The title of his thesis was: "Constitution and Constitutional Treaty:
Constitutional Developments in the US and EU". which was in the faculty
of "law" not in politics.
The BBC reported that: The University of Bayreuth decided that Mr
Guttenberg had "violated scientific duties to a considerable extent".
which I assume was a translation from German. The word "scientific" has
a different connotation in some European countries from that in the UK,
and here the sense seems to be that he failed in a "rigorous" duty with
regard to selection and organisation of evidence, data, etc, which we
hope is indeed characteristic of science (and by implication here also
of law).
I too hope that all scientists, and indeed all academics, will rally to
condemn plagiarism of this gross extent, which at the very least raises
serious doubts about the honesty, reliability and ethical standards (or
lack of them) of this Minister. Equally disturbing is the fact that he
at first called the accusations "absurd" and ..."while vehemently
rejecting the accusations of plagiarism, the minister told reporters he
was happy to check to see whether there had been any omissions or errors
in the 1,200 footnotes."
but then...
"Analysis [later] revealed that more than half of his thesis had long
sections lifted word-for-word from the work of others."
The BBC also noted:" Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, an aristocrat who lives
in a Bavarian castle, admitted breaching standards but denied
deliberately cheating."
The word "cheating" seems to have taken on an incredibly flexible
meaning here!! And is there such a thing as... not deliberately cheating
(accidentally cheating?)!!
All quotes above are from the BBC reports.
Alan Rogerson
> This particular case is not about science though. His thesis was in politics. I accept there is a broader issue for academia but I suspect the science world has not taken so much notice because they dont see it as in their patch.
>
> Frank Norman
>
> At 15:38 25/02/2011, Stephan Matthiesen wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> Although highly relevant for public perception of science, the Guttenberg scandal seems to be mostly ignored in the english-speaking world... it has been brewing for a few weeks, but now it seems about to erupt into an open fight between the scientific community and the government.
>>
>> In the last few days there have been press releaseses by all major funding and research organisations as well as editorials in science magazines, demanding that the government takes scientific integrity seriously and that scientific plagiarism is not just a minor offence, but should have serious consequences - even if the perpetrator is a slick and popular politician.
>>
>> The only English comment I can find is here:
>> "it's about the reputation of the German academic system"
>> http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,14871392,00.html
>>
>> Unfortunately I can't other a good English summaries - perhaps some British journalist would like to take that up?
>>
>> Here are misc. statements in German from the scientific community:
>>
>> German Research Foundation: "Science relies on truthfulness, integrity and trust"
>> http://www.dfg.de/dfg_profil/reden_stellungnahmen/2011/110225_stellungnahme_plagiate_fehlverhalten/index.html
>>
>> German Association of University Teachers (DHV):
>> "DHV is appalled that plagiarism is not taken seriously"
>> http://www.hochschulverband.de/cms1/pressemitteilung+M55f181284f8.html
>>
>> Carsten Könneker, spektrumdirekt:
>> "This is not a good advert for politics. But the biggest damage is done to science."
>> http://www.wissenschaft-online.de/artikel/1064890&_z=859070
>>
>> Hope people find this interesting.
>>
>> Cheers
>> Stephan
>>
>> --
>> Stephan Matthiesen
>> http://www.stephan-matthiesen.de
>> Neu auf www.science-texts.de: Da ist der Wurm drin - Februarmuster
>>
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