Somebody plagiarised their master thesis from me – how can I address this?

Question

A few years ago, I discovered that someone (Mr. A) had copied almost the entirety of his master thesis report from a course report I submitted to the same department two years earlier. Mr. A copied my report word by word including the figures and the captions. He defended his thesis, graduated and now has an engineering job with a good title at a large respectable company, which he probably wouldn’t have gotten without the degree. I confronted Mr. A on one occasion and he confirmed that it was intentional.

I have solid proof of my work and the figures.

Mr. A worked on his thesis under the supervision of the same professor and TA who supervised my coursework, two years before. Three years ago, I contacted the professor and provided him with my proof of Mr. A’s plagiarism. However, the professor had merely asked him to rewrite the chapters using his own words. The TA informed me separately that Mr. A obtained access to the source code I submitted as part of the coursework. So I suspect that he plagiarised my code. When I asked the professor for Mr. A’s code, he refused.

I would like some guidance and help with deciding the right thing to do in this case. I am obviously concerned about my own reputation as I don't wish to harm my chances with this company. I am also concerned about the legal repercussions, even though I am in possession of solid proof. These were the main reasons I haven't taken actions until now.

I have been considering reporting him to his superior at work, but I am also open to other suggestions.

Some minor details that may or may not have a weigh in the case:

• The university in question is a top engineering school in the EU.
• Mr. A and the professor come from the same country (both speak the same language).
• About six years have passed by since the incident.
• The professor in question didn't reply to a request of recommendation I sent him a while ago (for a different purpose). I suspect it has to do with the plagiarism issue I brought up to his attention.
• Just to be clear, this is not driven by any revenge thoughts or personal vendetta. My concern is that there is an anomaly, an unfairness, an unjust situation that touches me personally that needs to be corrected.

Updates

• 13/04: I sent a formal request to the officer in the Ethics Committee asking to be connected with the right people who can investigate this case impartially and independently from the department's sphere of influence.

Answer 1

As the professor in question is obviously supporting Mr. A, your report to him was void and at worst helped them to cover their tracks. Therefore, I would suggest that you report the incident to some uninvolved authority at the university. Ideally this would be an academic-integrity officer or similar, but it can also be the responsible department or faculty, etc. Importantly, this should be nobody with ties to the professor – when in doubt, go one level higher. Also, unless you are contacting an academic-integrity officer or similar, first make sure that you got the right person before you reveal any details.

When you report something, mind that you are merely presenting evidence or hinting at things to look at and it’s the university’s job to figure out the truth. There is little point in getting overly accusatory, emotional, etc.; focus on the evidence.

I strongly advise against contacting the company. The problem with such a case is that your evidence very likely hinges on data on university servers and similar. Thus only the university has the means to reasonably investigate this. Also, you can contact the university solely to report a strong suspicion (which should be legally safe), whereas a report to the company can be considered libel or similar. Consider the possible cases of the company reacting to your report:

• They do not act on your report because they cannot evaluate the evidence and wait for the university to do so. In that case your report achieved nothing.
• They do act on your report and the university revokes Mr. A’s degree. In that case, your report only made things happen a bit earlier.
• They do act on your report, but the university does not revoke Mr. A’s degree for whatever reason. In that case, you may be in legal trouble.

Answer 2

Since years have passed since the incident, it may be that nothing you do will have any effect. And you should take care not to have claims of slander made against you, even when not warranted.

But, you could, at least, inform the department at the university at which this occurred, probably through the current department head. It is their responsibility to address this.

You could also let it go, realizing that the world in general and academia in particular has some ethical issues.

However, if you inform the university, use documented evidence only to back up your claims. Conversations from long ago are too easy to discount.

Once you make such things public, however, the fallout can't be predicted. You will have little, if any, control over outcomes once you start the process.

Answer 3

You can escalate with your university - that might mean contacting a department chair or someone in charge of your former graduate program, or might involve contacting a third party at the university that can help you with ethics complaints (such as an "ombuds").

From your story, at this point it sounds like your advisor is defending the student. That might be because they're "in on it", that is, that they've known all along, or that they're just covering for the former student because they don't want to deal with the hassle. Either way, you should be aware that your accusation is likely now to become an accusation against both of them. Hopefully you're now sufficiently secure in your current position that you aren't reliant on recommendations or mentorship from this former program.

It's also quite possible that your accusation will be seen (unfairly to you) as an indictment against the entire program or university; this is very unfortunate, because it puts the people who are supposed to investigate these things on the side of the defense. If that sort of corruption shows up, it's unfortunately probably not worth it to you personally to pursue it, sad as that is; if there were more systematic evidence it might be worth getting others involved, but there's likely no legal benefit to you (you'd have to show that you are harmed, not that someone else benefitted).

I wouldn't hold out a lot of hope that much will happen, as unfair as that is. Provide the evidence you have, not your emotions and feelings. You are likely overattributing the importance of this work for Mr A's current job: the degree might have helped them get the job initially, but most likely the content of the thesis was not important and if the company they work for likes their work, they'll probably see this as all some academic trivia far from their concern. I certainly would not raise it with them directly.

If it were me, I'd be more concerned with the masters supervisor's role, and that's where I'd want any investigation to focus.

Answer 4

If you would like to pursue action via the University, you're likely going to need to route through a misconduct office with your complaint. You should have clear and unambiguous documented proof of plagiarism if you do this. If you like you can also route through the Department chair, though I think this is less likely to be productive. A Dept. chair doesn't ultimately have the ability to revoke degrees, which sounds to me like the commensurate penalty associated with the kind of blatant plagiarism you're describing if you can prove it.

I have been considering reporting him to his superior at work

Absolutely do not do this unless you are working at the same company and the person directly impacts your day-to-day work negatively. You probably have zero personal interest in how this organization conducts its business. Say, best case scenario, this person's boss takes your unsolicited criticism of their employee seriously. They're probably still going to want an official determination that the employee committed misconduct from an institution better equipped to assess that...that is to say, the academic institution that awarded the degree.

I am obviously concerned about my own reputation as I don't wish to harm my chances with this company.

What you're describing is that you have external incentives (a possible job, customer, good relationship with this person's employer, etc.). Nobody is going to be able to answer for you what the risks of pursuing academic discipline over this matter are or whether they're worth taking on. If you report someone committing plagiarism against you to your University, that results in academic discipline against the perpetrator, and their employer subsequently doesn't want to conduct business with you...is that an organization you'd like to work for anyway? Not an easy question, but one you have to answer yourself.