What to do with passed PhD that extensively presents quotes as paraphrase?

Question

While writing the literature review chapter of my doctoral dissertation I picked up a few recent dissertations on similar topics from the library to get some pointers on references and style. As I was reading some articles cited in one of these theses, I discovered that this person had lifted large blocks of text from the cited works verbatim. Though the quotes were cited, they were presented as paraphrases, not quotes. I checked a few more, just out of curiosity, and realized that basically the whole literature review by this author (who graduated with a PhD two years ago) was cut-and-paste verbatim quotes strung together. (And who knows how much more of the thesis is unoriginal - I only checked this one chapter) This really ticks me off, as I (and many with me) spend what feels like eons of time reworking cited information into proper paraphrases. I happen to know the offending author's adviser pretty well, as we currently work together outside of my graduate program. Should I say something, or should I just let this person get away with copying and pasting large parts of their dissertation?

Edit: I still don't know what I will do about this - no-one wants to be a tattle-tale, and it really isn't any of my business how other people go about getting their doctorates. However, as I myself is currently writing my dissertation, it really irks me when I see someone else getting away with this, as I know from experience how much hard work goes into writing a PhD thesis. I just have one more comment - I ran the chapter in question through the turnitin software I have access to as an instructor at my institution, and it came back as 52% unoriginal. Turnitin only counts exact matches, so the 52% doesn't even cover some of the paragraphs I myself caught, where the author has changed one or two words but kept the sentence structure. I don't think there would be any legal consequences for this, even if I report it - it is more a question of academic dishonesty and what steps the institution that awarded the degree would take. I will show it to my adviser and see what he says before I do anything at all. Thanks everyone for the input!

Answer 1

This is of course a sensitive issue. However, the ethically correct behavior is to notify someone responsible about the problem. Etiquette says to go to the advisor first, as the advisor is the person who, after the author who committed the plagiarism, stands to lose the most from the accusation.

However, if you feel squeamish about doing it by yourself, you can talk to your advisor about the best way to proceed.

The main issue on your part is if you will need to rely on the plagiarizer's advisor for recommendation letters. Then you should definitely proceed with caution, and with the support of your advisor, department administrators, or both.

Of course, make sure that you've done your due diligence before going public with your charges, and to have the evidence with you when you meet with anyone about this matter.

Answer 2

The person did provide the citations, so for me it is not clear if legally this person did something wrong. I would first try and find this out before taking any steps. Ofcourse, I would not accept this kind of verbatim copying if I where a supervisor. The angle on takes in an article is always a bit different than in the cited work. In addition, paraphrasing the text shows that you have understood what was written.

And be carefull how you deal with this, some people would not appreciate you being a snitch (in their view). However, I agree with @aeismail that it is the scientifically ethical thing to do to at least report this. And do get some backup from your own supervisor/professor.