[Maths-Education] Re: The Plagiarism Scandal of Guttenberg

[Alan Rogerson]

Dear Hugh,

I am sorry you seem to be treating this matter so lightly, and BTW it is 
Guttenberg not Guttenburg, if you are wondering which of us cannot spell

Here is some more background for others on the list who may wish to 
treat this matter more seriously and  join the tens of thousands of 
academics and add their names to the letter to Merkel.

The BBC reported that: The University of Bayreuth decided that Mr 
Guttenberg had "violated scientific duties to a considerable extent" ie  
that he failed in the rigorous duty with regard to selection and 
organisation of evidence, data, etc, which we hope is indeed 
characteristic of science (and by implication here also of law).

I too hope that all scientists, and indeed all academics, will rally to 
condemn plagiarism of this gross extent, which at the very least raises 
serious doubts about the honesty, reliability and ethical standards (or 
lack of them) of this Minister. Equally disturbing is the fact that he 
at first called the accusations "absurd" and ..."while vehemently 
rejecting the accusations of plagiarism, the minister told reporters he 
was happy to check to see whether there had been any omissions or errors 
in the 1,200 footnotes."
but then...
"Analysis [later] revealed that more than half of his thesis had long 
sections lifted word-for-word from the work of others."
The BBC also noted:" Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, an aristocrat who lives 
in a Bavarian castle, admitted breaching standards but denied 
deliberately cheating."

The word "cheating" seems to have taken on an incredibly flexible 
meaning here! And is there such a thing as... not deliberately cheating 
(accidentally cheating?)
All quotes above are from the BBC reports.

The growing protests are not merely about plagiarism, dishonest as that 
is, but about the way Merkel is handling the affair. Please have a look 
at the links in the last post for details and you will see what this means.

Best wishes,

Alan


.On 28/02/2011 13:57, Hugh.Burkhardt at nottingham.ac.uk wrote:
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> Oh THAT Guttenburg!
> You had me going for a moment**
> For a politican that's hardly "man bights dog"
>
> Hugh
>
>
> ** I thought you just couldn't spell
>