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IUB academic 'plagiarises' research paper
Lahore, July 02, 2008: A professor of physics of the Islamia University
Bahawalpur has been accused of plagiarising a research paper which was published
in the Journal of Natural Sciences and Mathematics of the Government College
University (then a college) way back in April 1994.
Information gleaned revealed that a research paper c2Stress Relaxation in 7075 Aluminium
Alloyc2 by MZ Butt and AM Khan, published in the Government College journal, has
almost been plagiarised by IUBc2s physics teacher Prof Dr M Arshad Chaudhry and
PCSIR Laboratories' Muhammad Ashraf. The c2plagiarised' paper was published in
ELSEVIER's Journal of Alloys and Compounds last year.
As soon as
plagiarism was detected, one of the original writers submitted a written
complaint to the Islamia University's vice-chancellor as well as the Higher
Education Commission chairman. IUB Vice-Chancellor Dr Belal A Khan constituted a
two-member committee, comprising varsity's faculty of science dean Prof Dr
Muhammad Moazzam and chemistry department's Dr Muhammad Latif Mirza, which
submitted a probe finding to the university administration.
When
contacted, Dr Moazzam said: c2The preliminary inquiry committee has conducted a
probe and sent the case back to the HEC with a finding that plagiarism has been
committedc2.
IUB Registrar Muhammad Ishtiaq said that the plagiarism
inquiry report, along with all proofs, had been sent to the
HEC.
Answering a question, Mr Ishtiaq said the university would follow
the HEC instructions if it would ask the university to probe the case through a
formal inquiry committee and take decision. In that case, he said, the
university would constitute a full-fledged inquiry committee whose
recommendations would be placed before the university syndicate for a
decision.
Sources said that the comparison of the two papers
revealed that the paper published in ELSEVIER's Journal of Alloys and Compounds
last year was a plagiarised version of the paper published in 1994. They said
the c2plagiarisedc2 paper's abstract, figures, results and discussion, and
conclusions etc., were the same as available in the original paper.The alleged
plagiarist, Prof Chaudhry has informed one of the original writers that his
co-author M Ashraf, a PhD scholar, had sent him the manuscript of the paper
through an email in July 2005 and he had just edited the paper.
Sources
told this reporter that the paper, which was sent to Prof Chaudhry by his
co-author, carried four names as authors. However, Mr Arshad struck off three
names and gave credit to only one author, besides himself.
M Ashraf had
died in January 2006 and Prof Chaudhry had submitted the paper to the ELSVIER's
journal later in 2006, sources said.
It is learnt that one of the
writers, whose paper has been plagiarised, has also sent a written complaint to
the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Alloys and Compounds. The complaint reads:
c2The comparison of the two papers reveals that the paper published in
ELSEVIER's Journal of Alloys and Compounds last year is a plagiarised version of
the paper published in 1994. The paper's abstract, figures, results and
discussion, and conclusions etc., are the same. c2The only change which Chaudhry
and Ashraf (2007) have cleverly (or foolishly!) made in their paper is in the
cylindrical tensile specimen diameter, i.e., from 4mm (paper 1) to 0.4mm (paper
2), which is technically wrong. Moreover, there are a number of mistakes while
quoting references, e.g. [11], [17] etc. For example, it should have been MZ
Butt instead of MA Butt in both [11] and [17], and J Mater. Sci. instead of J.
Mater. Sci. Lett. London in [11]c2.
The complainant has urged the
journal's editor-in-chief to notify the act of plagiarism committed by M Arshad
Chaudhry and Muhammad Ashraf (2007) in the journal.
HEC Quality Assurance
Adviser Dr Riaz Hussain Qureshi said the commission had prepared and provided a
plagiarism policy to all universities in the country and had asked them to
process and take decisions accordingly.
Dr Qureshi, who is also the head
of the commission's plagiarism committee, said the HEC had constituted the
committee to deal with only those cases which would not be decided by the
universities concerned within three months from the date the cases were
reported. Dawn
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