About a year and a half after a former Ohio University graduate student uncovered examples of plagiarized theses, officials from the university and the Russ College of Engineering are beginning a more thorough investigation of the allegations.
Tom Matrka, 40, who received his master's degree in engineering from OU in June and is working for a chemical company in McArthur, has been investigating theses approved by the engineering school dating back to the late '80s. He said he has found about 30 plagiarized theses since he began in July 2004 and is working now with OU officials to stop plagiarism within the College of Engineering.
(The college) is discrediting us and misleading the public
Matrka said.
As of Feb. 21, 12 theses had been investigated and are being dealt with said Dennis Irwin, dean of the engineering college. One student who graduated about five years ago had to rewrite the plagiarized portions of his thesis, Irwin said. The student was cooperative and that student's thesis was removed from the library. Many students who publish dissertations and theses make them available in Alden Library.
An additional 35 cases, many from the department of mechanical engineering, are under investigation. The cases being investigated span a period of about 15 years.
Plagiarism occurs in other colleges at OU, but this case is unique in terms of time frame and number
said John Burns, director of legal affairs.
The College of Engineering has formed a permanent group, the Academic Honesty Oversight Committee, which consists of a group of faculty members, mainly outside the department of mechanical engineering, Irwin said. The committee assists Irwin in deciding how to deal with plagiarism in old theses and possible consequences and punishments.
The committee gave one report about the 12 theses that have been investigated, but Irwin sent it back, asking for more specific recommendations. The committee's new report, which Irwin expects on March 27, will give consistent suggestions and a specific course of action on all questionable theses, including the 35 under investigation now.
Faculty members in the college investigated some cases about one year ago, but only found one case. Now allegations from Matrka are being actively pursued.
The college also is investigating faculty members and looking for correlations among students who plagiarized and professors who were advisers for them, Irwin said.
I am working to identify a pattern that would lead to root causes (of plagiarism)
Irwin said.
When asked if students are coerced by faculty to plagiarize or if advisers simply might overlook it, Irwin said, I hope not
but I'm not going to say it's not possible.
Irwin would not give the names of any faculty, noting that at the time of his interview with The Post, there wasn't a concrete case against anyone. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, a federal law that protects students' information and records, protects the identities of students being investigated for plagiarism at OU, Burns said.
Major challenges
The College of Engineering has been presented with many obstacles. Almost all of the cases of plagiarized theses involve students who received a degree, Irwin said. The university does not have a set policy in dealing with plagiarized theses after a student has graduated, but is taking each thesis on a case-by-case basis.
If plagiarism is found and the student has graduated, the case is sent to the Office of Legal Affairs, said J. Malcolm Smith, interim director of the office of judiciaries.
Cultural differences among students in the engineering college present other challenges. Because the college includes many international students, concerns about whether everyone was aware of American standards of plagiarism have surfaced.
U.S. universities uphold very strict standards
and most students are expected to understand research and citation by the time they enter graduate school, Burns said. Many graduate students are directed to the student handbook and the engineering college is taking further measures to inform students.
The degree and amount of plagiarism varies with each individual case, making it that much harder to determine a universal policy, Irwin said.
Also, the depth of plagiarism in the engineering college makes it harder for officials to find examples, Matrka said.
Many cases go back to the '80s and '90s, making it difficult to look through every thesis that has ever been written, Burns said.
Additional burdens on the department include finding faculty members and others in the field to review possibly plagiarized theses. It is standard for the board that approves theses to include members who are in another discipline or who are working outside the department. Faculty who originally approved the thesis can't review it again if plagiarism is found, Irwin said.
With the help of Matrka, The Post found many examples of plagiarism. Some theses had a few sentences that were copied without citation from other sources, while other examples had almost 20 pages of copied work, save for a few words, with no quotation marks or references. And many of these examples are available in the library.
The whole system is falling apart
Matrka said, noting students presently working on their theses could unknowingly reference plagiarized work.
As long as students cite the work they are using, plagiarism isn't occurring, Irwin said.
Some students took information from class textbooks or referenced work by prominent scientists and didn't cite them in their bibliographies, Matrka said. The Post found two examples where students took information from textbooks.
Engineering college officials haven't talked to the original authors yet, and Irwin said he would follow recommendations of the Academic Honesty Oversight Committee.
Is it the responsibility (of the college) to notify those that have been affected? Irwin asked, noting that he was unsure what course of action engineering college officials would take in notifying original authors.
Other repercussions for plagiarized work, especially that taken from a textbook, include legal action for copyright infringement. The fines for copyright infringement vary, but defendants who are proven guilty could pay up to $150,000 in statutory damages, according to U.S. Copyright Law.
Many of the theses being examined by the College of Engineering and the Office of Legal Affairs include plagiarism in the introduction and background portions of the theses, which doesn't compromise the actual experiments or work done by the student, Irwin said.
However, The Post found more than one thesis that directly copied equations from other published works.
One thesis, published in 2001, includes almost 20 pages with identical wording, save for a few words, and direct copies of equations from Kyunho Suk's Residual Stresses in Axisymmetric Deep Drawing Process
published in 1995. Suk's work is not cited in the bibliography of that thesis. The Post found similar examples that copied or failed to cite large portions taken from other sources.
These students are graduating with no concept of what a master's thesis is
Matrka said, noting that he has found similar examples.
Beginning in July 2004, Matrka tried to show university officials examples of plagiarism he had found, but he said they were uninterested.
In the earlier investigation college faculty found only one example - the student who had to rewrite his thesis.
Punishment and consequences
While having students rewrite a plagiarized thesis is an option officials in the engineering college are considering, Irwin said that he and others aren't opposed to revoking degrees.
It's on my list of options
he noted. I plan to deal with the infraction with the seriousness of the infraction.
OU has never revoked a degree, Burns said.
Students in Graduate Student Senate also voiced their concerns about plagiarism at a recent meeting and are considering a resolution that would create a formal process to deal with plagiarism found in former students' work, said Mark Mecum, Senate president.
Ohio State University has a policy in place that gives university officials the power to revoke a degree if plagiarism is found within six months of the student's graduation, Mecum said.
Progress
The university is hoping to have all of the cases of plagiarized theses identified and dealt with by the beginning of Spring Quarter, Burns said.
Matrka was on campus recently and has shown Burns the cases of plagiarism he found, Burns said.
I don't mean to put a burden on him
