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What can I do when some people stole my master thesis work and published it as their own work?
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Google scholar suggested a paper for me to read, I opened it and boom it was my master thesis work. My work was based on Arabic language but they claim their work is based on Telugu language. Even they did not bother to change the title. they just switched the Arabic to Telugu. Not only that, they even did not bother to change the experiment results numbers or the figures. They copy/pasted everything with small minor noticeable changes. I tried to contact the journal but I could not find any contact details for the editor. What should I do now?
Link to my master thesis:https://dspace.aus.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/11073/7503/35.232-2014.09%20Soha%20Galalaldin%20Ahmed.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Link to the journal paper:http://www.j-asc.com/gallery/18-august-2018.pdf
Any guidance would be highly appreciated.
thesis masters plagiarism
edited 44 mins ago
Alone Programmer
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Suha Glal
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up vote
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Google scholar suggested a paper for me to read, I opened it and boom it was my master thesis work. My work was based on Arabic language but they claim their work is based on Telugu language. Even they did not bother to change the title. they just switched the Arabic to Telugu. Not only that, they even did not bother to change the experiment results numbers or the figures. They copy/pasted everything with small minor noticeable changes. I tried to contact the journal but I could not find any contact details for the editor. What should I do now?
Link to my master thesis:https://dspace.aus.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/11073/7503/35.232-2014.09%20Soha%20Galalaldin%20Ahmed.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Link to the journal paper:http://www.j-asc.com/gallery/18-august-2018.pdf
Any guidance would be highly appreciated.
thesis masters plagiarism
edited 44 mins ago
Alone Programmer
3951213
asked 1 hour ago
Suha Glal
211
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Suha Glal is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
2
I think in this case due to the journal that published their article, which fairly looks like predatory journals, it's better to contact authors and then if they did not give an answer for their actions, you could contact the office of research compliance of their university. Because your master thesis is online and if the journal was reputable their plagiarism checker tool should at least find a similarity between your master thesis and their article. If it is published without problem, it's the sign of predatory journal I believe.
– Alone Programmer
1 hour ago
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up vote
4
down vote
favorite
up vote
4
down vote
favorite
Google scholar suggested a paper for me to read, I opened it and boom it was my master thesis work. My work was based on Arabic language but they claim their work is based on Telugu language. Even they did not bother to change the title. they just switched the Arabic to Telugu. Not only that, they even did not bother to change the experiment results numbers or the figures. They copy/pasted everything with small minor noticeable changes. I tried to contact the journal but I could not find any contact details for the editor. What should I do now?
Link to my master thesis:https://dspace.aus.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/11073/7503/35.232-2014.09%20Soha%20Galalaldin%20Ahmed.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Link to the journal paper:http://www.j-asc.com/gallery/18-august-2018.pdf
Any guidance would be highly appreciated.
thesis masters plagiarism
edited 44 mins ago
Alone Programmer
3951213
asked 1 hour ago
Suha Glal
211
New contributor
Suha Glal is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
Google scholar suggested a paper for me to read, I opened it and boom it was my master thesis work. My work was based on Arabic language but they claim their work is based on Telugu language. Even they did not bother to change the title. they just switched the Arabic to Telugu. Not only that, they even did not bother to change the experiment results numbers or the figures. They copy/pasted everything with small minor noticeable changes. I tried to contact the journal but I could not find any contact details for the editor. What should I do now?
Link to my master thesis:https://dspace.aus.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/11073/7503/35.232-2014.09%20Soha%20Galalaldin%20Ahmed.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Link to the journal paper:http://www.j-asc.com/gallery/18-august-2018.pdf
Any guidance would be highly appreciated.
thesis masters plagiarism
thesis masters plagiarism
edited 44 mins ago
Alone Programmer
3951213
asked 1 hour ago
Suha Glal
211
New contributor
Suha Glal is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
edited 44 mins ago
Alone Programmer
3951213
asked 1 hour ago
Suha Glal
211
New contributor
Suha Glal is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
edited 44 mins ago
Alone Programmer
3951213
edited 44 mins ago
Alone Programmer
3951213
edited 44 mins ago
Alone Programmer
3951213
3951213
asked 1 hour ago
Suha Glal
211
New contributor
Suha Glal is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked 1 hour ago
Suha Glal
211
asked 1 hour ago
Suha Glal
211
211
New contributor
Suha Glal is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
New contributor
Suha Glal is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
Suha Glal is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
2
I think in this case due to the journal that published their article, which fairly looks like predatory journals, it's better to contact authors and then if they did not give an answer for their actions, you could contact the office of research compliance of their university. Because your master thesis is online and if the journal was reputable their plagiarism checker tool should at least find a similarity between your master thesis and their article. If it is published without problem, it's the sign of predatory journal I believe.
– Alone Programmer
1 hour ago
add a comment |Â
2
I think in this case due to the journal that published their article, which fairly looks like predatory journals, it's better to contact authors and then if they did not give an answer for their actions, you could contact the office of research compliance of their university. Because your master thesis is online and if the journal was reputable their plagiarism checker tool should at least find a similarity between your master thesis and their article. If it is published without problem, it's the sign of predatory journal I believe.
– Alone Programmer
1 hour ago
2
2
I think in this case due to the journal that published their article, which fairly looks like predatory journals, it's better to contact authors and then if they did not give an answer for their actions, you could contact the office of research compliance of their university. Because your master thesis is online and if the journal was reputable their plagiarism checker tool should at least find a similarity between your master thesis and their article. If it is published without problem, it's the sign of predatory journal I believe.
– Alone Programmer
1 hour ago
I think in this case due to the journal that published their article, which fairly looks like predatory journals, it's better to contact authors and then if they did not give an answer for their actions, you could contact the office of research compliance of their university. Because your master thesis is online and if the journal was reputable their plagiarism checker tool should at least find a similarity between your master thesis and their article. If it is published without problem, it's the sign of predatory journal I believe.
– Alone Programmer
1 hour ago
add a comment |Â
3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
up vote
4
down vote
Contact the journal editor with complete details. If at all possible, have your advisor do the same thing, making a complaint on your behalf. An official from your university could also make a complaint.
Sometimes very similar things can occur from parallel research, but that seems to not be the case here.
But having someone else in authority back you up can help.
If the affiliation of the other person is listed, perhaps a complaint from your institution to theirs would be appropriate also.
answered 1 hour ago
Buffy
20.4k662114
3
I don't think he/she could get anything out of contacting the editor of this journal: " Journal of Applied Science and Computations", which fairly looks like predatory journals. I would recommend to contact the authors first and then if nobody responded back, contact their institution.
– Alone Programmer
1 hour ago
2
Thanks a lot, I contact my thesis supervisor and inform him about what happened
– Suha Glal
1 hour ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
3
down vote
First, find an established academic who can help you make the complaint. Your masters thesis advisor would be the most obvious person to ask; but if there’s someone else you’ve worked with who you know better or trust more or who is better-known, they could also be a good choice. You want someone who (a) is an established academic in the field, and (b) can support your claim that you did this work in 2014.
Get as much proof of priority together as you can. If the department where you did the thesis already publishes its masters theses online, then that is ideal. If not, look for any public information corroborating the date and title and as much more information as possible — e.g. an announcement of the thesis defense/presentation, or similar — and perhaps also ask someone senior at the department (e.g. the head of department at the time) for a signed letter confirming that this is your thesis, given in 2014.
These people may also offer you further advice and assistance with making the complaint — if so, great, and take their direct knowledge over the rest of this suggestion!
With those prepared, make your complaint, and escalate it as necessary. Each time you make the complaint: state the facts, and mention and cc the established academics who can back up your assertions. The journal editors are the first people to write to: email addresses are given at http://www.j-asc.com/EDITORIAL-BOARD/. However, the journal looks low-quality at best and probably outright predatory, so I would not be very hopeful of getting results there. Next, I would try writing a formal complaint to senior figures in the department(s) of the authors of the plagiarising “authorsâ€Â. It may also be worth writing to the authorities that have certified/recognised the journal as legitimate — or at least telling the journal editor you intend to do this.
I would not suggest contacting the authors. That would be the polite thing to do if there was any chance that they might have made an honest mistake somehow; but their paper is such egregious plagiarism that there’s no question they’re acting in good faith. This is like finding video proof that someone has burgled your house: you don’t need to politely warn them, you take it straight to the authorities.
Overall: there is a large ecosystem of dishonest research and publication, parasitic on legitimate scientific institutions and funding structures. While you are writing to people within that, they are unlikely to help you for your own sake. But if you escalate far enough, you will reach a legitimate institution who should hear your concerns; and more practically, if you say that you intend to do this, then people in the sketchy part of the system may be willing to help you for the sake of protecting their own credibility (and you will help push them to be a little bit more honest in the process).
(In all this, I’m assuming that you’re not working anywhere closely connected to the plagiarising authors, and so that you’re not in danger of any kind of retaliation. If you feel they have power/influence that might allow them to retaliate against you, then I don’t know what best to suggest, beyond getting advice from academics you do trust and who know the field themselves.)
answered 42 mins ago
PLL
4,90931824
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up vote
3
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I have this one paper that has already gotten copied and submitted to some spam journals 5+ times. It literally happens multiple times per year (it has a catchy title that seems to appeal to a certain class of plagiarizers). I also usually learn about this through a Google Scholar alert.
The first two times it happened, I tried exactly the steps recommended by other answers. I contacted the authors (no reply ever), raised a stink with the journals (no reply ever), and contacted IEEE (the copyright holder of my original paper). IEEE indeed did react that they will look into it after quite some time, but nothing ever came out of it.
My lesson learned was that these things are basically impossible to fight. The authors or journals could not care less about ethical integrity, and for IEEE the measurable damage of one of their papers being "reprinted" in a different title and with slightly different words in an obscure scam journal that nobody ever reads is not large enough so that they would make an effort hunting down who is legally behind these shopfront journals.
The good news is that it is also completely irrelevant to you. I can assure you that your scientific contribution will not in any way be lessened by this paper existing, nobody will read the other paper (because nobody reads these "journals", period). For future promotions etc., the existence of this paper will not be in any way an issue for you. Science as a whole suffers (to a degree that we could argue about), but the fact that it happened to be your paper that they copied (as opposed to a paper by me, or somebody else) makes no difference at all.
answered 17 mins ago
xLeitix
93.2k31224370
1
I kind of agree with you (thus an upvote) because I had a similar situation. But, a question for you. Do we just let those thieves go? We can do nothing to give them at least a warning so that they won't do it again? (I am still mad even it was 4 years ago. I don't want anyone to suffer more) Sorry about my rant.
– scaaahu
9 mins ago
1
@scaaahu Those thieves will go even you don't let them really. The only situation that will ruin these thieves' life is that if they work/live in the US, Europe, or developed Asian countries like Japan or South Korea, where there is a serious procedure against research misconduct. Otherwise, nothing can be done really.
– Alone Programmer
6 mins ago
add a comment |Â
3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
up vote
4
down vote
Contact the journal editor with complete details. If at all possible, have your advisor do the same thing, making a complaint on your behalf. An official from your university could also make a complaint.
Sometimes very similar things can occur from parallel research, but that seems to not be the case here.
But having someone else in authority back you up can help.
If the affiliation of the other person is listed, perhaps a complaint from your institution to theirs would be appropriate also.
answered 1 hour ago
Buffy
20.4k662114
3
I don't think he/she could get anything out of contacting the editor of this journal: " Journal of Applied Science and Computations", which fairly looks like predatory journals. I would recommend to contact the authors first and then if nobody responded back, contact their institution.
– Alone Programmer
1 hour ago
2
Thanks a lot, I contact my thesis supervisor and inform him about what happened
– Suha Glal
1 hour ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
4
down vote
Contact the journal editor with complete details. If at all possible, have your advisor do the same thing, making a complaint on your behalf. An official from your university could also make a complaint.
Sometimes very similar things can occur from parallel research, but that seems to not be the case here.
But having someone else in authority back you up can help.
If the affiliation of the other person is listed, perhaps a complaint from your institution to theirs would be appropriate also.
answered 1 hour ago
Buffy
20.4k662114
3
I don't think he/she could get anything out of contacting the editor of this journal: " Journal of Applied Science and Computations", which fairly looks like predatory journals. I would recommend to contact the authors first and then if nobody responded back, contact their institution.
– Alone Programmer
1 hour ago
2
Thanks a lot, I contact my thesis supervisor and inform him about what happened
– Suha Glal
1 hour ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
4
down vote
up vote
4
down vote
Contact the journal editor with complete details. If at all possible, have your advisor do the same thing, making a complaint on your behalf. An official from your university could also make a complaint.
Sometimes very similar things can occur from parallel research, but that seems to not be the case here.
But having someone else in authority back you up can help.
If the affiliation of the other person is listed, perhaps a complaint from your institution to theirs would be appropriate also.
answered 1 hour ago
Buffy
20.4k662114
Contact the journal editor with complete details. If at all possible, have your advisor do the same thing, making a complaint on your behalf. An official from your university could also make a complaint.
Sometimes very similar things can occur from parallel research, but that seems to not be the case here.
But having someone else in authority back you up can help.
If the affiliation of the other person is listed, perhaps a complaint from your institution to theirs would be appropriate also.
answered 1 hour ago
Buffy
20.4k662114
answered 1 hour ago
Buffy
20.4k662114
answered 1 hour ago
Buffy
20.4k662114
answered 1 hour ago
Buffy
20.4k662114
20.4k662114
3
I don't think he/she could get anything out of contacting the editor of this journal: " Journal of Applied Science and Computations", which fairly looks like predatory journals. I would recommend to contact the authors first and then if nobody responded back, contact their institution.
– Alone Programmer
1 hour ago
2
Thanks a lot, I contact my thesis supervisor and inform him about what happened
– Suha Glal
1 hour ago
add a comment |Â
3
I don't think he/she could get anything out of contacting the editor of this journal: " Journal of Applied Science and Computations", which fairly looks like predatory journals. I would recommend to contact the authors first and then if nobody responded back, contact their institution.
– Alone Programmer
1 hour ago
2
Thanks a lot, I contact my thesis supervisor and inform him about what happened
– Suha Glal
1 hour ago
3
3
I don't think he/she could get anything out of contacting the editor of this journal: " Journal of Applied Science and Computations", which fairly looks like predatory journals. I would recommend to contact the authors first and then if nobody responded back, contact their institution.
– Alone Programmer
1 hour ago
I don't think he/she could get anything out of contacting the editor of this journal: " Journal of Applied Science and Computations", which fairly looks like predatory journals. I would recommend to contact the authors first and then if nobody responded back, contact their institution.
– Alone Programmer
1 hour ago
2
2
Thanks a lot, I contact my thesis supervisor and inform him about what happened
– Suha Glal
1 hour ago
Thanks a lot, I contact my thesis supervisor and inform him about what happened
– Suha Glal
1 hour ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
3
down vote
First, find an established academic who can help you make the complaint. Your masters thesis advisor would be the most obvious person to ask; but if there’s someone else you’ve worked with who you know better or trust more or who is better-known, they could also be a good choice. You want someone who (a) is an established academic in the field, and (b) can support your claim that you did this work in 2014.
Get as much proof of priority together as you can. If the department where you did the thesis already publishes its masters theses online, then that is ideal. If not, look for any public information corroborating the date and title and as much more information as possible — e.g. an announcement of the thesis defense/presentation, or similar — and perhaps also ask someone senior at the department (e.g. the head of department at the time) for a signed letter confirming that this is your thesis, given in 2014.
These people may also offer you further advice and assistance with making the complaint — if so, great, and take their direct knowledge over the rest of this suggestion!
With those prepared, make your complaint, and escalate it as necessary. Each time you make the complaint: state the facts, and mention and cc the established academics who can back up your assertions. The journal editors are the first people to write to: email addresses are given at http://www.j-asc.com/EDITORIAL-BOARD/. However, the journal looks low-quality at best and probably outright predatory, so I would not be very hopeful of getting results there. Next, I would try writing a formal complaint to senior figures in the department(s) of the authors of the plagiarising “authorsâ€Â. It may also be worth writing to the authorities that have certified/recognised the journal as legitimate — or at least telling the journal editor you intend to do this.
I would not suggest contacting the authors. That would be the polite thing to do if there was any chance that they might have made an honest mistake somehow; but their paper is such egregious plagiarism that there’s no question they’re acting in good faith. This is like finding video proof that someone has burgled your house: you don’t need to politely warn them, you take it straight to the authorities.
Overall: there is a large ecosystem of dishonest research and publication, parasitic on legitimate scientific institutions and funding structures. While you are writing to people within that, they are unlikely to help you for your own sake. But if you escalate far enough, you will reach a legitimate institution who should hear your concerns; and more practically, if you say that you intend to do this, then people in the sketchy part of the system may be willing to help you for the sake of protecting their own credibility (and you will help push them to be a little bit more honest in the process).
(In all this, I’m assuming that you’re not working anywhere closely connected to the plagiarising authors, and so that you’re not in danger of any kind of retaliation. If you feel they have power/influence that might allow them to retaliate against you, then I don’t know what best to suggest, beyond getting advice from academics you do trust and who know the field themselves.)
answered 42 mins ago
PLL
4,90931824
add a comment |Â
up vote
3
down vote
First, find an established academic who can help you make the complaint. Your masters thesis advisor would be the most obvious person to ask; but if there’s someone else you’ve worked with who you know better or trust more or who is better-known, they could also be a good choice. You want someone who (a) is an established academic in the field, and (b) can support your claim that you did this work in 2014.
Get as much proof of priority together as you can. If the department where you did the thesis already publishes its masters theses online, then that is ideal. If not, look for any public information corroborating the date and title and as much more information as possible — e.g. an announcement of the thesis defense/presentation, or similar — and perhaps also ask someone senior at the department (e.g. the head of department at the time) for a signed letter confirming that this is your thesis, given in 2014.
These people may also offer you further advice and assistance with making the complaint — if so, great, and take their direct knowledge over the rest of this suggestion!
With those prepared, make your complaint, and escalate it as necessary. Each time you make the complaint: state the facts, and mention and cc the established academics who can back up your assertions. The journal editors are the first people to write to: email addresses are given at http://www.j-asc.com/EDITORIAL-BOARD/. However, the journal looks low-quality at best and probably outright predatory, so I would not be very hopeful of getting results there. Next, I would try writing a formal complaint to senior figures in the department(s) of the authors of the plagiarising “authorsâ€Â. It may also be worth writing to the authorities that have certified/recognised the journal as legitimate — or at least telling the journal editor you intend to do this.
I would not suggest contacting the authors. That would be the polite thing to do if there was any chance that they might have made an honest mistake somehow; but their paper is such egregious plagiarism that there’s no question they’re acting in good faith. This is like finding video proof that someone has burgled your house: you don’t need to politely warn them, you take it straight to the authorities.
Overall: there is a large ecosystem of dishonest research and publication, parasitic on legitimate scientific institutions and funding structures. While you are writing to people within that, they are unlikely to help you for your own sake. But if you escalate far enough, you will reach a legitimate institution who should hear your concerns; and more practically, if you say that you intend to do this, then people in the sketchy part of the system may be willing to help you for the sake of protecting their own credibility (and you will help push them to be a little bit more honest in the process).
(In all this, I’m assuming that you’re not working anywhere closely connected to the plagiarising authors, and so that you’re not in danger of any kind of retaliation. If you feel they have power/influence that might allow them to retaliate against you, then I don’t know what best to suggest, beyond getting advice from academics you do trust and who know the field themselves.)
answered 42 mins ago
PLL
4,90931824
add a comment |Â
up vote
3
down vote
up vote
3
down vote
First, find an established academic who can help you make the complaint. Your masters thesis advisor would be the most obvious person to ask; but if there’s someone else you’ve worked with who you know better or trust more or who is better-known, they could also be a good choice. You want someone who (a) is an established academic in the field, and (b) can support your claim that you did this work in 2014.
Get as much proof of priority together as you can. If the department where you did the thesis already publishes its masters theses online, then that is ideal. If not, look for any public information corroborating the date and title and as much more information as possible — e.g. an announcement of the thesis defense/presentation, or similar — and perhaps also ask someone senior at the department (e.g. the head of department at the time) for a signed letter confirming that this is your thesis, given in 2014.
These people may also offer you further advice and assistance with making the complaint — if so, great, and take their direct knowledge over the rest of this suggestion!
With those prepared, make your complaint, and escalate it as necessary. Each time you make the complaint: state the facts, and mention and cc the established academics who can back up your assertions. The journal editors are the first people to write to: email addresses are given at http://www.j-asc.com/EDITORIAL-BOARD/. However, the journal looks low-quality at best and probably outright predatory, so I would not be very hopeful of getting results there. Next, I would try writing a formal complaint to senior figures in the department(s) of the authors of the plagiarising “authorsâ€Â. It may also be worth writing to the authorities that have certified/recognised the journal as legitimate — or at least telling the journal editor you intend to do this.
I would not suggest contacting the authors. That would be the polite thing to do if there was any chance that they might have made an honest mistake somehow; but their paper is such egregious plagiarism that there’s no question they’re acting in good faith. This is like finding video proof that someone has burgled your house: you don’t need to politely warn them, you take it straight to the authorities.
Overall: there is a large ecosystem of dishonest research and publication, parasitic on legitimate scientific institutions and funding structures. While you are writing to people within that, they are unlikely to help you for your own sake. But if you escalate far enough, you will reach a legitimate institution who should hear your concerns; and more practically, if you say that you intend to do this, then people in the sketchy part of the system may be willing to help you for the sake of protecting their own credibility (and you will help push them to be a little bit more honest in the process).
(In all this, I’m assuming that you’re not working anywhere closely connected to the plagiarising authors, and so that you’re not in danger of any kind of retaliation. If you feel they have power/influence that might allow them to retaliate against you, then I don’t know what best to suggest, beyond getting advice from academics you do trust and who know the field themselves.)
answered 42 mins ago
PLL
4,90931824
First, find an established academic who can help you make the complaint. Your masters thesis advisor would be the most obvious person to ask; but if there’s someone else you’ve worked with who you know better or trust more or who is better-known, they could also be a good choice. You want someone who (a) is an established academic in the field, and (b) can support your claim that you did this work in 2014.
Get as much proof of priority together as you can. If the department where you did the thesis already publishes its masters theses online, then that is ideal. If not, look for any public information corroborating the date and title and as much more information as possible — e.g. an announcement of the thesis defense/presentation, or similar — and perhaps also ask someone senior at the department (e.g. the head of department at the time) for a signed letter confirming that this is your thesis, given in 2014.
These people may also offer you further advice and assistance with making the complaint — if so, great, and take their direct knowledge over the rest of this suggestion!
With those prepared, make your complaint, and escalate it as necessary. Each time you make the complaint: state the facts, and mention and cc the established academics who can back up your assertions. The journal editors are the first people to write to: email addresses are given at http://www.j-asc.com/EDITORIAL-BOARD/. However, the journal looks low-quality at best and probably outright predatory, so I would not be very hopeful of getting results there. Next, I would try writing a formal complaint to senior figures in the department(s) of the authors of the plagiarising “authorsâ€Â. It may also be worth writing to the authorities that have certified/recognised the journal as legitimate — or at least telling the journal editor you intend to do this.
I would not suggest contacting the authors. That would be the polite thing to do if there was any chance that they might have made an honest mistake somehow; but their paper is such egregious plagiarism that there’s no question they’re acting in good faith. This is like finding video proof that someone has burgled your house: you don’t need to politely warn them, you take it straight to the authorities.
Overall: there is a large ecosystem of dishonest research and publication, parasitic on legitimate scientific institutions and funding structures. While you are writing to people within that, they are unlikely to help you for your own sake. But if you escalate far enough, you will reach a legitimate institution who should hear your concerns; and more practically, if you say that you intend to do this, then people in the sketchy part of the system may be willing to help you for the sake of protecting their own credibility (and you will help push them to be a little bit more honest in the process).
(In all this, I’m assuming that you’re not working anywhere closely connected to the plagiarising authors, and so that you’re not in danger of any kind of retaliation. If you feel they have power/influence that might allow them to retaliate against you, then I don’t know what best to suggest, beyond getting advice from academics you do trust and who know the field themselves.)
answered 42 mins ago
PLL
4,90931824
answered 42 mins ago
PLL
4,90931824
answered 42 mins ago
PLL
4,90931824
answered 42 mins ago
PLL
4,90931824
4,90931824
add a comment |Â
add a comment |Â
up vote
3
down vote
I have this one paper that has already gotten copied and submitted to some spam journals 5+ times. It literally happens multiple times per year (it has a catchy title that seems to appeal to a certain class of plagiarizers). I also usually learn about this through a Google Scholar alert.
The first two times it happened, I tried exactly the steps recommended by other answers. I contacted the authors (no reply ever), raised a stink with the journals (no reply ever), and contacted IEEE (the copyright holder of my original paper). IEEE indeed did react that they will look into it after quite some time, but nothing ever came out of it.
My lesson learned was that these things are basically impossible to fight. The authors or journals could not care less about ethical integrity, and for IEEE the measurable damage of one of their papers being "reprinted" in a different title and with slightly different words in an obscure scam journal that nobody ever reads is not large enough so that they would make an effort hunting down who is legally behind these shopfront journals.
The good news is that it is also completely irrelevant to you. I can assure you that your scientific contribution will not in any way be lessened by this paper existing, nobody will read the other paper (because nobody reads these "journals", period). For future promotions etc., the existence of this paper will not be in any way an issue for you. Science as a whole suffers (to a degree that we could argue about), but the fact that it happened to be your paper that they copied (as opposed to a paper by me, or somebody else) makes no difference at all.
answered 17 mins ago
xLeitix
93.2k31224370
1
I kind of agree with you (thus an upvote) because I had a similar situation. But, a question for you. Do we just let those thieves go? We can do nothing to give them at least a warning so that they won't do it again? (I am still mad even it was 4 years ago. I don't want anyone to suffer more) Sorry about my rant.
– scaaahu
9 mins ago
1
@scaaahu Those thieves will go even you don't let them really. The only situation that will ruin these thieves' life is that if they work/live in the US, Europe, or developed Asian countries like Japan or South Korea, where there is a serious procedure against research misconduct. Otherwise, nothing can be done really.
– Alone Programmer
6 mins ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
3
down vote
I have this one paper that has already gotten copied and submitted to some spam journals 5+ times. It literally happens multiple times per year (it has a catchy title that seems to appeal to a certain class of plagiarizers). I also usually learn about this through a Google Scholar alert.
The first two times it happened, I tried exactly the steps recommended by other answers. I contacted the authors (no reply ever), raised a stink with the journals (no reply ever), and contacted IEEE (the copyright holder of my original paper). IEEE indeed did react that they will look into it after quite some time, but nothing ever came out of it.
My lesson learned was that these things are basically impossible to fight. The authors or journals could not care less about ethical integrity, and for IEEE the measurable damage of one of their papers being "reprinted" in a different title and with slightly different words in an obscure scam journal that nobody ever reads is not large enough so that they would make an effort hunting down who is legally behind these shopfront journals.
The good news is that it is also completely irrelevant to you. I can assure you that your scientific contribution will not in any way be lessened by this paper existing, nobody will read the other paper (because nobody reads these "journals", period). For future promotions etc., the existence of this paper will not be in any way an issue for you. Science as a whole suffers (to a degree that we could argue about), but the fact that it happened to be your paper that they copied (as opposed to a paper by me, or somebody else) makes no difference at all.
answered 17 mins ago
xLeitix
93.2k31224370
1
I kind of agree with you (thus an upvote) because I had a similar situation. But, a question for you. Do we just let those thieves go? We can do nothing to give them at least a warning so that they won't do it again? (I am still mad even it was 4 years ago. I don't want anyone to suffer more) Sorry about my rant.
– scaaahu
9 mins ago
1
@scaaahu Those thieves will go even you don't let them really. The only situation that will ruin these thieves' life is that if they work/live in the US, Europe, or developed Asian countries like Japan or South Korea, where there is a serious procedure against research misconduct. Otherwise, nothing can be done really.
– Alone Programmer
6 mins ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
3
down vote
up vote
3
down vote
I have this one paper that has already gotten copied and submitted to some spam journals 5+ times. It literally happens multiple times per year (it has a catchy title that seems to appeal to a certain class of plagiarizers). I also usually learn about this through a Google Scholar alert.
The first two times it happened, I tried exactly the steps recommended by other answers. I contacted the authors (no reply ever), raised a stink with the journals (no reply ever), and contacted IEEE (the copyright holder of my original paper). IEEE indeed did react that they will look into it after quite some time, but nothing ever came out of it.
My lesson learned was that these things are basically impossible to fight. The authors or journals could not care less about ethical integrity, and for IEEE the measurable damage of one of their papers being "reprinted" in a different title and with slightly different words in an obscure scam journal that nobody ever reads is not large enough so that they would make an effort hunting down who is legally behind these shopfront journals.
The good news is that it is also completely irrelevant to you. I can assure you that your scientific contribution will not in any way be lessened by this paper existing, nobody will read the other paper (because nobody reads these "journals", period). For future promotions etc., the existence of this paper will not be in any way an issue for you. Science as a whole suffers (to a degree that we could argue about), but the fact that it happened to be your paper that they copied (as opposed to a paper by me, or somebody else) makes no difference at all.
answered 17 mins ago
xLeitix
93.2k31224370
I have this one paper that has already gotten copied and submitted to some spam journals 5+ times. It literally happens multiple times per year (it has a catchy title that seems to appeal to a certain class of plagiarizers). I also usually learn about this through a Google Scholar alert.
The first two times it happened, I tried exactly the steps recommended by other answers. I contacted the authors (no reply ever), raised a stink with the journals (no reply ever), and contacted IEEE (the copyright holder of my original paper). IEEE indeed did react that they will look into it after quite some time, but nothing ever came out of it.
My lesson learned was that these things are basically impossible to fight. The authors or journals could not care less about ethical integrity, and for IEEE the measurable damage of one of their papers being "reprinted" in a different title and with slightly different words in an obscure scam journal that nobody ever reads is not large enough so that they would make an effort hunting down who is legally behind these shopfront journals.
The good news is that it is also completely irrelevant to you. I can assure you that your scientific contribution will not in any way be lessened by this paper existing, nobody will read the other paper (because nobody reads these "journals", period). For future promotions etc., the existence of this paper will not be in any way an issue for you. Science as a whole suffers (to a degree that we could argue about), but the fact that it happened to be your paper that they copied (as opposed to a paper by me, or somebody else) makes no difference at all.
answered 17 mins ago
xLeitix
93.2k31224370
answered 17 mins ago
xLeitix
93.2k31224370
answered 17 mins ago
xLeitix
93.2k31224370
answered 17 mins ago
xLeitix
93.2k31224370
93.2k31224370
1
I kind of agree with you (thus an upvote) because I had a similar situation. But, a question for you. Do we just let those thieves go? We can do nothing to give them at least a warning so that they won't do it again? (I am still mad even it was 4 years ago. I don't want anyone to suffer more) Sorry about my rant.
– scaaahu
9 mins ago
1
@scaaahu Those thieves will go even you don't let them really. The only situation that will ruin these thieves' life is that if they work/live in the US, Europe, or developed Asian countries like Japan or South Korea, where there is a serious procedure against research misconduct. Otherwise, nothing can be done really.
– Alone Programmer
6 mins ago
add a comment |Â
1
I kind of agree with you (thus an upvote) because I had a similar situation. But, a question for you. Do we just let those thieves go? We can do nothing to give them at least a warning so that they won't do it again? (I am still mad even it was 4 years ago. I don't want anyone to suffer more) Sorry about my rant.
– scaaahu
9 mins ago
1
@scaaahu Those thieves will go even you don't let them really. The only situation that will ruin these thieves' life is that if they work/live in the US, Europe, or developed Asian countries like Japan or South Korea, where there is a serious procedure against research misconduct. Otherwise, nothing can be done really.
– Alone Programmer
6 mins ago
1
1
I kind of agree with you (thus an upvote) because I had a similar situation. But, a question for you. Do we just let those thieves go? We can do nothing to give them at least a warning so that they won't do it again? (I am still mad even it was 4 years ago. I don't want anyone to suffer more) Sorry about my rant.
– scaaahu
9 mins ago
I kind of agree with you (thus an upvote) because I had a similar situation. But, a question for you. Do we just let those thieves go? We can do nothing to give them at least a warning so that they won't do it again? (I am still mad even it was 4 years ago. I don't want anyone to suffer more) Sorry about my rant.
– scaaahu
9 mins ago
1
1
@scaaahu Those thieves will go even you don't let them really. The only situation that will ruin these thieves' life is that if they work/live in the US, Europe, or developed Asian countries like Japan or South Korea, where there is a serious procedure against research misconduct. Otherwise, nothing can be done really.
– Alone Programmer
6 mins ago
@scaaahu Those thieves will go even you don't let them really. The only situation that will ruin these thieves' life is that if they work/live in the US, Europe, or developed Asian countries like Japan or South Korea, where there is a serious procedure against research misconduct. Otherwise, nothing can be done really.
– Alone Programmer
6 mins ago
add a comment |Â
Suha Glal is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
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2
I think in this case due to the journal that published their article, which fairly looks like predatory journals, it's better to contact authors and then if they did not give an answer for their actions, you could contact the office of research compliance of their university. Because your master thesis is online and if the journal was reputable their plagiarism checker tool should at least find a similarity between your master thesis and their article. If it is published without problem, it's the sign of predatory journal I believe.
– Alone Programmer
1 hour ago