4 ms·
Can you give some more details? What field was that in? Can you maybe point to the arxiv paper? What was the journal your colleague submitted to? I'm trying to
by cycomanic 5y ago
Can you give some more details? What field was that in? Can you maybe point to the arxiv paper? What was the journal your colleague submitted to?
I'm trying to understand your story because many details are very different from the things I know about scientific publishing.
Your colleague was a grad student who researched and conducted an experiment in a new field without a supervisor (you say there wasn't a coauthor with enough research cloud)? This never happens in my field and pretty much any technical field I'm aware of.
It then went to the review process and was rejected six month later because a reviewer found (a "copy" of) the paper on arxiv? And the rejection reason was lack of novelty? In many fields arxiv does not count as a "already published" . In particular if the submission date of the article is before the article showing up on arxiv.
Also you say the article on arxiv was very obviously copied. So did this result in plagiarism investigations? While there are many things wrong with the current review process, accusations of instances of plagiarism are typically dealt with very quickly and in my experience pretty much always results in the editors in chief getting involved. So did this happen? Also in my experience there is generally much more scepticism against chinese authors than western authors when this happens. The quality of research and publications from China has dramatically increased in the last 5-10 years though.
- KirillPanov 5y agoThe comment you're replying to was quite detailed. Any additional data would identify the paper and therefore the person, transforming OP's comment from an anecdote into a use of HN for griefing purposes. Let's not do that.
- cycomanic 5y agoNo there is clearly not enough detail to assess the story. Apart from the question if it is justified to name the Arxiv paper (I believe pointing out scientific dishonesty publicly is very important), he could have named the field and journal without revealing anything. I clearly pointed out some gaps in the story that everyone vaguely familiar with scientific publishing would find, that's why I'm asking for clarification.
- Al-Khwarizmi 5y agoI don't see any gaps in their story, to be honest. A supervisor can easily not have "enough clout in the field to deter blatant research theft". If you're a tenured professor from a random university in a random country and are not among the top few names in your field, you probably can and will supervise theses, but good luck convincing an editor from an elite institution to care about you. And in your last two paragraphs, I think you're being a bit naive... what if the editor in chief is directly involved, or is a friend of the plagiarizer? Whom do you turn to? How do you prove that you did the experiment first if there is no proof but the submission, which is in control of the editor in chief? I fortunately have never been the victim of such a despicable ploy, but I have seen all sorts of malpractice in journals, including editors that didn't care about blatant plagiarism. I don't think it's a predominant thing, fortunately there are plenty of honest journals and honest editors. But it happens. I'm quite familiar with scientific publishing, having authored a good number of papers, and I find the story perfectly believable.