Caught plagiarizing - now what?

Tim Bartel (Wikia) Webmontag Köln, 20. Juni 2011

Caught plagiarizing... ... now what?

Short overview and explanation of differentbehaviour by scientific fraudsters

Mittwoch, 22. Juni 2011


Deny /ridicule the accusation

“The accusation that my dissertationwas plagiarized is absurd.” (Guttenberg)

Rather bad. Also works only if youhave read your thesis and know it.



Play down“I am willing to check within the 1,200 footnotes and 475 pages for footnotes that are not set correctly, and [then] would consider this for a reprint of the thesis.” (Guttenberg)

Might work. But you shouldn’t try this approach if there is plagiarism on ~95%of all pages.


Tim Bartel PolitCamp 11, 5. Juni 2011

Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg



“The others are to blame”

• Examiners (Koch-Mehrin)

• Family (Guttenberg)

• Dead soldiers (Guttenberg)

Blaming others always looks bad. You’re not going to win with this strategy.

Alternative: Don’t write a thesis at all.



• Weaker version:“Let it rest temporarily”

• Guttenberg

• Pröfrock

• Brinkmann (sent back his certificate)

The university is conferring a doctorate and collects it again. You can’t decide by yourself that you suddenly don’t want to have it anymore.

(But at first it makes a good impression...)

Waive your PhD



Creative defense• Invent a new citation style (Chatzimarkakis):

“Citations in the text, not indented and without quotation marks, identified by footnotes.

This creates room for speculation. I havetherefore explicitly informed the UniversityBonn about the citation style used by me.”

Works at most with people whonever had casual contact with academicknowledge.



Legal steps• Saß

• Koch-Mehrin

Please...

Not if you take doctorates from “nobodies” and kick them out fordoing way less.



Impute denunciation

• With VroniPlag denunciation protected by anonymity of the Internet, it has apparently become a socially accepted sport (according to Alvaro).

“Who publicly pillories others and prejudges them has to do so in the open” demands the liberal.

• If you don‘t have any factual arguments left...



Nice reactions“Good day,

Haven’t you done enough damage already? There is nothing more

disgusting as you informers. I do not know what you do exactly

but if you spend so much time trying to denounce others, it seems

that you‘re not getting along with your own life. Better get a job

and earn money to pay taxes. You are the old man who lurks on

the street, waiting for people to park incorrectly so you can press charges against

them. People like you should be gassed, then our society would

be way better.

Unfriendly greetings”



Nice reactions



Leaving the country...

... is, of course, another possibility.



Possible alternatives

• What I would like to see for a change:

• Admit

• Show remorse

• Excuse

• Redo your degree


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Caught plagiarizing - now what?