Plagiarism Prevents Scientific Progress

05Aug09

A recent paper in the scientific journal ‘Stem Cells and Development’ was retracted due to the fact that several paragraphs appeared to be plagiarized.  The paper provided research stating that a Newcastle University team had created a method to create human sperm from stem cells.

The journal’s editor, Graham Parker, cites retracting the July 8th article due to several paragraphs having been copied from a previous 2007 publication.   The research team leader, Karim Nayernia, claims that a post-doc had mistakenly left in sections from an older version of the paper and published it online before catching the error.

The Newcastle University administration stood behind its researchers, releasing a statement that said they had reviewed the journal and not ‘raised any questions’ in regards to the paper.

It is still somewhat unclear about who was actually at fault, but the fact of the matter is at some point plagiarism did occur.  Someone’s work was utilized in the paper and not properly attributed with credit.  The real problem at hand here is not who needs to be blamed, but how this situation could have been prevented, and the impact similar events have had on scientific progress.

Scientific progress partially depends on concrete evidence and communication between researchers.  Researchers publish their findings in journals so that others can build on them (and properly cite whose research they are using).  If researchers become weary of publishing their studies due to plagiarism concerns, the entire scientific process can break down. Eventually, this could mean slowing the rate of scientific advancement.

Not only does plagiarism affect progress, but it also has the possibility to distort actual research.  ScienceNews.org recently published an article that describes how plagiarized research in the biomedical field could lead to ‘bogus’ data and create the possibility of adversely affecting patients.

From the ScienceNews.org article “Dangers of Biomedical Plagiarism” :

“The second paper, in this instance a plagiarized report based on the first journal article (but containing bogus data), not only would lend credence to the initial finding, but also raise the drug treatment’s statistical strength, since it was now successful in a far larger population.”

Clearly it is in our advantage to detect and prevent plagiarism before it occurs.   New cutting-edge plagiarism checker software enables research institutions to check for duplicate content ahead of submission.  By the time the content is published, the team can feel confident that the copy has not appeared elsewhere.

Utilizing plagiarism prevention and detection technology will both cut down in cases of accidental and intentional plagiarism.  In the end, this process will benefit scientific progress as a whole.

Citations:

Olmos, David. “Study on Sperm Made From Stem Cells Retracted for Plagiarism .”  Bloomberg.com. 30 Jul. 2009
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=aHqYdUDWxcWU

Vogel, Gretchen.  “Update: University Backs Author of Retracted Stem Cell Paper.”  Science Insider. 30 Jul. 2009. http://blogs.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2009/07/update-universi.html

Raloff, Janet. “Dangers of biomedical plagiarism.”  Science News. 8 Mar. 2009. http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/41466/title/Science_%2B_the_Public__Dangers_of_biomedical_plagiarism

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