academic plagiarism is rising in India.[citation needed] A lack of oversight and a lack of proper training for scientists have created the rise of plagiarism and research misconduct in India.[1] India does not have a statutory body to deal with scientific misconduct in academia, like the Office of Research Integrity in the US, and hence cases of plagiarism are often dealt in ad-hoc fashion with different routes being followed in different cases. In most cases, a public and media outcry leads to an investigation either by institutional authorities or by independent enquiry committees. The authors responsible for plagiarism have been at the receiving end of some severe punishments including suspension, removal and demotion.[2] However, no fixed route has been prescribed to monitor such activities. This has led to calls for establishment of an independent ethics body.[3]

Society for Scientific Values

The Society for Scientific Values is an independent body of scientists with the goal of upholding ethics in the Indian Scientific community. In absence of a statutory body to investigate academic misconduct, the society has been acting as an independent watchdog over the years. The society has been active in recent past over several cases involving plagiarism. Prof. K.L. Chopra, ex-director of Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur is currently the president of the society while N. Raghuram of GGS Indraprastha University is the secretary.[4]

Some instances

Prof. B.S. Rajput controversy

The most high profile and widely publicised controversy in India has been that of Prof. B. S. Rajput and colleagues in the field of Theoretical Physics.

Prof. B.S. Rajput was the vice-chancellor of Kumaon University, India in 2002 when various physicists in India started a website alleging that some of his papers claimed authorship of work, reported earlier by other researchers.[5] The principal allegation was that a paper published by S.C. Joshi and B.S. Rajput entitled "Axion-dilaton black holes with SL(2,Z) symmetry through APT-FGP model" in Europhysics Letters, Vol. 57, No. 5, was entirely copied from a six-year-old paper by Renata Kallosh of Stanford in Physical Review D, Vol 54, No. 8.[6] However, the campaign very soon included three other papers by Prof. Rajput and colleagues as plagiarised papers. One of these papers "BPS Spectra of Dyons in Four-Dimensional N = 2 Supersymmetric Theories" was later recalled by the journal, Progress in Theoretical Physics.[7]

On publication of the site, Prof. Rajput threatened to take legal action against the website, maintaining that the paper was written by Mr. Joshi, one of his student without prior approval from him.[8] However, the site was endorsed by over 40 Indian Physicists. In addition, seven Physicists including Nobel Laureate, S. Chu, R. Laughlin and D. Osheroff wrote to the president of India, APJ Abdul Kalam requesting an investigation in this matter.[9] The situation became murkier when Prof Kavita Pandey, head of the Physics department at Kumaon University claimed that she was suspended by the university as she brought this issue to the public.[10]

In midst of all this blame game, the president of India asked the Governor of Uttaranchal who was also the chancellor of the Kumaon University to institute an enquiry to investigate the case.[11] The committee led by a retired judge of Allahabad high court Justice S.R. Singh consisted of Prof K.B. Powar, former chief of the Association of Indian Universities, New Delhi, Prof Indira Nath, former secretary of the Society of Scientific Values and AIIMS faculty member and physicist Prof R. Rajaraman of JNU. The committee presented its report in February 2003 upholding the plagiarism charges.[12] Prof. Rajput maintained that he has personally done no harm and it was his students fault. However, he resigned from Vice-chancellorship immediately after the report.[13]

Sangiliyandi Gurunathan controversy

Sangiliyandi Gurunathan, a professor from Kalasalingam University in India has been found to be involved in plagiarism.[14][15][16][17][18]

Gopal Kundu controversy

File:Dr gopal kundu.jpg
Dr. Gopal Kundu

A controversy erupted in National Centre for Cell Science (NCCS), Pune in 2006 when an anonymous mail alleged that the authors (H. Rangaswami and Colleagues from the group of Dr. Gopal Kundu) may have misrepresented data (especially through Western blots) in a paper published in Journal of Biological Chemistry. The allegation was that they had rehashed the same set of data which they had published earlier.[19][20] An internal committee of the NCCS advised the authors to take back their paper, however an independent committee led by G. Padmanabhan, a former director of Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, concluded that there was no manipulation in the data.[21] This led to some heated debate between Indian Scientists with several viewpoints being presented.[22][23] On 23 February 2007, the Journal of Biological Chemistry withdrew the paper amid allegations of data manipulation. The authors still maintain that the two papers used different set of data though similar experiments.[24] In November 2010, after an internal investigation by its ethics committee, the Indian Academy of Sciences banned Gopal Kundu from participating in their activities for three years.[25]

Prof. P. Chiranjeevi controversy

Chemistry professor of Sri Venkateswara University (SVU) is accused of plagiarizing more than 70 research papers published between 2004 and 2007. University Executive Council has banned him from undertaking examination work and research guidance. He has been debarred from securing further promotions and appointments to administrative positions.[26]

Dr. Ram B. Singh controversy

A private practitioner based in Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, India is suspected of research fraud.[27]

Prof. K. Kumar controversy

In yet another high profile case involving a Director of an Indian technical institute, a web campaign, similar to the campaign started by physicists in India, reported plagiarism in papers published by Prof. Kalyan Kumar and colleagues at North Eastern Regional Institute of Science and Technology, NERIST, India. Three papers have been reported to have similarity to works reported earlier. Two of these, "Improved PID controller using fuzzy precompensated algorithm for PMBLDC motor drive" (AMSE Advances in Modelling and Analysis C, Volume 61, number 1-2, January 2006, Page (s) 1-15) and "Optimum PI controller for Permanent Magnet Brushless DC Motor" (Electrical Review, Volume 12, No 6, June 2005, Pages 16 –23) have been shown to be very similar to earlier papers by Bhim Singh, AHN Reddy and SS Murthy of Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. The papers of Singh, Reddy and Murthy, viz "Hybrid fuzzy logic proportional plus conventional integral-derivative controller for permanent magnet brushless DC motor" (IEEE International Conference on Industrial Technology 2000, Volume 2, 19–22 January 2000, pp. 185–191) and "Gain Scheduling Control of Permanent Magnet Brushless dc Motor" (Journal of Institution of Engineers : India EL, Vol 84, September 2003 ) predate the papers of Kumar and Singh by five years.

In yet another controversy, the same group of authors have claimed to publish a paper entitled, "Sensorless control of permanent magnet brushless dc motors" in Electrical Review (Volume 14, No 1, January 2007, Pages 10–14), which has been reported to have high similarity to a thirteen-year-old paper entitled "Sensorless control of permanent magnet AC motors" by K. Rajshekara and A.Kawamura from EPS Anderson and Yokohama University, published in Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Industrial Electronics, Control and Instrumentation, 1994. IECON'94, Bologna, Italy, Volume 3, September 1994, Page(s): 1589 - 1594.[28][29]

Anna University controversy

In 2007, appeared another controversy, this time surrounding authors from Anna University and Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) publishing an article in the Journal of Materials Science.[30][31] The article written by K. Muthukumar, T. Mathews, S. Selladurai and R. Bokalawela was reported to be a reproduction of an article published earlier in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) by David Andersson and others at the Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden. In a correction published online, the journal reported that the article 'does not just plagiarize the results presented in the PNAS paper but actually copies most of it word for word'. The journal had started an investigation and is also working with officials at the two institutions. The three authors other than the first author have distanced themselves from the paper and the first author has accepted his mistake. In the meanwhile, the Anna University had barred Dr. Selladurai from guiding any more doctoral students. And also added each and everyone is suspected Dr. Selladurai putting blame on his student, because the professor is not capable of scientific activities. And also the Editorial of the journal found Prof Selladurai is the corresponding author because the paper uploaded his (university) computer IP address and the copyright form signed by him, the university found the student as a scapegoat for him (Prof. Selladurai).[citation needed]

Prof Ashok Pandey controversy

Ashok Pandey is a scientist of the National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology of India's Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). He is the editor of several well known international journals in Biotechnology. He appears in the list of most cited authors and received the Thomson Scientific Citation Laureate Award 2006. His paper cited as K. Balakrishnan and A. Pandey (1996) Influence of amino acids on the synthesis of cyclosporin A by Tolypocladium inflatum. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 45: 800-803 which was published as an original article in July 1996, was an extensively plagiarized version of J. Lee and S.N. Agathos (1989) Effect of amino acids on the production of cyclosporin A by Tolypocladium inflatum. Biotechnol Lett 11:77-82. This was pointed out by Agathos in his letter to the Editor of the journal.[32] The Editor-in-Chief of the journal, Alexander Steinbüchel, confronted Ashok Pandey with the evidence and decided that "manuscripts from K. Balakrishnan and A. Pandey will no longer be considered for publication in this journal, and the Editors-in-Chief of other journals covering aspects of microbiology and /or biotechnology will be informed about this matter".[32]

Prof M.R. Adhikari and L.K. Pramanik controversy

A retired academic at Calcutta University, Mahimaranjan Adhikari and his Ph.d student L.K.Pramanik, have been found to be indulging in Plagiarism, courtesy the American Mathematical Society. AMS has cautioned universities worldwide regarding this incidence. The papers reported to be plagiarised are 'The connectivity of squares of box graphs', 'On edge-connectivity of inserted graphs' and 'Factors of inserted graphs'. The reviews may be found in MathSciNet. The original work was carried out by T Zamfirescu's in 1970s. An investigation by Calcutta university found these to be true and the university is planning action against the concerned.[33] Prof. M.R. Adhikari for his part has shifted the entire blame on the research scholar Lakshmikanto Pramanik who had "used his name without consent". A reply to the editor of the South East Asian Bulletin of Mathematics (MR2400443) confirms this.

Other

  • There was a minor plagiarism controversy in 2012, when a PhD student plagiarized some content in a paper, that happened to be co-authored by C. N. R. Rao — science adviser to India's Prime Minister.[34]
  • There are cases where ideas of Indian scientists are plagiarized by foreign bylines but they do not show up in plagiarism-check software because of clever word changes. Two cases where ideas of Indian scientists were plagiarized by foreign bylines and enough text was also copied, were highlighted by Praveen Chaddah in .[35]


See also

References

  1. ^ In India, plagiarism is on the rise, GlobalPost.
  2. ^ YP GUPTA. "INTELLECTUAL FRAUD:Punishment For Plagiarised Research Must Be Severe". The Statesman.
  3. ^ TV Padma (2007). "India 'needs independent ethics body' says watchdog". SciDev.net. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  4. ^ "Society For Scientific Values - Homepage". Scientificvalues.org. Retrieved 2010-09-01.
  5. ^ "Physics Plagiarism Alert". Web.archive.org. 2009-10-27. Retrieved 2012-07-21.
  6. ^ R. Ramchandra (2002). "The physics of plagiarism". The Frontline. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  7. ^ Manu P. Singh and B. S. Rajput*. "843-858". Progress in Theoretical Physics. Retrieved 2010-09-01.
  8. ^ N. Gopal Raj (2002). "Plagiarism scandal brewing". The Hindu. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  9. ^ http://www.stanford.edu/dept/physics/publications/PDFfiles/india.pdf
  10. ^ SMA Kazmi (2002). "Kumaon prof says she blew plagiarism whistle on V-C, so he suspended her". The Indian Express. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  11. ^ "Probe into plagiarism charge". The Frontline. 2002. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  12. ^ P. Bagla (2003). "Probe panel upholds plagiarism charges against Kumaon V-C". The Indian Express. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  13. ^ "Kumaon University V-C resigns". The Hindu. 2003. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  14. ^ Pranav N Desai (15 Oct 2011). "Check plagiarism in science". The New Indian Express.
  15. ^ ivanoransky (August 7, 2011). "India's Kalasalingam University swiftly fires professor, kicks out six students after data manipulation scandal". Retraction Watch.
  16. ^ "Retraction Note : PEDF inhibits VEGF- and EPO- induced angiogenesis in retinal endothelial cells through interruption of PI3K/Akt phosphorylation". Angiogenesis. 14. 2011.
  17. ^ "Retraction notice to "Pigment epithelium-derived factor inhibits vascular endothelial growth factor-and interleukin-1beta-induced vascular permeability and angiogenesis in retinal endothelial cells" Vascular Pharmacology 52 (2010) 84–94". Vascular Pharmacology. 55. 2011. doi:10.1016/j.vph.2011.08.217.
  18. ^ "Retraction Note: Gold nanoparticles inhibit vascular endothelial growth factor-induced angiogenesis and vascular permeability via Src dependent pathway in retinal endothelial cells". Angiogenesis. 14. 2011.
  19. ^ "Now, Pune scientists face allegations of plagiarism". Yahoo India. 2007. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  20. ^ "Kundu-JBC Case". Society for Scientific Values.
  21. ^ G.S. mudur (2007). "Indicted there, acquitted here". Telegraph India. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  22. ^ S.P. Modak (2007). "Investigating Misconduct in Science" (PDF). Current Science. 92 (11). {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  23. ^ G. Padmanabhan (2007). "The NCCS Case" (PDF). Current Science. 92 (11). {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  24. ^ Hema Rangaswami (2007). "'Coping with misconduct in Indian science': a response". The Hindu. Chennai, India. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  25. ^ Hema Rangaswami (2010). "'Rehashing catches up - Once-acquitted biologist barred for 3 years'". The Telegraph. Kolkata, India. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  26. ^ "Alleged scientific fraud by SVU professor". The Hindu. Chennai, India. February 23, 2008.
  27. ^ "Suspected research fraud: difficulties of getting at the truth". BMJ. 331 (7511): 281–8. 2005. doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7511.281. PMC 1181273. PMID 16052022. {{cite journal}}: More than one of |work= and |journal= specified (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  28. ^ "Plagiarism Alert". Archived from the original on 2009-10-27.
  29. ^ "AAPSU demands ouster of NERIST Director". webindia123.
  30. ^ "Anna University in plagiarism scandal" (PDF). Retrieved 2010-09-01.
  31. ^ "Article: Anna University in plagiarism scandal". The Hindustan Times. 20 October 2007. Retrieved 2010-05-31.
  32. ^ a b Appl Microbiol Biotechnol (1997) 48:432-433
  33. ^ "CU maths prof branded plagiarist". Times of India. January 2, 2008.
  34. ^ Jayaraman, K. S. (24 February 2012). "Indian science adviser caught up in plagiarism row". Nature.
  35. ^ "web scientific values" (PDF).
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