How to raise concerns about plagiarism when the corresponding author has passed away?

Question

After I left graduate school, my advisor (the corresponding author) and another person (the first author) published a paper with a lot of data from my master's thesis. I was not even acknowledged, and I feel this may constitute plagiarism. Normally I would reach out to my former advisor, but unfortunately, they have passed away.

So: how should I proceed? Who would deal with issues and questions pertaining to authorship and plagiarism in this circumstance?

I moved some information from the comments into the main post. The issue here seems to be plagiarism / authorship dispute, not a conflict of interest, so I have updated that reference as well. — cag51, Aug 23 '21 at 23:38
Does this answer your question? Deceased author and conflict of interest statement — Buzz, Aug 24 '21 at 00:48
I don't understand the duplicate votes. The linked question is about who can sign a conflict of interest form on behalf of a deceased author. OP's situation is nothing like this. — cag51, Aug 25 '21 at 01:47

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 23 '21 at 21:50

If there is fault here, it is probably due to the former mentor. You can contact the editor of the journal in which it was published and/or the remaining author.

In fact, it is probably a good idea to contact both, raising your concerns. But you don't have the option of contacting the corresponding author as is obvious.

How to raise concerns about plagiarism when the corresponding author has passed away?

1 Answers1