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This discussion on other aspects of plagiarism took place on the Supertraining list and may also be of interest to others here: <A classmate who working on his Masters had performed the research and wrote an exercise physiology paper. He confronted the professor about it. The professor replied that when he reached a position like his, he could do the same thing. Not to say that all professors are doing this. As with all things in life, there are a few bad apples not only among students who do this but the upper echelon as well...> Mel Siff: You are correct! There are several ways in which academics also cheat, so by all means, let's discuss what they do here, too! While not strictly cheating, what many senior professors do is to publish papers with their name as the first author and the student/s as secondary or minor authors - this is a very popular way for many professors to collect dozens of publications every year. What they really should do is always place the student's name as primary author and their name after it - but this would mean that academic circles would award scholastic "stars" to their students and not to them - and THAT is not done, old boy, is it? While my original comments referred to student plagiarism, I have commented on other groups about plagiarism by staff. One example which apparently is quite rife is the "borrowing" of ideas from papers which academic reviewers are supposed to review confidentially and objectively. I have had several postgraduates and professors inform me that their unique ideas clearly had been "lifted" by reviewers of papers which they had submitted for publication in learned journals. This is why those who are submitting papers for review are being advised to make a notarised copy, seal it in an envelope and address it to themselves via certified mail - then not to open it unless it is needed for subsequent legal action. I would strongly advise that anyone who writes any paper for publication follows this advice. ----------- <In my admittedly limited experience as a prior student of a top 25 law school, this practice is more common than one would expect among legal professors who publish law review articles. Many law review articles do not even credit the student as a secondary author but, instead drop a footnote thanking the student for his or her efforts.> Mel Siff: Even students should be encouraged to send themselves notarised, certified copies of all potentially publishable work that has been submitted to such professors - or to circulate several notarised and dated copies to other staff or to the Dean. The student simply states in his/her covering letter something like this: "I thought that you may be interested in this project which I executed as part of my course in XYZ. If you have any time in your busy schedule, then any comments would be most welcome...." You can even create your own website to store all messages - the date stamps on these messages offers proof of when you submitted your work. Don't let any thievin g professors get away with it any longer - if they are going to penalise YOU for cheating, then THEY deserve the same happening to them. Always leave a paper or electronic trail to show that YOU were the genius, not some less scrupulous professor! -------------- Dr Mel C Siff Denver, USA http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Supertraining/