Image via Wikipedia
I had blogged earlier about how the Chemistry department of CEG, Anna University had gotten into trouble for plagiarism charges. Now it looks like there are more charges [Google Cache] leveled against the university. I myself completed my undergrad from the very same college and I should clarify that this is NOT a rampant practice. Not once in my time there has any of the faculty encouraged stealing of ideas.
To start off, I think the authors had this coming and completely deserve the shame. It is one thing to gather ideas from multiple papers and present marginal deltas over them. But to actually copy-paste text and figures from other sources WITHOUT crediting the original sources is blatant plagiarism done with the motive of hiding the sources. The paper itself appears to be more of a literature survey written in oversized font sizes and has limited novelty. The authors seem to have missed the point that citing work is good and it only increases the credibility of their work.
In their defense I no not think it fair to blame the students. These are undergrad students with absolutely NO exposure to the research arena (CEG is more of a teaching university rather than a research university). The professor has to take the responsibility for this case, for it is the professor who should have reviewed the paper and guided the students in the right direction. There is a very clear lack of ethics here. Also, I have little regard for the HiPC poster session. I myself published a poster at the '06 edition of HiPC, the contents of which I am not particularly proud of.
From the looks of Prof. Bhaskaran Raman's page, it looks like this is just one of many plagiarized submissions he found (the title ends with the suffix "-1"). I am sure CEG is not the only university to have done this. Exposing more such cases is sure to reduce the incidence of such events and also reduce the pressure on reviewers.
Persisting on topic of ethics, the page also mentions this paper as a "submission" to HiPC '08. I am not sure if this was accepted or not. What are your views on criticizing publicly about a work that has not been officially published?
Share this post:Design Float | StumbleUpon | Reddit | Delicious | Facebook | Google Bookmarks
I believe once you submit the paper, you should be held responsible for whatever you write. Also, is there a Professor also in the authors? That is a major issue then... the professor being lax enough to not even read what his students are writing... I just hope it wasn't complicity.
@Bhavish, I agree that the authors are responsible for what was written. But legally I think the copyright to the paper lies in the hands of the authors until they sign it over to the conference for publishing purposes. Also, do you think it is right pick on a group of clueless undergrad students in such a public manner? Perhaps sending 'em a strong email and a public post censoring the univ and author list might have been a nicer first step.
All I can say is such activities are slowly tarnishing the image of CEG which took such a long time to build. People like Lenin, Kumaresh etc are trying hard to take the CEG banner to great heights while acts such as these completely nullify their efforts!!!
This is really pathetic. And i too think that a significant fraction of the blame goes to the supervisor who let this thing happen. In fact, the authorities of the univ should take notice of this and initiate an internal investigation to find out who is to blame and officially punish them. Specially to set an example to others in the univ. Otherwise this will not go unchecked further tarnishing the name of the univ.
I agree with all the comments written above. Yes. The professor (lecturer) should take responsibility (because her name was included). Coming from the same college, I understand that, this is not exactly how the college was/is.
I understand that these kind of submissions annoy the reviewers.
But I am curious to get answers to the following questions (almost the same ones Prashanth has pointed out),
I understand that this was not a paper submission, but it was a poster submission to HiPC and was submitted by people (undergrads) who had no idea about research/publication/conferences. The other name included is of a lecturer and not a professor.
Was there a explicit mention in the submission site that plagiarism will be treated this way?
Was there even a submission site detailing these? We were asked to mail the poster submissions for HiPC 2005 to some person.
Is it fair from the reviewers side to publicize the name and the univ of such submission (without mentioning during the submission that such things will be done)?
Do you think the student would not have submitted if there was s submission site and it emphasized such treatment?
To clarify things, the poster was not accepted (as far as I can see in the proceedings) and rightfully so.
Unfortunate as the sequence of events may seem, I see complete ignorance and desperation(!) on the part of the authors.
The papers cited in the paper reference the DRAND protocol, which is very similar to DTDMA described in the paper. The fact that they looked at the reference of their reference, and decided not to include it seems hideous. Also there seems to be an intent attempt on the part of the authors to hide any similarities. It is almost as if they knew that it was not the right practice. Being an alumnus of the university myself, I have personally seen the amount of hard work put in by many of its professors. The desperation of a few students should not tarnish the cumulative image of the department.
As to whether publishing the name of the university and the students goes, it is *totally unacceptable*. It may seem that my opinion is biased, but the truth of the matter is that in any professional conference the authors hold the copyright to their work before it is published. It is illegal to post their work online (even if it is for pressing plagiarism charges).
Just to answer some of lenin's questions:
1) No explicit mention in the submission site. The only thing stated is that the posters would be judged based on originality.
2) Submissions were done through EDAS.
Here is the Call for Posters from HiPC 2008:
Please submit an extended abstract of your research results in PDF format electronically through EDAS. Authors can use last year's posters session papers, available at http://hipc.org/hipc2007/hipc2007posters.htm, as samples. Your document should be at most 5 letter or A4 size (8.5 x 11) pages in 11 pt or 12 pt font, single spaced, with at least one-inch margins on all sides. Please identify the names of student authors in a footnote. Poster selection will be competitive and all submissions will be reviewed. Manuscripts will be judged on correctness, originality, technical strength, significance, quality of presentation, and interest and relevance to the conference attendees.
Blacklisting does appear to be a right choice. Reminds me of SCIGEN (also here). David Mazieres apparently blacklists anyone who publishes at WMSCI
I completely agree with Karthik.
I personally think that this paper is a bad pick to start with for the service the IITB professor has started (here)
It is weird that I neither find the poster published nor find him in the Program Committee.
May be, I would as well blacklist the authors for this plagiarism but not publish it in public. Even if so (it should have been mentioned explicitly that such thing would be done in the submission site)
Also, I *completely* hate the fact that the professor refers to it as a *paper*. It is definitely not a paper, and he has to understand that a poster is very very different. It is meant to generate discussion in a topic, like some problem that you want to work on, rather than presenting a mature solution to a new problem.
prashant,
long time no see over freenode. sup this is partho. i have something to add to this post of yours. this is not with respect to your uni, this is with respect to madras uni. i passed (yet to pass) bachelor of engineering from madras uni, and i got 2 cd filled with projects of my batch mates. and to my surprise i found that 95% of the projects are cut copy paste from some open-source project via sourceforge or freshmeat.
now how you deal with that. if i become a jack ass and leak the cd's then i guess if it comes under scanner all my batch mates (IT & CSE) will/may get their under grad degree cancelled. and i was not allowed to submit my project? why? because i said i want to rebuild the tftp client for my 7 th sem and for 8 th sem i told them i would like to present a modelled version of asterisk in a mesh node. they threw away both my projects and told me we cant get genuine windows to get the tools and we cant allow you to install linux.
and like a fool and an ass i took the wrath ate it and digested it and moved on with my life and learnt from others mistakes and my mistakes. and secondly? the original papers are presented or may have been presented ages ago or some time ago and they are the ones being original will get credit then those stealing. as time is ahead of those who did it on their own than those who did copy it from others.
why are you so worried about those retards who want to dig their own grave?
frankly, if you want my 2 cents like before? if someone wishes to dig his/her own grave? dont stop, but help them. they are a burden on the face of this planet and help them become extinct than help them remain intact. right now i know 5 students from anna uni cse branch got their project submitted and approved and also passed and worst they purchased the project and submitted them under their name.
if this education and engineering and exams are there to judge someone's own self/skills, then its his/his her/her own choice, isnt? why are you trying to open their eyes. let them burn in being and under achiever. why are you worried. and if they breach the copyright/patent? they will pay the penalty anyway.
SO WHY ARE YOU WORRIED?
if someone digs their grave? help them whole heartedly, you will have one competetion less, mate. isnt it?
sheesh.
now stop being a WUSS you little ASS.
my buddy turtle in shell? why worry, those rabbits will loose in the race of life. keep working hard, man, may success be with those who work hard. and there is a sense of hope and hardwork in those hardworking folks? AMEN, we will over come retards. WE must work hard and think different, and copy blantly.
sheesh, no wonder why indian students and indians are so looked up degraded, we boast about piracy w/o thinking once, we are falling infront of ourselves.
peace.
partho
p.s. one wicked advice, if you see someone digging their own grave? dont stand there and stop them, BUT HELP THEM, one less retard means we live in profit business. ;-)
Post a Comment