After the allegations of the “plagiarism hunter” Stefan Weber against simulation researcher Niki Popper, the Vienna University of Technology (TU) started a procedure to assess the thesis and dissertation. However, TU also stated that “Dr. Popper’s honesty is beyond question”.
Weber had accused Popper of quoting text passages about the human respiratory system in his (mathematical) senior thesis without identifying them accordingly. In Popper’s dissertation, he also found third-party plagiarism from a Wikipedia article, from a dissertation six months earlier, and from a specialist article by other authors nine years earlier. The criticisms would not affect the “scientific core” of the work – but due to the regulations at the TU it should not have been accepted.
Popper then admitted to having taken over passages “without thinking”. However, his work is written independently.
TU takes the accusations seriously
The TU now wants to have it determined whether the work only contains formal errors or whether there is plagiarism within the meaning of the University Act (RU). For the latter, on the one hand, an intent to deceive must be proven and, on the other hand, the defect must be “essential” – ie decisive for the positive assessment of the work.
“In this regard, Dr. Weber is deserving of academic credit, because only the pointing out of formal shortcomings and the public discussion of them exudes thematic transparency and also shows how indispensable the work of the universities is to teach and research good scientific practice,” said the rector of the university.
Plagiarism software may be used
Since 2013, scientific works such as dissertations, diplomas or master’s theses must be submitted electronically to TU Delft. Plagiarism software has been used for two years to check theses, but it is up to the study counselors to decide whether it is useful or necessary to use it.
In the plagiarism procedure, it must be established whether there is fraud on the one hand and whether the rest of the work is sufficient as own input on the other hand to arrive at an assessment. If the latter is not the case, the assessment of the work will be annulled and the academic degree thus obtained will be revoked. There are no other sanctions such as a lower rank or a reprimand.
Source: Krone
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