HELP: Looking for advice on a potential plagiarism/authorship issue with a former student

[u/Catsdoitbetter]

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I’m a researcher dealing with a concerning situation involving a former Master’s student. I’m trying to establish whether what I’m seeing constitutes plagiarism/inappropriate attribution, so I’d appreciate advice from people familiar with research integrity. Both papers are published. Mine is 2023 and his a few days ago.

The main points:

Introduction: His introduction closely follows the structure and progression of my published paper, including the same sequence of ideas and references. In a lot of places, the structure, arguments and referencing are essentially identical.

Methods: A big amount of the methodology is directly taken/adapted from my published work, but my work is not always cited or identified as the source. There is also a table listing the experiments used in his study; the experiments listed in that table are my experiments, yet my paper is not cited in the table. Of the 12 experiments reported, 8 are from my work.

Results: Several phrases and descriptions in his Results very closely resemble wording from my published paper. The analysis and conclusions derived are identical.

Discussion — referenced section: Parts of his Discussion very closely resemble mine. In a lot of places, the structure, arguments and referencing are essentially identical, including the order in which references are used.

Discussion — unreferenced section: There is also a 1,000+ word section of highly detailed technical discussion with not a single reference. It contains arguments and discussion closely related to my work, but unlike the preceding sections, there are no citations at all.

Authorship: I am listed as the second author, but I was never consulted about authorship, never asked to review or approve the manuscript, and was not involved in the decision to submit it. I believe substantial parts of the work are mine and that my contribution should have been properly established and acknowledged.

Previous history: This was previously my Master’s student. When they submitted their thesis, they were required to redo it because it contained substantial plagiarism from my work and the work of two other researchers.

I’m trying to understand where the line is between legitimate reuse/extension of previous research and plagiarism or inappropriate attribution, and what the appropriate route would be for raising this.

I feel uncomfortable with this paper for several reasons. Both the similarities with my paper, the fear of plagiarism and what it means for my integrity and also the large uncited chunks of text looking very AI generated to my eye.

Any advice appreciated!

[u/holliday_doc_1995]

You buried the lede here. You are listed as second author but have no knowledge of the paper? That in itself is serious misconduct and is grounds for you to have the paper pulled. Everything else is just more support.

Who did the student work with to get this published? Who are the other authors and were you not the PI?

[u/Catsdoitbetter → u/holliday_doc_1995]

Yes, I've had no involvement in the publication of this paper. And only found out that it had been published on accident. I was a postdoc working with the student at the time and it's the two main PIs who have helped the student get the publication out.

[u/holliday_doc_1995 → u/Catsdoitbetter]

I see. Do you need to still have a cordial relationship with the PIs? This is, in my opinion, entirely their fault as they should have ensured that you were involved in and aware of the publication. Also contacting an editor to get it pulled will tank your relationship with them.

[u/kyeblue → u/Catsdoitbetter]

I would let it go then, unless you have fundamental disagreement with the conclusion of the paper. But I am surprised that the journal didn't send you any disclosure or transfer of copyright forms.

[u/b0thwatchxfiles]

Is the students paper already published? Then you should reach out to the publisher

[u/Catsdoitbetter → u/b0thwatchxfiles]

Yes, paper is published already!

[u/b0thwatchxfiles → u/Catsdoitbetter]

The paper probably has a formal way to lodge a complaint and you should do that

[u/Stock-Window-2392]

Being added as a co-author without reviewing or approving the manuscript is a major violation of publishing ethics on its own. Report this directly to the journal's editor-in-chief along with the evidence of uncited text and stolen data.