Is uncredited use of grad students' unpublished research by professors accepted/common practice in academia?

Question

I'm a master's student, and over the course of my studies I've conducted a few independent studies in which I investigate specific research questions that I formulate on my own. Those independent studies have culminated in final papers, and I then use the material in those papers as part of articles I publish and presentations I give at conferences--am trying to build up a public profile on these topics.

Recently, a professor of mine asked to see research I had done for one of those studies, ostensibly to use as background for something the professor was working on. I'm not this professor's employee or otherwise under contract for a project of the professor's. I'm conducting independent research during classes that I pay for as part of my degree. The professor is in other words just my adviser and teacher.

I provided the professor my research and presentation materials, and then heard the professor use my work--word for word--in a subsequent presentation. The professor had not sought out my consent before doing this, and I was not cited.

The same professor again asked for a full, unpublished paper I had written to use as background for a different project the professor was undertaking. I declined to provide the paper because I did not know how it would be used (though I didn't say that).

Am curious about whether this is accepted and/or common practice in academia. And if it is, should I just send my paper to the professor?

Answer 1

No, this not accepted and/or common practice in academia. (Your use of the plagiarism tag was correct.) It is of course unethical and not right to copy other's work and not mention them.

Answer 2

This seems like pretty direct plagiarism to me. It is also all too common in academia.

In your case, this is a little more straightforward, as you never have been employed (i.e., received money) for your work under this professor. Your professor may feel that he or she has a "right" to your work because the professor believes he or she oversaw your work. (Some advisors thing they have tacit advisory privilege on all work a graduate student produces). What becomes tricky is when your advisor actually paid you to be a research assistant, yet contributes nothing intellectually to the project.

If you are still a current student, there may not be much you can directly do about this. At least in my experience, many universities will stand behind their professors unless given a heaping mound of evidence otherwise. I would defer any requests for your research as long as you can, insofar as it does not hamper your ability to produce a thesis, final project, etc. I knew of two students in my department where they had the choice of blindly handing their research over to their advisor and graduating, or standing firm on their intellectual contributions and being denied the chance to defend their dissertation. Their advisor felt he had "ownership" of their research because he had paid their stipends. Advisors usually have almost all of the leverage in these cases.

But, nevertheless, what you have described is blatant plagiarism. So, yes, this is plagiarism. And yes, it was common at my university. And it is accepted because departments do not want to admit that their faculty may be taking advantage of graduate students' work. This is why I got out of academia.

Answer 3

Your case is blatant plagiarism. I saw this many years ago (at Harvard), and it still happens. As the others have implied, though, it is partly a cultural phenomenon that varies by university and department.

One suggestion that might help you is that research donors, and journals, have gotten much more sensitive in the last 10 years about illegal behavior. I would confidentially go to the legal department at your university, and sound them out. It could be, for instance, that this professor has created a legal liability for the university with the professor's funding agencies, which the lawyers will either want to hush up, or go after on their own so that the university can claim clean hands. In the former case, if they are smart they would find a way to refund all your tuition.

What gives you some leverage is that you are in an MS program and don't much depend on this guy, or the department, in the future. But that depends in part on where you see yourself working in 5 years, and whether the relevant work/academic community is small, or large.

Another technique that may work better than in the past is to threaten to write journal editors. So far, he has not published anything that uses your work. But if he ever does, then depending on how important your material was to his publication, he could get seriously embarrassed. (And by then, you will have graduated.)

This is sensitive, and it might blow up depending on personalities and local culture. You may therefore want to work through an intermediary who keeps your name, and his/her name, out of it at first. But I encourage you to seriously consider complaining. That is necessary for academia to progress.

Answer 4

Regarding your final question (possibly provided in an update): DO NOT hand over a second paper to this professor. Or, if this is within disciplinary norms, you may want to consider posting it a respected repository (e.g. Arxiv or SSRN), thus time-stamping it and showing your priority. You could choose whether or not to then share the link with that professor: "I'm so glad you're interested in my work! I just posted a copy on Arxiv!"

As for the first paper: in a comment you say you wrote it in an independent study with a different professor. Do you trust that professor? Do you think that professor would be willing to help challenge the rascal? You may want to consider asking the other professor about these norms and how to navigate the issue. If the original problem happened in an informal setting (e.g. an on-campus talk), the other professor may be able to set the record straight there, in a smooth way. Or, if it was a more external venue, especially one where you're thinking of accusing the professor of plagiarism, then the other professor could be even more valuable in corroborating your account and suggesting politically wise options.

Answer 5

If the presentation that your professor gave was one that might result in a publication--like a conference that publishes its proceedings--then you have a right for credited authorship on that publication. And if it's already gone out, then it's a cause for a published correction. You'd need to go to the organizers of the conference to get this started. Have no doubt, it'll be a big deal.

Answer 6

Simple answer: No. It is never ok in any professional (and especially in any academic) setting to present someone else's data or work without citing them. This is cut-and-dry plagiarism.

• Doing so does not give credit where credit is due, and, worse, often leads others to falsely attribute the work to the person presenting it.

Unfortunately, this is a practice that is all too common in the STEM fields, especially between PIs and their professional "subordinates" (i.e., grad students, lab managers, undergrads, junior faculty, etc.). However, this approach to science is often a result of unbalanced power dynamics and there being no possibility for these so-called "subordinates" to challenge the PI in power. Not all institutions accept this behavior, and certainly, in many instances it is not a problem.

If you were able to effectively say "no" to additional requests from your PI without consequence, then good for you! I would suggest using the same approach moving forward and hopefully your PI doesn't implore further (to avoid that awkward conversation).

For those who are not so lucky, I recommend reaching out to your university's ombuds office (if you have one), DGS (director of graduate studies) or even to other graduate students or junior faculty to ask for advice.

Answer 7

Warning: this answer may upset the vast majority of readers.

Many universities require students to agree that all work produced while being a student or member of staff be the property of the university (not the student). This is more clearly noted when doing funding research, but is also often the case otherwise.

If the lecturer presented the work as entirely his own then he has crossed a line by claiming ownership. However if he has presented the work as from his university/department (eg. A Study in the effect of Blah on Blah, SomeName University) then he may not have done anything wrong. It is sometimes rare (feild specific) for presentations to include a full list of coauthorship, the presenter often opting to give the details of a contact at the department. This is done for multiple reason, one of which maybe continuity - a lecturer may be the point of contact as they are likely to remain at the university for longer than a student - this is specifically important when the work is contributing to a larger overall discipline the university is working towards.

I would advise you to carefully consider the outcome of your actions before speaking to the legal department of the university as mentioned in other answer. Even if the lecturer has stepped over the line you risk getting a reputation as a non-team-player, not ideal if you want a future in academia (yes it sucks to say it, but whistle blowers rarely end up well employed). A better course of action may be to speak to the professor about wanting to present the work yourself, and asking for his direct assistance in this - where to submit the paper, possibly getting university funding to go and present etc.